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    The Oxford Inheritance: A Novel
    The Oxford Inheritance: A Novel
    The Oxford Inheritance: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Oxford Inheritance: A Novel

    Written by Ann A. McDonald

    Narrated by Nan McNamara

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    At prestigious Oxford University, an American student searches for the truth about her mother’s death in this eerie, suspenseful thriller that blends money, murder, and black magic.

    You can’t keep it from her forever. She needs to know the truth.

    Cassandra Blackwell arrives in Oxford with one mission: to uncover the truth about her mother’s dark past. Raised in America, with no idea that her mother had ever studied at the famed college, a mysterious package now sends her across the ocean, determined to unravel the secrets that her mother took to her grave. Plunged into the glamorous, secretive life of Raleigh College, Cassie finds a world like no other: a world of ancient tradition, privilege—and murder.

    Beneath the hallowed halls of this storied university there is a mysterious force at work . . . A dark society that is shaping our world, and will stop at nothing to keep its grip on power. Cassie might be the only one who can stop them—but at what cost?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 23, 2016
    ISBN9780062445025
    Author

    Ann A. McDonald

    A native of Sussex, England, Ann A. McDonald studied Philosophy, Politics & Economics at Oxford University before working as a music journalist and entertainment critic. She is now a full-time novelist and screenwriter in Los Angeles, California.

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    Reviews for The Oxford Inheritance

