The Heirs
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By Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
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1 review
The utterly addictive new YA murder mystery thriller from Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, the instant New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of ACE OF SPADES and WHERE SLEEPING GIRLS LIE.
MEET THE HEIRS
Octavius the Maestro.
Fola the Brain.
Bilal the Olympian.
Perdita the Artist.
Romeo the Failure.
FIVE PRODIGIES
Everyone has heard of the Button heirs: the five genius children of infamous billionaire Leontes Button. Adopted and trained under the ""Button Method"", they’ve had no choice but to be brilliant.
ONE DEAD FATHER
But brilliance comes at a deadly price. Because at their father’s tenth annual Prodigy Ball, Leontes Button is murdered.
A MANSION FULL OF SUSPECTS
As long-buried secrets come to light, one thing is clear: everyone at the ball had reason to want him dead. After all, their father was especially good at making enemies…
A rollercoaster of twists and turns with secrets, lies, murder and money, The Heirs is The Inheritance Games meets Knives Out.
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Leontes Button has dedicated his life to proving his hypothesis that prodigies are a product of nurture rather than nature. He uses his five children as guinea pigs in a cruel experiment in which money was no object and love and kindness were completely absent. At the Prodigy Ball, which he hosts annually to celebrate child geniuses everywhere, he is murdered and there are a plethora of potential perpetrators of the crime.
There is a lot to like about this book, not least that it is very gripping.
The premise is interesting and the plot surrounding that premise is well constructed. Layers of new information are drip-fed throughout as we get to know the characters more intimately and this additional information often requires a rethink and a shift of perspective.
From the limited number of books that I have read which are specifically targeted at YAs, the impression I have is that the writing style is quite simplistic and this book is no exception. This makes it easy to read and means that I could sit back and enjoy the story, rather than wading my way through highfalutin prose.
The characters are introduced slowly so that the reader is not suddenly confronted with an overwhelming crowd of people in the first few pages – this is something that I wish other authors would adopt as it is a definite plus point for me.
There are plenty of flashbacks into the pasts of the main characters and these are printed in white on black as opposed to the main bulk of the book which is printed in the normal fashion of black on white. Whilst there is no doubt that it avoids any confusion about which timeframe we are in, it does feel a little gimmicky.
I suspect the plausibility of the scientific experiment aspect of the plot is questionable in the modern day but heigh-ho, why let reality get in the way of a good story!!
My only other niggle is about the depth of the characters at the forefront of the story (primarily the five Button siblings). Although their personality traits are described in a fair amount of detail, they just didn’t resonate with me as cohesive, whole individuals that I could relate to. It is of course quite possible that this is deliberate in the sense that the children are either so bright that ordinary mortals are just not on their wavelength or that they have been so damaged by their upbringing that they are never going to have the potential to be rounded human beings – however, I strongly suspect that this is not the case.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an easy read with an interesting premise. This applies to both adults and YAs alike. I would happily read another of her books.
