- Hardcover: 278 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Fiction (May 26 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0688153216
- ISBN-13: 978-0688153212
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 590 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,120,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
BBC journalist Keith Baker mines his longtime Northern Ireland beat to create a saga of personal and political revenge. Inheritance, his first foray into fiction, opens with a murder so brutal it effectively brings to an end decades of terrorism and guerrilla warfare between the IRA and British government forces. The year is 1997. The victim is an IRA bigwig. We readers are the only witnesses to the crime, and even though we don't know whodunit, or why, we do know something is amiss. Twenty years later--the novel's "real time"--the female chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, recalls it this way: "'There were all sorts of allegations about Miller's death, claims from one side or another about double-dealing and conspiracy. In the end, no one knew what to believe, other than that someone was stirring the shit in a big way. Some people even claimed the whole thing, from start to finish, was part of some sort of bizarre MI5 plot. And I must confess I wondered about that myself. Had the dirty tricks department been mixed up in it all somehow? I don't think we'll ever know."
Jack McCallan wants to know. He's at loose ends careerwise, recently recovered from combat wounds that let him retire from the army as a hero. He takes a beautiful married woman as his mistress and a makeshift job as gamesmaster at a spa for stressed-out executives. Then his father, Bill, put out to pasture from a high command post in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, is fried when his mobile home explodes, an accident that the new, improved Police Service attributes to alcohol-induced carelessness. As he settles his father's affairs and takes possession of the small fortune bequeathed him, Jack stumbles on bits of evidence that suggest Bill was keeping a guilty secret that may have led to his death. Jack resolves to follow the trail as it branches, leading both to present danger and betrayals concealed in the past.
Baker's plot twists and turns nicely, galloping along at a pace brisk enough to sweep up most any reader eager to be thrilled: heroes are revealed as villains, illusions as realities, allies are shown to be betrayers as the novel's stack of corpses mounts. A sense of Northern Ireland's war weariness and lingering paranoia hangs like ground fog over the 20-years-hence peace and prosperity that the author first posits, then threatens. His characters are mostly credible, and the scenario whereby political expediency and personal greed collaborate to create an economically desirable cease-fire is ingenious. Baker's political imagination outstrips his ability, or willingness, to create a technologically, socially, and intellectually believable future, though, leaving the reader feeling occasionally unmoored. --Joyce Thompson
From Publishers Weekly
BBC journalist Baker's strong debut thriller, set two decades in the future, suggests how difficult it will be to bury the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The best characters in Inheritance, like the protagonist Jack McCallan, lack almost all conviction; the worst are full of passionate intensity, carefully hidden behind the Royal Ulster Constabulary's past. The sudden death, apparently in a gas explosion, of Jack's father, a decorated former police officer in the now-reformed RUC, brings his son back from London to Northern Ireland to sort out his mysterious inheritance, which includes a great deal of money from his father's second career as a director of a security company. Although the IRA has been lying low, the British and Irish governments have been negotiating successfully, and prosperity seems on the horizon. Jack gradually suspects his father's death was part of a secret, bloody price for peace. Baker, currently an adviser to the BBC on Northern Ireland, establishes a strong atmosphere for the Troubles' devastating place in people's memories. In a shocking scene early in the narrative, the climate of betrayal is established. Eventually, Jack realizes the extent and menace of police corruption and goes on the run. Meanwhile, his investigation of the links between his father and wealthy businessman Henry Lomax predictably ends with bombs going off and guns blazing. If one too many standard plot devices eventually turn Inheritance into a conventional thriller, Baker's taut pacing, solid characterization and pervasive sense of place keep the narrative tension high.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Northern Ireland thriller, Jan 17 2003
By Marsha E. Lytle - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Inheritance: An Irish Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)
Jack McCallam finds himself at loose ends after a career in the British Army is cut short by a bullet to his head. On a routine visit to his dad's in Northern Ireland, his life is turned upside down when he finds his father has died in an acccident and his girlfriend has left a message on his home answering machine saying she is going back to her husband.A well-written book though I had trouble with the timeframe being so far in the future, yet nothing was the least bit futuristic. Cars, airplanes, and phones all operated just as they do today. While having been in Northern Ireland and finding it a bit backward by our standards, this is stretching the reader's imagination a wee bit thinking that nothing would have changed. I understand why he had it take place in the future, as it was essential to the plot, but it didn't work well for me. Baker's knowledge of the Northern Ireland political parties was very accurate and the plot was believable on most points. I would recommend this book for readers of espionage, suspense, or police novels.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A decent thriller, a keen socio-political perspective, Mar 14 2007
By M. Quinn "marybab84" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Inheritance: An Irish Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)
The plot was definitely suspenseful and kept the pages turning, though in the end there weren't a lot of surprises -- but the snapshot of a possible post-Troubles future was deftly written. Even someone with little or no understanding of the Troubles or Northern Ireland should easily follow the politics and subsequently the setting Baker creates.I wasn't surprised by the turns the storyline took, though I certainly enjoyed Baker's writing ability and will look for other books by him. All in all, a worthy debut.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A very deceiving title!, Sep 8 2001
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Inheritance: An Irish Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)
I am an avid reader, and am, in general, open to most styles and opinions. This book was suposed to be a book about Irish suspense; it should really come with a warning "read only if you are of the Unionist/Loyalist mindset." If you are of this mindset, then you will enjoy it. I could not finish it due to the Unionist mindset that infers that everything Irish is inferior; and, of course, everything English is superior.
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