The Suitable Inheritor by Pushpendra Mehta

Val Penny ♦ October 11, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

Pushpendra Mehta kindly sent me a copy of his debut novel, The Suitable Inheritor and asked me to review the book. I like and respect Pushpendra and am always a little wary about reviewing a book in these circumstances. I am always honest, even if the author is a friend or acquaintance. This sometimes causes problems!

The author was brought up in India but now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He is an alumnus of Northwestern University, a private research university based in Evanston, Illinois, with campuses in Chicago, Illinois, San Francisco, California and Doha, Qatar. He has also studied at Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics and has wrtten some well received academic books, The Suitable Inheritor is his first novel.

The Suitable Inheritor is a book of two halves. In the first half, it tells the story of Michael Elliott who travels from his home in Chicago, Illinois, USA to Lima in Peru to meet with the pre-eminent life-style guru. The guru is terminably ill and explains that he needs someone to take over his firm. As Michael learns more about the business he also becomes aware of the importance a beautiful woman named Dorothy had in the development of the business.

In the second half of the book the reader learns that not only is Michael a suitable inheritor to the business but also that Dorothy has an inheritor to the influence she had over the business. The passion and romance in the second half of the book makes for a fast-paced ending to the story.

Although The Suitable Inheritor is somewhat one dimensional, in that there is little character development nor any variation in the speech patterns of the various characters. However, writing a novel is about telling a story and the story did engage me. I kept turnng the pages wanting to know what happened next to the characters and between Dorothy and Michael.

I enjoyed The Suitable Inheritor and would read another novel by Pushpendra Mehta.

Valerie Penny