What do you think?
Rate this book
Win a free print copy of this book!
22 days and 18:17:50
10 copies available
U.S. only
The Inheritance Thief: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 9 Feb 27Win a free print copy of this book!
22 days and 18:17:50
10 copies available
U.S. only
A young woman investigating a decades-old disappearance in the French Alps becomes entangled in a web of privilege and lies—and realizes that even buried secrets can have deadly consequences, from the bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick Society of Lies.
Some secrets are inherited.
Zoe Li has spent her life on the outside looking in, hungry for the kind of story that could finally make her someone. So when a chance encounter lands her a dream job working for Simone Rothwell, an acclaimed filmmaker with a cliffside Malibu estate, a magnetic husband, and the glittering life Zoe has always imagined for herself, it feels like fate.
But inside the Rothwells’ beautiful home, something dark lingers. Simone’s office is strictly off-limits. Zoe’s mother begs her to stay away from Simone. And Simone seems to know far more about Zoe’s past than she should.
Then the body of Wesley Thorne, the teenage son of a powerful media billionaire, surfaces in the French Alps, more than two decades after his disappearance was ruled a tragic accident. Back in 2002, Simone was there in Chamonix with Wes the night he vanished. And so was Zoe’s mother.
As the reopened investigation into Thorne’s death closes in, Zoe begins to suspect that her glamorous new boss has a disturbing reason for hiring her.
She may be setting a trap.
From the sun-drenched beaches of Malibu to the icy slopes of Chamonix, The Inheritance Thief is a twisty, seductive thriller about ambition, obsession, inherited guilt, and the terrible cost of getting everything you thought you wanted.
Some secrets are inherited.
Zoe Li has spent her life on the outside looking in, hungry for the kind of story that could finally make her someone. So when a chance encounter lands her a dream job working for Simone Rothwell, an acclaimed filmmaker with a cliffside Malibu estate, a magnetic husband, and the glittering life Zoe has always imagined for herself, it feels like fate.
But inside the Rothwells’ beautiful home, something dark lingers. Simone’s office is strictly off-limits. Zoe’s mother begs her to stay away from Simone. And Simone seems to know far more about Zoe’s past than she should.
Then the body of Wesley Thorne, the teenage son of a powerful media billionaire, surfaces in the French Alps, more than two decades after his disappearance was ruled a tragic accident. Back in 2002, Simone was there in Chamonix with Wes the night he vanished. And so was Zoe’s mother.
As the reopened investigation into Thorne’s death closes in, Zoe begins to suspect that her glamorous new boss has a disturbing reason for hiring her.
She may be setting a trap.
From the sun-drenched beaches of Malibu to the icy slopes of Chamonix, The Inheritance Thief is a twisty, seductive thriller about ambition, obsession, inherited guilt, and the terrible cost of getting everything you thought you wanted.
336 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 9, 2027
About the author
Lauren Ling Brown
5 books1,050 followersLauren Ling Brown graduated from Princeton and USC School of Cinematic Arts with a BA in English literature and an MFA in film production with a focus in screenwriting. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where she works as a film editor.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
If you love mysteries that unravel across multiple timelines, The Inheritance Thief by Lauren Ling Brown might be for you!
Zoe Li lands what seems like a dream job working for a wealthy filmmaker in Malibu, but her mother’s warnings and the discovery of a body missing for over twenty years raise questions about what’s really going on. Everyone seems to have a connection to the dead man, and I was ready to uncover the secrets!
The alternating timelines slowly revealed the past, with each section helping me get to know the characters better while piecing together their complicated histories. Add wealthy people, family drama, old money, and buried secrets, and there was plenty to dig into!
Overall, I liked the concept and the family intrigue, but the ending came too soon and felt cut short.
I am looking forward to her next book.
Read on release date 02 / 09 / 2027.
Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.
