The Irish Inheritance

Written by M J Lee

Narrated by Lucy Rayner

July 8, 1921. Ireland. A British Officer is shot dead on a remote hillside south of Dublin.

November 22, 2015. United Kingdom. Former police detective, Jayne Sinclair, now working as a genealogical investigator, receives a phone call from an adopted American billionaire asking her to discover the identity of his real father.

How are the two events linked?

Jayne Sinclair has only three clues to help her: a photocopied birth certificate, a stolen book and an old photograph. And it soon becomes apparent somebody else is on the trail of the mystery: a killer who will stop at nothing to prevent Jayne discovering the secret hidden in the past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Mar 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781541470323

M J Lee

M J Lee has worked as a university researcher in history, a social worker with Vietnamese refugees, and as the creative director of an advertising agency. He has spent 25 years of his life working outside the north of England, in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai.

Reviews for The Irish Inheritance

[pennykaplan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jayne Sinclair of Manchester is ex police and a genealogical investigator. In this case she identifies the true parents of an adopted son. A bit too much violence but an engaging series.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jayne Sinclair, a former police detective, now accepts genealogical clients. A dying man asks Jayne to discover his father's identity. The birth certificate lists a man who died several years before the birth took place. Jayne leaves her home in Manchester, traveling to Dublin to research the case. From that point, the investigation reads much like a thriller novel, with bad guys out to get her. She's promised her husband to be home in time for an important dinner, but her troubles in Dublin appear to lead to a falling-out in their relationship. It will be interesting to see if they patch things up or divorce in future installments. The book, like so many today, is set in two time periods--the present (2015) and during the Easter Uprising (1916). I'm not a huge fan of the alternating time periods, but at least this one places a date on each chapter. I hope my experiences in genealogical research don't lead to the life-threatening situations in which Jayne finds herself. While most genealogists make discoveries people might prefer to remain hidden, the only ones I know receiving life threats are those working with law enforcement to solve cold cases with DNA evidence. I'd prefer a little less "thriller" action. Still I'll give the next in series a try.

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Irish Inheritance deals with two timelines. One during the time of the Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence and the second in 2015 with Jayne's investigation. I'm always on the hunt for genealogical crime fiction since so many mysteries deal with long-buried secrets anyway. This first Jayne Sinclair mystery intrigued me for two reasons: one, that the genealogical investigator was a woman, and two, she is a former police detective. I thought this would make a change from the other similar series I've read where the main characters were all amateurs and male.It did make a difference. Jayne may be saddled with a self-absorbed jerk of a husband, but her years on the police force certainly help her in knowing how to conduct investigations and interviews. Any attempts to intimidate her merely make her angry, and she also knows how to protect herself, which certainly comes in handy in this book. One thing that amazed me (and shouldn't have) was when someone in the present-day timeline remarked, "There was fighting in Ireland?" Not everyone lived through all the IRA bombings in England, and few people seem interested in learning about their own history, which is why we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. But to get back to The Irish Inheritance, although the identity of the person trying to hamper Jayne's investigation was rather obvious to me, I enjoyed the book a great deal. I liked Jayne, and her investigation was a fast-paced and intriguing one. I'll definitely be reading the next book in the series.

[geniaus. · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Recently my genimate Pauleen shared her Goodreads review of The Irish Inheritance on Facebook.As I value Pauleen's opinions and I enjoy geneafiction I wandered over to Amazon Australia and invested $AU4.99 in a copy of the ebook. I can blame Pauleen for my lack of sleep last night as the book hooked me in and I just had to read it until I finished in the wee hours. I thoroughly enjoyed the story that was set in the present time and around the time of the Easter Uprising. Having recently visited Dublin and the graves of some of the Irish Rebels in Glasnevin Cemetery I was most interested to read the author's descriptions of the Rebels' activities during the uprising. This was an easy read with Jayne, the genealogist , a determined and committed protagonist. Like Pauleen I twigged to one of the mysteries but I was completely surprised by the final revelations. If you are a fan of geneafiction I can highly recommend this book. I look forward to reading further titles from M J Lee.