A Deadly Inheritance

Written by Kelley Armstrong

Tundra Books

978-1-77488-803-2 

424 pp.

Ages 14+

March 2026 

 

Understanding where you fit in the world is rare here. Embracing it is even rarer. (pg. 45)  

For seventeen-year-old Liliana Green, getting by since her mother died recently is everything to her. That and avoiding the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services. She works two part-time jobs, works hard at school to get that full scholarship to college in September, and she sells stuff to make rent. When lawyer Cecilia Robbins appears on her doorstep and announces that Liliana to be the grandchild of the billionaire Chamberlains, Liliana's financial troubles appear to be over. She's whisked away to Westdale, her mother's alma mater and a school that only admits the wealthiest of students. 

 

Of course Liliana has lots of questions, especially why her mother never went to her parents for help, but once she's at Westdale, Lili just has more questions. She may be enjoying the perks of being part of a billionaire family—". . . I'll enjoy what I can, while I can" (pg. 20)—but she still has to navigate meeting new peers who see her as the new Chamberlain girl. She becomes friendly with Maddox Moreno, son of a tech wizard, and Theo Dubois, son of an actor and a director, although the two boys have a cool relationship with each other. And Lili is invited to join Allegra Khan, Polly Reeves, and Isolde Brandt in the Lilith society, one of four societies on campus. 

Soon Lili is being recruited to join the race for that year's Optima, a prestigious competition that would win her a place in an elite networking group outside the school. Even before she has agreed, she's targeted and told to watch herself. Would her competitors really try to eliminate her? But Lili has another mystery to solve when she learns her mother was the Dux (leader) of the Liliths, and ran away with her father before she graduated. Why did they run away? What does it have to do with the death of a scholarship student? And what secrets is Westdale keeping?

 

Like many boarding schools, Westdale is a microcosm of good and bad and ugly. There is a clear class structure and distinct peer groups. There are secrets from the past and mysteries from the present. There are rules to be broken and a system to work in. And there is danger hiding everywhere. Kelley Armstrong takes us into a school of the fabulously wealthy and lets us watch as the students form alliances and friends, tread cautiously around others, and do what they can to safeguard themselves and support those for whom they care. But no one is ever safe. So, as we learn more about the secrets behind Liliana's parents, Rose (Rosalyn) Chamberlain and Will Green, and several suspicious deaths, including that of Maddox's sister and that of a friend of Rosalyn's, Kelley Armstrong twists and turns the reader into believing no one is to be trusted. She gives us all the clues but she cleverly tangles us into seeing connections where there are none and ignoring key players because they seem inconsequential. Still, even if you pay attention, Kelley Armstrong will surprise you, both with her ending and the solution to the mystery. And there's nothing better than the unraveling and intertwining of plot threads leading to a refreshing and a gratifying denouement, which is what you always get with Kelley Armstrong's suspenseful reads.