A Modest Inheritance

by Carol Bird

In this fast-paced legal thriller set in central Appalachia, Amanda Candler, a middle-aged
everywoman, is pulled out of her ordinary life by a summons home to the small mountain city
she left behind thirty years ago. Her centenarian grandmother is near the end and the wealthy friend entrusted with her care is in reality a legal predator who has secretly launched a plot to take her grandmother’s estate. Betrayed by all those Amanda has trusted, she is forced to rely only on her own wits and intuition, as she faces her deepest fears and inherits far more than money – a priceless gift of spirit.

122 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 25, 2016

Reviews

[Phill Wilder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely well written book. We have driven to places in the books, and the descriptions were spot-on. She conjured up real images throughout. She relates the between state one is in when one relationship ends and inwardly one is hoping to replace it.The complexity of the fraud were beyond me in one quick reading, but familiar knowledge with hardworking professionals in our government engendered a clear image of Gary getting his just deserts. Those used to the "mystery" genre may be missing the suspense attribute in this narrative. However, I am impelled to read more of Carol Bird's work.

[Betty Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modest legal novel - good writing, but no real ending.

[Gary Garth McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Modest Inheritance takes us to West Virginia in a tightly drawn, subtle mystery in which much is behind the scenes and the apparent monetary stakes aren’t as high as the spiritual and emotional ones. I enjoyed dropping into the life of every-woman protagonist Amanda as she drove home to Charleston and learned that her 100-year old grandmother had inexplicably changed her will one year before her death. As Amanda travels back and forth between her own home in Annapolis and her late grandmother’s hillside, historic Charleston house—under the new will about to become the house of someone outside of Amanda’s family—Amanda gradually realizes that the end of her grandmother’s life was not idyllic in every way, as many people would have her believe.