CY@CY Says Welcome to my dreamscape. Where a Lim is also a Ling.
The Hidden Legacy by G.J. Minett
It was in November 1966 when 12-year-old John Michael Adams, after repeated bullying by two 14-year-old girls, decided to get even. He walked into the school’s playground and threw petrol all over the two girls before setting them alight. Unflustered, he then calmly walked away. One of the girls died and the other was seriously burned. The tragedy sent the media into overdrive and John Michael infamously became known as every parent’s nightmare. John’s father, Martin Adams, struggles to cope with his son’s crime as his world is torn asunder. To escape media hounding, he moves to a different part of the country hiding under a different name.
Fast forward to 2008. Ellen Sunderland, a recently-divorced mother of two, receives a letter from a solicitor asking her to contact them in regards to the last will of one Eudora Nash. She initially thought the solicitor must have got the wrong person as the name Eudora Jane Nash does not ring any bell.
Perplexed and piqued with curiosity, Ellen makes a six-hour trip to meet the solicitor from whom she finds out that Eudora has left a picturesque cottage to her. She sets out on a quest to find out what are her connections to Eudora.
Ellen has an inkling her mother Barbara will know who Eudora is but Barbara is now living in a care home due to advanced dementia. Ellen’s relationship with her mother Barbara has always been a difficult one. She has no idea who her father is or what has befallen her father as her mother has never made any revelations on this despite her pleas to her mother.
As Ellen starts digging, she becomes more confused. Everything seems to be a tangle that she cannot unravel. She crossed paths with Frank O’Halloran, a shady reporter who is obsessed with hunting down Martin whom he knows will lead him to the child killer John who has been released from jail. O’Halloran hopes to interview both John and Martin to put final touches to the book that he is writing about the crime committed by John.
The Hidden Legacy is an intriguing mystery novel that I really enjoyed though it is a bit of a slow burner. The prologue really gripped me and Minett’s deft handling of the storyline using multiple viewpoints makes it a memorable reading experience for me.