The Belting Inheritance

By Martin Edwards and Julian Symons

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARTIN EDWARDS

'Cleverly told ... brilliant character work and plotting up to the usual Symons standard.' – Observer

Lady Wainwright presides over the gothic gloom at Belting, in mourning for her two sons lost in the Second World War. Long afterwards a stranger arrives at Belting, claiming to be the missing David Wainwright - who was not killed after all, but held captive for years in a Russian prison camp. With Lady Wainwright's health fading, her inheritance is at stake, and the family is torn apart by doubts over its mysterious long-lost son. Belting is shadowed by suspicion and intrigue - and then the first body is found.

This atmospheric novel of family secrets, first published in 1964, is by a winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Release date: Jan 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781464210884

Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime novelist whose Lake District Mysteries have been optioned by ITV. Elected to the Detection Club in 2008, he became the first Archivist of the Club, and is also Archivist of the Crime Writers’ Association. Renowned as the leading expert on the history of Golden Age detective fiction, he won the Crimefest Mastermind Quiz three times, and possesses one of Britain’s finest collections of Golden Age novels.

Reviews for The Belting Inheritance

[jetangen4571 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

mystery, family-dynamics, British I'm still not certain how I feel about this one. The characters are clearly presented and well worth response from the reader, either negative, positive, or sadness. The lifestyle of the group strikes me as rather odd for the time, but then I am an American who could easily have read it when originally published. On the other hand, the sly humor and asides into the young narrator's life are of as much interest as the suspense of finding out whether the prodigal son is who he says he is or a very clever impostor. Definitely worth reading this British Library Crime Classic!I requested and received a free ebook copy from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley.

[brianewilliams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy of this book. The views expressed are my own.This is an enjoyable puzzle mystery story set in the 1950's in England, although its style seems dated to the 1930's. The mystery concerns David Wainwright an aviator who went missing in 1944 on a mission over Germany in WW2. The Wainwright family suffered several deaths in the war: David's father and his brother Hugh. This leaves Lady Wainwright as the matriarch of the family with her two surviving sons, and now in the mid-1950's she is near death with terminal cancer. David, or someone purporting to be him, emerges to claim that he was held in Russian captivity for many years but is now ready to return home to Belting, the family estate. Lady Wainwright accepts that the man is David. However, the two other sons believe he is an imposter. Of course, the sons have their eyes on the old lady's estate and who will inherit the family fortune when she dies. Shortly after the mystery man's arrival a trusted family retainer is murdered with suspicion falling on him on the theory the victim was able to disprove his claim. The story is also complicated by an unsolved murder from the time that David disappeared. He and his brother were home on leave when the body of Hugh's former business partner was found in the river. This case was never solved, although there was suspicion that David was involved.The story is narrated by Christopher Barrington, a young orphaned cousin of the Wainwright family who was taken in by Lady Wainwright several years before David's re-appearance. In addition to his narration duty, Christopher does some sleuthing and actually solves the puzzle in the end. The police play a small role in the story.Christopher is an interesting character. When first introduced at the beginning he is an unsophisticated college student, and matures as he investigates the imposter. A trip abroad to Paris opens his eyes to the world outside England, particularly as he encounters the city's bohemian lifestyle.The conclusion is a satisfying resolution of the puzzle, with an ironic twist affecting Lady Wainwright's heirs. A good read.

[irkthepurist_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fine crime novel with an interesting premise regarding the return from the grave of a supposed dead son of a rather gloriously unappealing old dowager type. What really makes the book somewhat special is the slightly eccentric and occasionally florid moments which at times are genuinely charming and at other times - there's a bit in Paris towards the end, you'll soon work out which bit I'm on about from there - it's just a bit too snobbish almost. Always entertaining though and my favourite Symons' novel so far.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A woman who bore four sons expects to die soon. Two of the sons were declared dead in the war. The other two live. A man claiming to be her son David shows up. Is he who he states he is? The woman believes he is. The two sons do not. Will the sons be able to prove he's an impostor before she dies--or will the alleged son inherit with a changed will? It's a pleasant way to spend a few hours. I either read this book previously or one with a very similar plot because the plot seemed familiar all the way along to the ending. I received an advance copy from the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review.

[liz1564 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This mystery was sent to me by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you,The Belting Inheritance is a mixed bag for me. Symons has written a Golden Age style mystery and grafted onto it an element of the beginning of the Swinging Sixties. The core of the story is the classic plot of the missing heir. Lady Wainwright, the matriarch of her family, is dying. One day a man shows up at Belting Manor claiming to be her son David, declared missing in action, presumed dead, after his plane is shot down in Germany in 1944. He explains that after his crash he was taken in by a sympathetic family who procured false papers and a German uniform so he can escape to Allied territory. Unfortunately, he was captured by the advancing Soviet army and spent the next eight years in a Soviet prison camp where the conditions were so brutal that it altered his appearance. After release he was so broken that he could not bear to return to his previous life so he stayed in Paris until he decided to return home in 1960.Is he really David? Lady Wainwright accepts him unconditionally. His two remaining brothers believe he is a fraud. Other witnesses are inconclusive. The manor gardener knows him immediately. The family doctor is ambivalent. A former lover absolutely denies his claim. It falls to the 18 year old narrator Christopher Barrington, a cousin of David and Lady Wainwright's ward, to solve the mystery. In his sleuthing, he uncovers another possible murder which occurred near Belting Manor that might shed light on the current situation.Christopher decides to go to Paris to trace David’s life after his return from Russia and the last fifty pages of the novel are a series of improbable coincidences, descriptions of avant-garde artists and free love, gay walk-on characters who are there for no reason except to show their sexual orientation. Christopher discovers the answer to the puzzle and I was left shaking my head, not because of who the villain was but by the way he was revealed. Still, Symons wrote such interesting characters and added such a wallop of a final twist that, in the end, I enjoyed the novel.

[vesper1931 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lady Wainwright is mourning the death of her two eldest sons, Hugh and David, both killed in the war. In the meantime her two youngest sons still live at Belting with a great-nephew Christopher Barrington. Then ten years later, as Lady Wainwright is dying, a man contacts her saying that he is David Wainwright. Not long after he arrives a body is found.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Christopher (aged 18 years) and is set in the early 1950's (written in 1965) as he tries to discern the truth. Complicated by a death from ten years earlier. The writing style is certainly reflective of that time but I did enjoy the story. Though I don't think there were any likeable characters as far as the Wainwrights are concerned.
A NetGalley Book