The Inheritance

Anna Legat
Works of: Fiction

Ray Thorpe, a criminal defence lawyer, is engaged to represent Conrad Hardy, a militant eco-activist accused of arson at a GM crops farm. Thorpe is used to dealing with uncompromising idealists; his father, a staunch Marxist, was one of them.

The case seems straightforward until a succession of bombings at a nearby pharma corporation, with material evidence linking them to Hardy, leads to the escalation of charges to murder and eco-terrorism.

The case mounted against Hardy appears irrefutable and Thorpe’s only witness is found dead.

To complicate matters further, one of the bombing victims was the wife of Thorpe’s business partner and a close friend of his Chinese wife Lou, a frail and emotionally unstable woman.

Having angered a high-ranking official of the Communist Party of China, Lou fled her homeland and now lives in constant fear for her life. The last thing Ray and Lou want is exposure to public scrutiny.

As Thorpe’s own investigation begins to cut through the smokescreen of misdirection contrived by the killer, he uncovers evidence pointing towards someone he would least suspect.

He is compelled to confront the killer, but that may lead to him compromising his career and his wife’s safety.