Fatal Legacy: A Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Fenwick Mystery - Hardcover

Corley, Elizabeth

3.7

251 ratings by Goodreads

9780312283810: Fatal Legacy: A Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Fenwick Mystery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312283814 ISBN 13: 9780312283810

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

All is not what it seems at the respectable firm Wainwright Enterprises. When the managing director Arthur Wainwright dies in a suspicious accident, his last will and testament throws the business and family into turmoil. Not only was Wainwright far, far richer than anyone had imagined, but, to the horror of the rest of the family, he has left the bulk of his estate to his nephew Alex and Alex's wife Sally.

When the beautiful but inscrutable Sally turns her sharp mind to the finances of the family firm, she exposes startling irregularities. But instead of involving the police and bringing more unwanted attention to the Wainwrights, she sets out to uncover the mystery herself. However, when the firm's financial controller is brutally murdered, the police are finally called in, with Detective Chief Inspector Fenwick heading the investigation.

Fenwick and his team quickly establish that there have been three other suspicious deaths connected to the Wainwrights. Have the deaths happened because the company is a front for illicit activity, or because someone wants a bigger share of Arthur Wainwright's fortune? As time slips by, it becomes clear that Fenwick is up against a cunning and ruthless criminal, or criminals. But time is running out, and so, too, is everyone's patience...

Faced with the challenge of balancing detective work with his single-parent commitments, DCI Andrew Fenwick brings new depth and dimension to a gripping police procedural. With its expert plotting and complex characters, Fatal Legacy is a thrilling introduction to this stunning new series.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly:

There are familiar overtones of Ruth Rendell's Wexford (crusty, demanding), P.D. James's Dalgleish (sensitive, artistic), Colin Dexter's Morse (resistant to authority), Peter Robinson's Banks (his boss hates him) and Reginald Hill's Pascoe (a young female officer has a crush on him) in Corley's Det. Chief Insp. Andrew Fenwick. But they don't add up to a complete or even very interesting figure although Corley does try to humanize her Sussex detective by making him the single parent of two young children after his wife went into an irreversible coma because of a failed suicide attempt. Perhaps Corley's day job she's managing director of a large investment company didn't leave her much time or energy to create a character of her own. This could explain why most of the other people in the book also seem so familiar from the sexy, obviously psychotic wife of a young man who has just taken over his uncle's successful but crooked business conglomerate to the dominance-addicted milquetoast accountant who knows a secret from her shadowy past. The plot, about the rise to riches of the young man and his crazy wife thanks to the odd murder, has its moments, and the writing is mostly crisp and workmanlike. But clich‚s creep in all too often to jerk away the reader's attention. At one point, a phone call disturbs Fenwick, who was "relaxing with a good book." It certainly isn't this one. (Oct. 29)be published in the U.S.

From Booklist:

Multimillionaire Alan Wainwright's suicide is a terrible shock to his family. Even more shocking is his will, which leaves the bulk of his estate and control of his company, Wainwright Enterprises, to his nephew, Alex, and not, as expected, to his son, Graham. By the time Wainwright's grieving relatives begin to question why a man in the prime of life would kill himself, two more deaths have occurred. The body of Arthur Fish, financial controller of Wainwright Enterprises, is discovered on a Brighton to London train, and the prostitute Fish visited earlier that evening is found strangled and mutilated. Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Fenwick thinks there is a link between the killings, and when Graham Wainwright is found hanging from a tree on the Wainwright estate, it's clear that a deadly and exceedingly clever killer is on the loose. Corley's astute characterizations, intricate and mesmerizing plot, and realistic portrayal of the grinding tedium of police work make this a solid addition to the growing list of outstanding British procedurals. Emily Melton
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.