    3/5

    35 ratings11 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This book doesn't seem to know what kind of book it wants to be. The plot description makes it sound like a Dan Brown-type thriller, with some kind of global sinister secret in the offing. I expected a fun if creepy romp. It is not an adventure or thriller. There is some mild research, but that's about it. It is definitely not a fun romp, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it was not what I expected. Instead, the tone of the book is oppressive, but not in an interesting way, and relentlessly dour. The main character is not very sympathetic, although again, that's not necessarily a problem in itself. The main character, Cassie, has a back story that is pretty harrowing, and she experiences a lot of unpleasant stuff over the course of the novel. The tone and main character thus make this seem a bit more like dark family fiction. But unfortunately, it's not well-written enough to pull that off. In particular, the characters are all two-dimensional, including the protagonist. It is thus a book that is neither fun nor deep or thought-provoking. I did like the glimpses into Oxford life that the book provides, but somehow, it doesn't feel particularly convincing, even though I believe the author attended Oxford. The author doesn't have that talent for creating an authentic sense of place that is so necessary to a book like this, with a plot that is entirely dependent on place. Most problematically, as others have mentioned, there is a total shift in genre in the last quarter or so of the book. The paranormal explanation for what is going on is annoying and felt lazy to me. I would have liked this novel much better if the author had managed to come up with a non-paranormal, and non-sloppy explanation for what is going on. It was an absurd and very poorly sketched out explanation. Furthermore, very much unlike a Dan Brown-type novel, there is only a very cursory and sloppy historical connection made to what is going on in the present day. This felt very much like a book that the publisher (and marketing people) thought they could sell a fair amount of based solely on the description and the connections that they hoped sloppy reviewers would make (to Dan Brown, for instance). For the record, I am an Anglophile and I love a fun Dan Brown-esque romp, so this should have been right up my alley, but it wasn't. All of that being said, it was entertaining and passably well-written. Lastly, the novel is also a fairly interesting meditation on privilege.
    • 2/5
      Very slow building plot
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the first two-thirds of this book. The author created suspense around a bright, young woman, named Carrie, who goes to Oxford to unravel the mysteries about her deceased mother. I was totally unprepared for the introduction of the supernatural elements which did not fit with the first part of the book.
    • 3/5
      Cassie comes to Oxford University to try to learn more about her mother, who died when she was 14, and possibly identify and locate her father. She becomes caught up in researching a secret society which may have led to her mother fleeing Oxford. I enjoyed the first half of this book, as Cassie looked for information about her mother and adjusted to the Oxford society. I was less enchanted by the second half as Cassie got more into the supernatural aspects of the secret society.
    • 4/5
      Good story, a blend of supernatural with a kick ass heroine. Cassie Blackwell has not had the easiest of lives but has worked hard at academia in order to enter Oxford on scholarship. She has also made it her life's mission to find out what happened to her mother during her own mysterious time at Oxford. She discovers more than she bargained for with a secret society 'The School of Night' at Raleigh College, a dark and dangerous group of privileged aristocrats. I liked that Cassie was tough and when necessity called for it could hold her own against abusive villains. I loved the authors descriptions of the college campuses, surrounding areas and it's history. Recommended for a light suspenseful read.
    • 4/5
      This one sucked me in initially by its description and beautiful cover art. Family secrets, a setting in Oxford, a secret society -- what's not to love? I'm waffling on my opinion of this book. On the one hand, I couldn't help but enjoy the physical descriptions of Oxford (in this case, of fictional Raleigh College). The storyline, though not exactly gripping, moved along well enough to keep me interested. However, I didn't particularly love the main character of Cassie. And the last portion of the book built up nicely, but it was too over the top to be believable, and that sort of ruined it for me. So while I didn't necessarily dislike this novel, it didn't seem to live up to its potential.
    • 3/5
      The success of any novel involving fantasy of any sort, is dependent on the writer's success in creating a "suspension of disbelief" in the reader. Generally, that success is founded upon the use of believable details to support an inherently unbelievable premise. If that story is also supported by well-drawn characters, and a good plot, the book is generally enjoyable. In this book, however, vagueness rules. We know, for example, that the protagonist, a young woman, is capable of inflicting inexplicable damage when threatened but no effort is ever made to explain how that happens. Does she "hulk out" and turn green? Does she have superpowers? Any answer would have been better than no answer at all. The book is larded with this sort of vagueness. Suggestions of horror are routinely substituted for the more difficult task of descriptive writing. Character development is almost nil, plotting is weak and unsatisfying and, given stunning and picturesque surroundings, familiar to the author, that would seem to cry out for good background descriptions, we find the thinnest of efforts. I finished the book only because it was an Early Reviewer book and I felt honor-bound. This one was disappointing
    • 3/5
      I received this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Most of the book was enjoyable, but the ending was so improbable that it seemed ridiculous. The idea that people can somehow steal other people's brainpower through some unexplained but evil means just doesn't make sense. And why did some victims commit suicide while others died? I don't usually read books that contain the kind of supernatural or magical occurrences that are found in this novel, so maybe other people would be more accepting of the odd things that happen here. I just wish that the book had a more conventional ending.
    • 3/5
      I couldn't finish it. The combination of gimmicky writing and inaccuracies overwhelmed my interest in the somewhat generic family mystery. There is an early chapter that literally ends with the cliffhanger, "Everything she'd told them was a lie." BARFEverything about her college experience was inauthentic. A professor says to her at one point that he'll be teaching her philosophy class. The name of the class is "Philosophy." This woman is a junior PPE major. There is no class she'd take called "Philosophy." This is so basic and took me right out of the story.There were a number of other issues that fell into this category as well, especially in the use of American versus British words. Not recommended.
    • 3/5
      The Oxford Inheritance was a good story. A secret society that has existed for many generations is the heart of this good versus evil, story. The main character is Cassie. She is an unusual young woman, with a tragedy in her past. A packet of papers arrive in the mail one day, meant for her mother. After reading them, Cassie begins a very single minded road that will eventually take her to Raleigh College,Oxford, to study. Just like her mother. I didn't like Cassie. I felt as though she was a user, stepping on anyone necessary to get what she wants. There was an attempt to explain this, and I guess the reason was a good one. Still, I just didn't like her. Things moved pretty slowly for the first two thirds or so of the book, but it really was worth sticking with the story, to see how it all played out.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars.Well written story of a young woman trying to solve the mystery of her past while attending Oxford Uni. I really enjoyed the atmospheric setting & research aspect but right around the 80% mark, the plot takes a sharp turn & becomes something I was not expecting so a little disappointing. But the prose was fluid & elegant, pulling you into Cassie's immediately. This author can write. Perhaps the publishers could be a bit clearer about the genre.