The Thornthwaite Inheritance
Encyclopedia
The Thornthwaite Inheritance is an award-winning children's macabre crime novel by British author Gareth P. Jones
. It was published in 2009.
When Lorelli and Ovid create a truce on their thirteenth birthday, Lorelli brings a lawyer into the house to add to their deceased parents' will. If one of the twins kills the other before their sixteenth birthday, the day in which they inherit half of the Thornthwaite's massive inheritance, the other will immediately be cut out of the will.
But bizarre murder attempts continue to be made, and the twins, though deeply suspicious of each other, work together to uncover the explanation.
said that the book is 'surely material for a film'. BooksforKeeps noted its similarity to Lemony Snicket's
A Series of Unfortunate Events
but thought it was less repetitive and manipulative towards the reader. TheBookBag praised the likeable characters, but noted about the excessive use of plot twists, and thought that the style of writing was dull.
Gareth P. Jones
Gareth P. Jones is a British children's writer, and author of the Dragon Detective Agency series of books. He is most famous for his book The Thornthwaite Inheritance. All six of his books are detective stories for children...
. It was published in 2009.
Plot summary
Ovid and Lorelli Thornthwaite are thirteen-year-old twins and they are very unusual. They wear only black, eat only bland food, listen and play only sombre music and have no electricity in their house. But what is even stranger is their desire to kill each other!When Lorelli and Ovid create a truce on their thirteenth birthday, Lorelli brings a lawyer into the house to add to their deceased parents' will. If one of the twins kills the other before their sixteenth birthday, the day in which they inherit half of the Thornthwaite's massive inheritance, the other will immediately be cut out of the will.
But bizarre murder attempts continue to be made, and the twins, though deeply suspicious of each other, work together to uncover the explanation.
Critical Reception
The story was quite well received by critics. It won the Doncaster Book Award, and also the Rotherham Book Awards. The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said that the book is 'surely material for a film'. BooksforKeeps noted its similarity to Lemony Snicket's
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of children's novels by Lemony Snicket which follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arsonous house fire...
but thought it was less repetitive and manipulative towards the reader. TheBookBag praised the likeable characters, but noted about the excessive use of plot twists, and thought that the style of writing was dull.