Zoe Li lands what seems like a dream job working for a wealthy filmmaker in Malibu, but her mother’s warnings and the discovery of a body missing for over twenty years raise questions about what’s really going on. Everyone seems to have a connection to the dead man, and I was ready to uncover the secrets!
The alternating timelines slowly revealed the past, with each section helping me get to know the characters better while piecing together their complicated histories. Add wealthy people, family drama, old money, and buried secrets, and there was plenty to dig into!
Overall, I liked the concept and the family intrigue, but the ending came too soon and felt cut short.
I am looking forward to her next book.
Read on release date 02 / 09 / 2027.
Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Thank you for reading THE INHERITANCE THIEF! I loved writing this book and poured so much of my heart into it. It means a lot that you would take the time to read it.
What started with the question: how much of who we are is inherited, and can we ever break free?
And the vague forms of my protagonists: a young woman (Zoe Li) skating along the Santa Monica beach boardwalk and a wealthy filmmaker in her forties (Simone Rothwell) watching her from high above in her Malibu estate…
Became years of layering in a mix of imagination, stories pulled from pages of my journal, and stories shared between friends and family.
This is a story about first love, friendship, and secrets. It’s also about ambition, identity, and heartbreak. And there’s a good amount of wealthy people behaving badly!
For me, a novel does not get written in the first draft, nor the fifth, but after going through the manuscript many times, layering in emotion, mystery threads, character backstory, places, and conflict. I absolutely love writing novels for the combination of the real and the make believe.
That’s all to say, after years of living with these characters, they have become real people to me, living in my imagination—does that sound completely mad??—well, I hope you like meeting them. I thought a lot about my own life while writing: the choices we make, the people we meet, what matters in the end.
I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I did writing it!
- Lauren
What started with the question: how much of who we are is inherited, and can we ever break free?
And the vague forms of my protagonists: a young woman (Zoe Li) skating along the Santa Monica beach boardwalk and a wealthy filmmaker in her forties (Simone Rothwell) watching her from high above in her Malibu estate…
Became years of layering in a mix of imagination, stories pulled from pages of my journal, and stories shared between friends and family.
This is a story about first love, friendship, and secrets. It’s also about ambition, identity, and heartbreak. And there’s a good amount of wealthy people behaving badly!
For me, a novel does not get written in the first draft, nor the fifth, but after going through the manuscript many times, layering in emotion, mystery threads, character backstory, places, and conflict. I absolutely love writing novels for the combination of the real and the make believe.
That’s all to say, after years of living with these characters, they have become real people to me, living in my imagination—does that sound completely mad??—well, I hope you like meeting them. I thought a lot about my own life while writing: the choices we make, the people we meet, what matters in the end.
I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I did writing it!
- Lauren
September 25, 2026
So excited to have been chosen to receive an ARC for this book. It was captivating from the start and I kept wanting to see and know what would happen next. It was easy to follow through the story with the back-and-front time jump throughout and the twist at the end I did t see coming crowned the whole story up. I definitely recommend this book and you won’t regret it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley for the early copy of The Inheritance Thief! After Society of Lies...I should not be shocked that Lauren Ling Brown wrote another novel that sucked me in so quickly, but I truly loved this read. Dual perspectives and dual timelines have to be done right, or it ruins the book for me. Not only did I really enjoy both perspectives and timelines, but I found the characters relatable and likable, even when they should not have been. I did feel as though one plotline specifically (Zoe's love interest) fell flat and I think the novel would have been just as good, if not better, without it. But this was, overall, such a fantastic story that kept me flipping pages so quickly. This is one that I will remember fondly for a long time. Mystery/Thriller lovers, mark your calendars for this one!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2026
What a fizzy, fab thrill-ride of a thriller. ‘The Inheritance Thief’ is immediately gripping and full of levity.
Often in dual-POV novels, you get a sense that the author relates to one character over the other, but not here Lauren Ling Brown has a fully formed, empathetic understanding of both in equal measure.
