Stanley Fulton has neither wife nor child, and is concerned about the inheritance of his wealth on his death. He decides to test his closest relatives, his cousins, to see how they would handle a relatively small inheritance, with the hope that one of them will show themselves fit to inherit the lot.
Accordingly, he makes arrangements for each of them to receive £100,000. In the meantime, under the guise of a genealogist researching the family history, he to the town where the cousins live. There he finds that there is another ‘cousin’, from the mother’s second marriage, whom everyone refers to as ‘poor Maggie’. As she’s not really his cousin, he doesn’t feel justified in including her in the gift, even though it’s obvious she’s the most in need of it.
The characters of the cousins and their families are very well drawn, and it’s pretty clear how they’re likely to deal with the money when it arrives. Sure enough, it brings out the best in some, the worst in others, but despite some being flawed, all the characters are likeable, and there’s a definite sense that they’ll all win through in the end.
It’s one of those books that ends just as it should. Excellent read
The story hinges on the interactions between the characters and a book of Chinese wisdom. There are two plots (not really correct to call the second a sub-plot, even though it\'s the other that involves the beans of the book\'s title) - one about a strange inheritance, and the other a crime - and both involve the Chinese book.
It\'s a good old-fashioned thriller, involving characters with very colourful names (although perhaps in these days of celebrities dumping their kids with bizarre names, not so strange as they might once have been!).
One thing that does let it down is the poor proofreading, but hopefully the site will sort that out in the future.
Sadly, this book, although it looks actually quite good, is just impossible to read, at least in its current format. It's clearly been scanned with no attention paid to any sort of proofreading, and it's simply unreadable. Great shame.
Recent comments: User reviews
Stanley Fulton has neither wife nor child, and is concerned about the inheritance of his wealth on his death. He decides to test his closest relatives, his cousins, to see how they would handle a relatively small inheritance, with the hope that one of them will show themselves fit to inherit the lot.
Accordingly, he makes arrangements for each of them to receive £100,000. In the meantime, under the guise of a genealogist researching the family history, he to the town where the cousins live. There he finds that there is another ‘cousin’, from the mother’s second marriage, whom everyone refers to as ‘poor Maggie’. As she’s not really his cousin, he doesn’t feel justified in including her in the gift, even though it’s obvious she’s the most in need of it.
The characters of the cousins and their families are very well drawn, and it’s pretty clear how they’re likely to deal with the money when it arrives. Sure enough, it brings out the best in some, the worst in others, but despite some being flawed, all the characters are likeable, and there’s a definite sense that they’ll all win through in the end.
It’s one of those books that ends just as it should. Excellent read
The story hinges on the interactions between the characters and a book of Chinese wisdom. There are two plots (not really correct to call the second a sub-plot, even though it\'s the other that involves the beans of the book\'s title) - one about a strange inheritance, and the other a crime - and both involve the Chinese book.
It\'s a good old-fashioned thriller, involving characters with very colourful names (although perhaps in these days of celebrities dumping their kids with bizarre names, not so strange as they might once have been!).
One thing that does let it down is the poor proofreading, but hopefully the site will sort that out in the future.