This was fast-paced story-telling with plenty of heart-stopping moments. What a movie this would make…

I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy Inheritance of Secrets by Sonya Bates, but I was intrigued when I read the author’s German grandfather was the inspiration behind one of the characters.

What a tense compelling read it was; think Jane Harper’s The Dry meets Heather Morris’s The Tattoist of Auschwitz, but there’s also something more here — a real understanding of both Australian and German culture, and a deep appreciation for the past.

Juliet Dunne is a thirty-something novelist with a difficult past, but wonderful maternal grandparents who raised her. Juliet’s life is turned upside down when her German grandparents are found murdered in their beds — a world and a lifetime away from Nazi Germany. Or has Nazi Germany just got way closer than Juliet suspects?

I. Could. Not. Put. This. Book. Down.

Inheritance of Secrets is fast-paced story-telling with plenty of heart-stopping moments. If you want to lose yourself for several hours, this is a wonderful book to do it in. And what a movie this would make…

Bravo Sonya Bates on an entertaining, sensitively-written and thrilling crime story. Highly recommended.

Many, many thanks to the wonderful peeps at Harper Collins Australia for sending me an early copy to review.

Publisher’s blurb:

A brutal murder. A wartime promise. A quest for the truth. 

Kate Furnivall meets Caroline Overington in a gripping, page-turning mystery.

No matter how far you run, the past will always find you.

Juliet’s elderly grandparents are killed in their Adelaide home. Who would commit such a heinous crime – and why? The only clue is her grandfather Karl’s missing signet ring.

When Juliet’s estranged sister, Lily, returns in fear for her life, Juliet suspects something far more sinister than a simple break-in gone wrong. Before Juliet can get any answers, Lily vanishes once more.

Juliet only knew Karl Weiss as a loving grandfather, a German soldier who emigrated to Australia to build a new life. What was he hiding that could have led to his murder? While attempting to find out, Juliet uncovers some disturbing secrets from WWII that will put both her and her sister’s lives in danger …

Gripping. Tense. Mysterious. Inheritance of Secrets links the crimes of the present to the secrets of the past and asks how far would you go to keep a promise?

Buy from Booktopia, Dymocks, or Angus & Robertson.