INHERIT THE DEAD - Jonathan Santlofer, et al.
Touchstone
ISBN-13: 978-1-4516-8475-9
October 2013
Mystery

New York, The Present

Disgraced cop, now a PI for six years, Pericles Christo receives a call from a very wealthy New York matron turned recluse, Julia Drusilla. Her daughter Angel disappeared two weeks previously. When she turns twenty-one, Angel must sign an inheritance document at the same time as her mother or lose her inheritance. And Julia is dying. This is a strange story. The girl lived with her father, Julia's former husband, and Julia hasn't seen her daughter in over a year. So Perry (no one except his mother calls him Pericles) starts investigating. The snide lawyer father seems to be lost in alcohol; Angel's best friend is a jealous rich girl artist, and the boyfriend a low class auto mechanic. Though her car is found, Angel is not.

INHERIT THE DEAD is a serial story in that each chapter is written by a different mystery writer, twenty in all. Proceeds from the book will help support Safe Horizon, a victims' advocacy group. The book's editor, Jonathan Santlofer, writes the first chapter. With so many contributing authors, I'm sure editing to keep the plot coherent and the characters and the tone consistent in this story was difficult. Overall all it holds together very well, but I did sense differences in the lead character's persona and the various writers approach through the chapters. This does not deter from the action, just changes the kilter of the story every so often.

Perry tells this story in first person, with another character adding comments in second person at the end of many chapters. Perry's background makes him an interesting and sympathetic character, and while no longer a cop (the rewards of doing a thorough job) the reader knows he wants that life back. He is constantly comparing Angel and her family to his relationship with his daughter and former wife. His situation will leave the reader wanting to know more about his future. Well drawn and idiosyncratic secondary characters added to the tension and mystery. The plot has some amazing twists. All these unusual traits make INHERIT THE DEAD an entertaining mystery.

Robin Lee