When wealthy widow Margaret Hargreaves dies, probate genealogist Eleanor Vale is hired to locate the rightful heir to a £4 million estate.
The case appears straightforward.
It isn't.
Thirty-four years earlier, Margaret's teenage son Daniel vanished without a trace. No body was ever found. No death certificate was issued. Officially, he could still be alive.
As Eleanor follows the trail from a windswept Yorkshire fishing village to hidden financial records, forged identities, and long-buried secrets, she uncovers evidence of a shadow network known as the Inheritance Circle. A secret organisation that helped people disappear and profited from the chaos left behind.
Then witnesses begin to die.
What starts as an inheritance investigation becomes a murder inquiry stretching back decades. With Detective Inspector Nathan Mercer at her side, Eleanor must uncover the truth about Daniel Hargreaves before a killer silences everyone connected to the case.
But the deeper she digs, the more the investigation collides with her own past.
Because the Circle is connected to her missing father.
And some secrets were never meant to survive.
Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson, Elly Griffiths, and Tana French, The Heir in Shadow is a gripping amateur sleuth mystery packed with hidden identities, family secrets, inheritance fraud, murder, and shocking twists.
A missing heir. A secret organisation. A past that refuses to stay buried.
