On the day her mother died, Daphne Forrest learns the devastating truth. She'd never really known the woman who raised her, not even her real name. Fueled to unravel the tragic mystery behind her mother's secrets, Daphne abandons all she knows, traveling to the bucolic yet sinister town of Willoughby, Minnesota. Navigating through the memories of her own bloody legacy, Daphne throws herself into the insular and haunting small town of her ancestors. She investigates the murder that led to her mother's shame aided by charming ...
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On the day her mother died, Daphne Forrest learns the devastating truth. She'd never really known the woman who raised her, not even her real name. Fueled to unravel the tragic mystery behind her mother's secrets, Daphne abandons all she knows, traveling to the bucolic yet sinister town of Willoughby, Minnesota. Navigating through the memories of her own bloody legacy, Daphne throws herself into the insular and haunting small town of her ancestors. She investigates the murder that led to her mother's shame aided by charming, yet tortured, local, Edwin Monroe. Edwin has a unique understanding of the darkness in Willoughby, and how the town holds a lurking threat more foreboding than any unsolved murder. As Daphne gets closer to the truth, Willoughby itself rebels against her. She bears witness to terrifying scenes from the past. Is her mother a murderer? Is that Daphne's dark inheritance? And is she strong enough to battle an evil more frightening than her own past?
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I came across Her Dark Inheritance when the author, Meg Hafdahl, took to Twitter to find extra reviewers. This is the first in a trilogy, I have an e-book copy in exchange for my honest review, which follows below. I thank her for this opportunity.
I rated this 4 stars.
There was much I enjoyed about this opening novel of a trilogy: the author gave us a fully realized plot with no sudden cliffhanger to guarantee we would join her for the second installment, the characters were varied and authentic feeling, and I am a fan of strange towns. I removed one star because later in the story, there are some actions that felt hard to believe involving one of the protagonists; I explain this further below under a spoiler warning banner.
The protagonist Daphne is losing her mother to a brain tumor. As the cancer eats away at her mind and body, Daphne feels as if her mother is more a stranger than ever before; verbally, a dam has been toppled, and her mother shares things no daughter would be completely comfortable hearing. All that seems almost inconsequential to the largest confessions: Her mother's family did not die in a car crash as Daphne had been told, but murdered. Her mother also was known by a different name, born in a different state, because of these murders she lived under another identity; on her deathbed she tells her daughter of these murders, and that she did not commit them, though others think that she did.
I can only imagine how I would feel in her shoes, having her mother's identity and upbringing ripped away, changed, at the last minutes of her mother's life. I could see myself reacting much as she did, wanting to connect with her mother's past, the truthful past, by traveling to the town where her mother was raised, to try and learn something of her mother on her own. After her mother's funeral, Daphne heads to Willoughby, Minnesota, hoping to find answers. You get the impression that she has been rather timid up to this, non-confrontational and easily stressed; I felt worried and proud for her equally as she began her travels.
If a town is small enough, closed off enough, there is no way to infiltrate invisibly. My fraternal grandparents lived on Lake Frankston in Texas for more than 50 years, the actual town was almost an hour down the road for groceries. When we visited, people knew; adults I had never seen would say hello using my name. If someone that no one knew showed up, that spread like wildfire to all the residents too, quicker than I would have thought possible before cell phones were really a thing. So reading about Daphne's strangely familiar and comforting experiences with a small town population and mindset was very nostalgic; it's still making me smile as I type this. She rents a room at the hotel in town, making acquaintance with the owners' son Edwin, who has his own misgivings about Willoughby.
The house her mother lived in is owned by Doris, who is my favorite person in this book by far, and run as a tourist trap. Edwin helps introduce her around town to people, and ask questions; there seems to be plenty of tragedy to pull from the history of the small town of Willoughby. Daphne, Doris, and Edwin all seem to have their own special way to communicate with Willoughby as well, slowly putting together the pieces of a bloody and ragged puzzle; hopefully before it's too late.
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The two actions involving Daphne that felt out of place for her character, and made me take off one star had to do with after she lost her purse in the water at the site of the flour mill explosion. She did not have her ID, and was described as seeming years younger looking than her actual age, but was able to order beer at a place. I just couldn't imagine it. Then the next morning, she wanted to drive, again without her drivers license. We had learned not that long ago that she had killed a toddler while backing down her driveway as a teenager; she had not driven by choice since. I just found it too difficult to believe that she would have Edwin be extra careful helping her back the car up, but would be willing to drive without the proper ID. What if there was another accident, of any kind, and there were cops called?