I absolutely loved living in this high-glam world of the cut-throat coastal elites & menacingly debauched ski resorts.
Lauren Ling Brown’s prose is deeply felt, entertaining, and referential to today’s fractured and divided geopolitical landscape. I can’t wait to read ‘Soceity of Lies.
Often in dual-POV novels, you get a sense that the author relates to one character over the other, but not here Lauren Ling Brown has a fully formed, empathetic understanding of both in equal measure.
I absolutely loved living in this high-glam world of the cut-throat coastal elites & menacingly debauched ski resorts.
Lauren Ling Brown’s prose is deeply felt, entertaining, and referential to today’s fractured and divided geopolitical landscape. I can’t wait to read ‘Soceity of Lies.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Family secrets, complicated relationships, and the lengths people will go to protect what they believe belongs to them? Yes, please!
The Inheritance Thief delivers an intriguing blend of family drama, mystery, and suspense. I love a story where appearances are deceiving, loyalties are tested, and the people who should know each other best might be hiding the biggest secrets.
What I particularly enjoyed was the exploration of family dynamics and the way money, privilege, and the promise of an inheritance can complicate relationships. There is something deliciously unsettling about a story where trust feels fragile and everyone potentially has something to lose.
While a few moments didn’t quite pack the punch I was hoping for, the atmosphere, tension, and family intrigue kept me invested. An entertaining, twisty read that reminds us that sometimes the most dangerous secrets are the ones kept closest to home.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review!
📚 Expected Publication Date: February 9, 2027
The Inheritance Thief delivers an intriguing blend of family drama, mystery, and suspense. I love a story where appearances are deceiving, loyalties are tested, and the people who should know each other best might be hiding the biggest secrets.
What I particularly enjoyed was the exploration of family dynamics and the way money, privilege, and the promise of an inheritance can complicate relationships. There is something deliciously unsettling about a story where trust feels fragile and everyone potentially has something to lose.
While a few moments didn’t quite pack the punch I was hoping for, the atmosphere, tension, and family intrigue kept me invested. An entertaining, twisty read that reminds us that sometimes the most dangerous secrets are the ones kept closest to home.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review!
📚 Expected Publication Date: February 9, 2027
September 28, 2026
Full of surprises and betrayals—plus some surprising twists !
This was an ARC.
This was an ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
If you like twisty mystery stories that unravel over multiple timelines then you will like this one!
I enjoyed the tease at the beginning and then the slow build up to it. I liked that each section of the book was a certain time frame before we get back to what happened in the prologue. The story makes you start guessing to yourself what happened and the characters are holding just enough back that you know they are up to something. In the end I gave it 3.75 because the ending felt a little rushed and felt like some of the twists just didn't have enough build up to them. I think this book could have benefitted from another 2-3 chapters to give some things room to breathe.
I enjoyed the tease at the beginning and then the slow build up to it. I liked that each section of the book was a certain time frame before we get back to what happened in the prologue. The story makes you start guessing to yourself what happened and the characters are holding just enough back that you know they are up to something. In the end I gave it 3.75 because the ending felt a little rushed and felt like some of the twists just didn't have enough build up to them. I think this book could have benefitted from another 2-3 chapters to give some things room to breathe.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Never meet your heroes is the lesson Zoe learns when she scores a job with Simone- an icon she’s hoping will
Mentor her in her writing career. So many people have warned Zoe to stay away from Simone and her husband Oliver but it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. How could she turn that down? But when Simone’s old boyfriend’s body turns up after decades presumed missing and the case is declared a homicide, Zoe begins to wonder if maybe she should have said no.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC
Mentor her in her writing career. So many people have warned Zoe to stay away from Simone and her husband Oliver but it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. How could she turn that down? But when Simone’s old boyfriend’s body turns up after decades presumed missing and the case is declared a homicide, Zoe begins to wonder if maybe she should have said no.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews