Inspiration can come from the most unexpected places. Sometimes it begins with a childhood memory. Sometimes it is sparked by a building, an object or a question that refuses to go away.
For author Deborah Wales, THE INHERITANCE grew from a combination of all three.
At the heart of the novel is De-Ver Hall, an imposing ancestral home filled with history, family secrets, tragedy and stories of the unexplained. Although the De-Ver family itself is fictional, the inspiration for the Hall came from a very real place. Wales explains that the story is based on an actual hall she knew as a child, though she changed its name out of respect for the family connected to it. She spent many days wandering through its vast rooms and exploring what she describes as its darkest secrets.
Those childhood experiences appear to have left a lasting impression.
Walking through a place with such a strong connection to the past encouraged Wales’s fascination with history. There is something powerful about standing in an old building and wondering who walked the same corridors generations before, what conversations took place behind closed doors and which stories were remembered or deliberately forgotten.
That fascination became one of the foundations of THE INHERITANCE.
But the novel’s second major inspiration came from somewhere much less dramatic: a charity shop.
While out walking with her family, Wales discovered a pendant that immediately caught her attention. Its origins remain a mystery, but she felt from the moment she found it that it was special and that one day it would inspire a story.
In THE INHERITANCE, a family pendant becomes much more than a decorative object.
For April Lawson, the novel’s central character, it represents family history and a connection to previous generations. She discovers photographs of her ancestors wearing the pendant and remembers being told that it would eventually be passed down to her. But as April starts asking questions, it becomes clear that not everyone in her family feels affection for the heirloom.
Her grandmother, Margaret, is deeply uncomfortable with it.
As tragedy and unexplained events begin to surround April, the pendant takes on an increasingly unsettling significance. What first appears to be a beautiful piece of family history becomes tied to questions about curses, mysterious deaths and a legacy stretching back centuries.
That transformation from an intriguing real-life object to the centerpiece of a supernatural mystery is part of what makes the novel’s origin story so compelling.
Wales also acknowledges another important influence: her fascination with the unexplained and with the possibility that our world may exist alongside something we do not fully understand. That curiosity gives THE INHERITANCE its supernatural edge while allowing the story to explore the tension between skepticism and belief.
The result is a novel where history never feels entirely finished.
Old relationships continue to influence new ones. Family secrets shape future generations. Objects carry emotional weight. And an ancestral home becomes a place where the boundary between past and present feels dangerously thin.
Perhaps that is what makes the inspiration behind THE INHERITANCE so fitting. A childhood spent exploring an old hall and a mysterious pendant discovered by chance eventually came together to create a story about legacy, memory and the possibility that some things never truly leave us.
Step inside De-Ver Hall and uncover the mystery for yourself in THE INHERITANCE by Deborah Wales.
Read the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJ15FYVM
