Discover the secrets behind The Inheritance as Trisha Sakhlecha reveals what inspired her latest psychological thriller. From crafting stories with layered secrets to sharing her top crime and thriller recommendations, read this exclusive interview for Crime Collective book club members.
The book's setting, a private island off the west coast of Scotland, is both remote and evocative. What inspired you to choose this location, and how does it contribute to the suspense and atmosphere of the story?
I first had with the idea for The Inheritance whilst staying at a private island in Scotland. I was on a writing break and traveling solo and this particular island was totally off-the-grid. It had no cell signal or wifi. I was staying in one of 7 cottages on the island and didn’t see or speak to a single person the entire time that I was there. The isolation and the landscape – at once rugged, breathtakingly beautiful and threatening – created the strange feeling of living in a bubble where normal rules didn’t apply. I like settings to act like characters in the novel, and in the case of The Inheritance, with its dark history, rugged landscape and luxurious fittings, Eilean Kilbryde reflects both the warmth and closeness of the Agarwal family and the darkness they each inhabit.
With each character possessing secrets that could unravel their lives, how did you approach the task of layering these secrets to build tension?
In Indian families, there’s a sense of being close-knit to the point of knowing it all. Parents like to believe they know every aspect of their children’s lives and that they alone are working in its best interest, and on the flip side, as adults, children believe it’s their duty to keep secrets to shield their ageing parents from the truth. Whether it’s Myra lying about her marriage and the reason for its dissolution or Aseem keeping his and Zoe’s plans under wraps, the Agarwals keep secrets in order to spare their loved ones something they think they can’t handle. Or at least that’s what they tell themselves.
There are so many secrets built into the Agarwal family that layering the secrets both at the point of withholding information, and then at the point of revelation became the key to propelling the narrative forward. Halfway through my first draft, I outlined the novel in terms of secrets and plot points, marking where the tension was introduced and when it was resolved, and the domino effect the reveals had on each of the characters emotionally.
Seen from a wider lens, The Inheritance is a story about how the darkest of secrets contained within families will always find a way to express themselves. And how the only way to heal the trauma is to have the courage to address the things we find most difficult to talk about.
The book has been described as "a propulsive mystery and a layered portrait of familial love and dysfunction." What do you think makes family dynamics such fertile ground for storytelling?
All good stories have a question at their heart that drives the narrative forward, and more often than not, that question has to do with who you fundamentally are. For me the root of that always goes back to family dynamics. As children, we learn how to love, to be loved, to negotiate, to reconcile differences in our families of origin. Consciously or not, these initial leanings shape our relationships in adult life and I find it endlessly fascinating to explore what happens when those relationships are bound together by silence and secrets.
With the themes of privilege and buried secrets so prominent in The Inheritance, how do these themes speak to contemporary societal issues, and what do you hope readers take away from the book?
In commercial fiction, we are so used to seeing the white person as the insider and the people of colour as the ones desperate to find a way into the world of privilege and excess. With The Inheritance I wanted to flip the script about outsiders/insiders by creating a world where the white person is the ‘other’.
Not only are the Agarwals ridiculously wealthy and privileged, they are incredibly close-knit and for someone like Zoe, who comes from a working class, single parent household, this is a complete culture shock. Her inability to understand the nuances that play into this set up, whilst simultaneously craving the closeness it inspires, forms the crux of her journey in the novel. When pushed to their limits, each of the Agarwals is capable of doing the most despicable things in the name of family, something that Zoe struggles to understand. I would hope that the novel inspires readers to consider the same moral question that each of the Agarwals is forced to answer: when the stakes are impossibly high, what will you choose: your family or your conscience?
Which of the Agarwal family was the most challenging to write, and why?
Aisha! As the rebellious youngest child, she’s naïve and well meaning, but also headstrong and a touch arrogant. Balancing her spiritedness and childlike innocence whilst making sure she never appears juvenile or cruel was quite the challenge.
As your third novel, how did you find the writing process for The Inheritance and can you tell us what that process looks like? Do you have any tips for aspiring thriller writers?
Each book is different but for me writing always starts with character and usually, a scene or a visual image that puzzles me.
In the case of The Inheritance, I had the opening scene in my head for a long time before I started writing. I kept turning that scene over, looking at it from every angle, trying to examine how the narrator had come to be running through the woods, covered in a family member’s blood. All of the characters, the family dynamics and bigger ideas came from that moment. I dug into what defines each character within the Agarwal family, looking at their deepest motivations and biggest fears and how that translates into their actions.
I like to know the general shape of the story, where it’s going to begin and where it will end, the key moments where it’ll turn before I start writing. Then comes the toughest part: sitting down at my desk and actually writing. I write best in the mornings and it took about two years of waking up at 5am to get the draft to a point when I was happy to share it with the world.
What are your top 3 crime & thriller book recommendations?
That’s an impossible question to answer! I adore Patricia Highsmith’s writing. Her book, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, is not technically a crime book but it’s one I always recommend to anyone interested in understanding how thrillers work. Highsmith shares her approach to plotting and characterisation as well as her frustrations with her own writing, which makes the book an excellent companion whilst working on a first draft. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is a slim novel that packs a punch and is a fantastic example of how to make the most jaw-dropping twist feel organic and true to the story. It’s also the book I most recommend to people looking to get out of a reading slump.
Finally, like most crime writers, I grew up reading Agatha Christie and Death on the Nile with its ingenious plot, fast pace and simmering tension is a firm favourite.
