Who doesn’t love a great inheritance story? Whether characters are bequeathed money, companies, property, etc., we enjoy finding out who got what. It’s like a mystery-within-a-mystery when you have to wait along with the characters to find out who got everything, like in Crooked House by Agatha Christie. Then there’s The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, in which readers find out which stranger will win it all in a competition.
The other side of those stories is that if there are fewer people to inherit, there’s more for whoever is left. Annnnd, that’s usually when the murders start. Sometimes, it turns out the murder was all for nothing, because the will ends up containing a big surprise!
In conclusion, please feel free to leave me all you’ve got, and also everything about inheritance mysteries is a rollicking, murderous good time. Here are five great novels about getting the goods that stand out.
All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles
When Zeb Wyckham arrives at Lackaday House on a dark and stormy night, he discovers that his rich cousin summoned him to announce his will. The deal is that whoever marries his cousin’s ward shall inherit everything. Zeb isn’t interested in marriage, but his attempts to leave Lackaday House, he finds he is trapped there with his estranged family and his ex-lover, and someone is looking to thin out the competition.
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
In this exciting mystery, a woman is left the deed to family land in Sicily, but instead inherits family secrets and danger. Sara travels to Italy after her beloved great-aunt dies, where she learns that her great-grandmother Serafina may not have died from an illness like they were once told, but had actually been murdered. And when Sara starts poking around, looking for answers, she puts herself in the path of the same danger her descendants faced.
All access members continue below for more fun inheritance mystery novels.
The Inheritance by Trisha Sakhlecha
In this thriller for Succession fans, the mega-wealthy Agarwal family has gathered on their private island to find out who will succeed their billionaire father as head of the family company. His wife and each of his three grown children are all harboring secrets and problems that could keep them from getting the job, but who is willing to kill to keep their misdeeds from getting out?
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
If you’re interested in a classic inheritance mystery, there’s this 1949 novel about an impostor. Brat Farrar becomes involved in a scheme to impersonate Patrick Ashby, the missing heir to an enormous family fortune. Patrick has been missing since he was 13, and Brat sees an opportunity to step in and claim his inheritance. But the family is not quick to accept that Patrick has returned, especially Simon, Patrick’s twin brother, who stands to lose it all now.
The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo
And finally, another classic, this one from “Japan’s Agatha Christie.” When the head of the Inugami family dies, his relatives learn the surprising contents of his will, which ruffles more than a few feathers. So Detective Kosuke Kindaichi is summoned by the family lawyer, who worries the family may turn vicious over the reading. And he’s not wrong, because shortly after Detective Kindaichi arrives, the lawyer himself is murdered, and the killer is just getting started.
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the Book Riot podcast All the Books! and on Instagram and Bluesky.
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