The Heir [Kindle Edition]

Paul Robertson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's a familiar plot: the death of a filthy rich relative-who of course altered his will just hours before his sudden demise-results in instant wealth for an heir no one expected. In this debut novel from Robertson, a computer programming consultant, young mogul Jason Boyer discovers that his newly minted fortune is tainted by his deceased robber-baron father's legacy of corruption, scandal and power brokering in New England. Will Jason find the moral courage to clean his corporate house and do something meaningful with his millions? And was his father's fatal car crash really an accident? Pacing is a problem throughout much of this story, which doesn't hit its stride and become a bona fide suspense novel until the final 50 pages. Most of the characters are routine stock figures-the upwardly mobile wife; the corpulent and scheming attorney-with only Jason's innocent younger brother Eric breaking the mold. Robertson offers some strong observations on greed and human nature, and adopts a refreshingly soft approach to religious faith. The humor, which could work well in another context, feels adolescent in such a dark tale. Despite promising themes and a decent plot, this God-and-mammon novel would benefit from stringent editing and stronger supporting characters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Robertson's first novel is a Gresham-like tale of intrigue and murder about the son, Jason Boyer, of a New England financial titan and kingmaker. Jason barely knew his father, a tough, remote man who sent Jason and his brother to boarding schools, but Jason becomes sole heir upon the old man's sudden death. Jason is cynical but uncorrupted, and his first impulse is to divest himself of the old man's holdings. Then the power that his inheritance commands seduces him, and he grows as ruthless as his father. And then, once more and finally, he sees the light and proceeds to clean up all that his father and he have befouled. Or, at any rate, he tries, in this suspenseful first novel with a lot of humor and well-drawn minor characters.

John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 2215 KB
• Print Length: 369 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0764204696
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (March 1, 2007)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003N7NQ5S
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,586 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read story of hard ethical and moral decisions, March 17, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heir (Hardcover)

Whew! I'm exhausted as I close The Heir. The Boyer family's trials and tribulations went from exhilaration and joy to despair and sadness--and finally hope that the right thing would be done.

Murder and money, power and politics, and family and the obligations that bring, all tie up this story in a neat bundle.

Not only is first-time author Paul Robertson a darn good storyteller, filing pages with intrigue and twists, he also does a good job of telling it. A dozen of his sentences were so powerful, so visual, so telling, I had to write them in my own journal to read again later.

The Boyer boys' mother died when they were 5 and 3, so Eric has no memory of her, and Jason's are sketchy. When their father soon remarried, the boys were off to boarding school and hardly knew their father.

Jason, 28, and brother Eric, 25, have been living off their fathers' monthly gifts. Jason has been married three years and wife Katie loves to spend money. Eric spends all he gets, and more, and is floating through life with no goals but a new car or bike.

Jason Boyer becomes a billionaire at the suspicious death of his father, power broker in both business and politics. However, Jason knows one thing: He does NOT want anything to do with his father's businesses--and is in shock to realize his responsibilities. After some deep thought, he decides to "do the right thing" and make some of his father's underhanded dealings public, regardless of who gets hurt. He has many advisors, but he doesn't know whom to trust--and neither do we as the clues send us astray. We are as ignorant as Jason is.

Murders are plentiful and all clues point to Jason as the murderer. Although this is considered a mystery, this is really a "study of people," and how they are changed, both bad and good, by money, greed, power and position.

Throughout the book, Jason keeps asking "Why am I here?" and at the end, he knows why--that God has enlisted him to do something his father couldn't.

Armchair Interviews says: The Heir is a powerful first novel of hope and redemption that follows murder and mayhem.

55 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars WHY AM I HERE?, July 2, 2010

By 

Kathleen Merrill - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Heir (Kindle Edition)

I managed to make it through to the end of this book...and I regret the effort. The main character was insipid, totally unsympathetic and bounced back and forth from being ridiculously vainglorious to almost complete personal meltdown with tiring repetition. His personal tribulations and self-analysis felt completely narcissistic and generated absolutely zero empathy for his character. I spent most of the book hoping he would just kill himself and put me out of his misery. The villain was recognizable from nearly the first moment he was introduced...and, yet, the main character spends nearly the entire book worshipping this obviously self-serving and manipulative person, whom he barely knows, while paranoidly suspecting every other character in the book (including his wife and brother) of murder and mayhem! The plot line was uninspired, predictable, plodding and boring. Each time I picked up this book, determined to struggle through a few more pages, I found myself in complete agreement with the phrase the main character repeats (ad nauseum) throughout this book: "Why am I here?"

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Thank god it was free., July 14, 2010

By 

Donna - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Heir (Kindle Edition)

As usual, the only thing that "christian fiction" seems to mean is "absolutely dreadful writing, with a brief mention of God once or twice." Throw in a half baked moral dilemma, and you have The Heir.

I couldn't tell you what was worse: The unbelievable characters -- seriously, not *ONE* character was even remotely likeable, especially not the protagonist -- or the dreadful, stilted writing style.

Thankfully, I picked it up as a free Kindle book, because if I had actually PAID for that monstrosity, I'd be pissed.