cover image The Inheritance

The Inheritance

Annabel Dilke, . . St. Martin's, $24.95 (371pp) ISBN 978-0-312-33477-2

Dilke charts the inevitable end of an era in this soothingly predictable romantic saga about an aristocratic British family, the Chandlers. Lord Harry; his wife, Felicity; oldest daughter Eve; darling "turtledove" Alice; and youngest children Hugo and Kathy live decorously, if not always happily, at Edgarton, the country estate that's been in the family for 400 years. It's 1965, and Alice, the beauty of the family, has made a suitable match with a "decent" chap, her titled neighbor Edward. But she loves an unscrupulous horse dealer, Marcus, and their passion reignites after her marriage. Eve, the brains of the family and Alice's best friend, is at Oxford, reading Marx and dating her working-class boyfriend, Seb. Both girls see a reversal in fortunes when Alice suffers a botched abortion from her affair, and Eve is expelled from university for her involvement. Meanwhile, their parents carry on a sham of a marriage between pheasant shoots and dinner parties until Harry's relentless philandering culminates in an affair with a servant's nubile daughter. An anticlimactic epilogue set in 2002 details the Chandler's financial demise, the sisters' role reversal and a happy blurring of class lines. Readers who relish aristocratic glamour spiced with a little class conflict will be lured by this romance. Agent, Kathleen Anderson . (Oct.)