The most memorable fictional settings often feel as though they existed long before the first page was written. In Deborah Wales’s forthcoming novel The Inheritance, that sense of history is no accident.
At the heart of the story stands an imposing ancestral Hall filled with atmosphere, secrets and generations of troubling memories. But what makes the setting especially fascinating is that it was inspired by a real Hall from the author’s childhood.
In the acknowledgements to The Inheritance, Wales explains that she spent many days as a child wandering through the vast rooms of an actual historic Hall and exploring what she describes as its darkest secrets. That experience helped awaken her love of history and the feeling of “walking in the footsteps of the past.” While the family in the novel is fictional and the Hall’s name has been changed, those early experiences helped shape the world readers encounter in the book.
That connection gives The Inheritance an especially evocative foundation.
The fictional Hall is no ordinary country house. It is described as having fifty-two rooms, one for every week of the year and 365 windows, one for every day. It is also surrounded by unsettling stories. Some believe it is haunted, while others claim the building itself is cursed.
Into this atmosphere steps April Lawson, a young woman returning home after university and trying to decide what comes next in her life.
Her connection to the Hall is deeply personal. It is part of her family history, her childhood and her sense of identity. But as April begins uncovering more about the De-Ver family, the home she knows so well starts to feel increasingly unfamiliar.
One of the novel’s central mysteries revolves around a family pendant bearing the De-Ver coat of arms. The necklace has been passed down through generations and represents a tangible connection between April and the women who came before her.
Remarkably, this part of the story also has a real-world inspiration.
Wales reveals that the pendant itself was inspired by an actual piece she found in a charity shop while out walking with her family. Its origins remain a mystery, but she immediately felt there was something special about it and believed it would one day inspire her writing.
From those two elements, a real Hall and a mysterious pendant, a fictional story of inheritance, family secrets, romance, betrayal, tragedy and the supernatural grew.
That combination gives the novel its distinctive appeal. The Hall feels lived-in because its inspiration comes from a real place. The pendant feels significant because it began with a real object. Around them, Wales builds an entirely fictional family whose history stretches across generations and whose secrets refuse to remain buried.
For readers who enjoy gothic settings, old houses, mysterious heirlooms, complicated family histories, supernatural suspense and stories inspired by real places, The Inheritance offers an especially intriguing invitation.
It also raises a compelling thought: how many stories might be hiding inside the places and objects we encounter every day?
For Deborah Wales, childhood memories of an old Hall and the unexpected discovery of a pendant became the beginning of something much larger.
They became The Inheritance.
Deborah Wales’s The Inheritance is currently in the publishing phase and will be available soon to readers.
