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Next of Kin
by John Boyne
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London, 1936. Owen Montignac, the charming but indebted heir to a wealthy landowning family, expects his uncle’s death to rescue him from a dangerous gambling liability. Instead, the will favours his cousin Stella. With a casino creditor demanding repayment and his social position at risk, Owen begins to manipulate relatives and opportunities around him.
The private inheritance plot unfolds against the relationship between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and the constitutional crisis that leads to abdication. Owen recognises that royal scandal can be converted into influence and money, and his schemes move from deception towards murder. The novel uses aristocratic privilege, press gossip and the uncertainty of 1936 to expose the violence beneath cultivated manners.
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