cover image The Last Inheritor

The Last Inheritor

Genevieve Lyons. Doubleday Books, $16.95 (395pp) ISBN 978-0-385-23776-5

Set in Ireland from the mid-1800s to the 1960s, this engaging first novel tells of three families whose tumultuous conflicts and amorous alliances roil through three generations. Michael Casey is forced to betray all he loves during the horrible years of the potato famine. Fleeing Barra Bawn, he finds work at Slievelea, a sprawling estate owned by Lord Rennet, whose daughter falls in love with Michael. Retribution for his crime stalks Casey's son Conor, in the form of the evil Mulhollands, one of whom survived the destruction of Barra Bawn. Conor's bitter life sweetens when he joins the Easter Rebellion, but his son Big Dan lives only to accumulate money and Slieveleaan honor bestowed when he marries the granddaughter of the woman who loved his father. But the wheel of fate is turned again by a malevolent young Mulholland. Drama continually spills into melodrama, but even the ham-fisted brogue can't mar the lavish description at which Lyons excels. (April 3)