THE MISSING HEIR: A Novel of Family Secrets and Environmental Justice

By Kate Harrison

When eighteen-year-old Alex Chen-Morrison disappears hours before inheriting $50 million and control of their family's mining empire, it sets off a chain of events that will uncover sixty years of deadly secrets buried beneath the Colorado mountains.

Sheriff Maria Santos thought she was investigating a simple missing person case until she discovered that Alex had been researching disturbing inconsistencies in Morrison family history-the same kind of questions that got her grandmother Rosa killed thirty years ago in what was ruled a mining "accident." When forensic genealogist Dr. James Wright arrives to investigate for the insurance company, his database searches reveal a chilling pattern: anyone who gets too close to Morrison family secrets has a tendency to die in very convenient accidents.

Deep in the abandoned mine shafts where Alex is hiding, a more horrifying truth emerges. The Morrison fortune wasn't built on shrewd business deals-it was built on the mass grave of three Ute families murdered in 1962. And eighty-nine-year-old matriarch Evelyn Morrison, the sweet grandmother everyone respects, has been systematically eliminating threats to the family secret for six decades.

Now Eleanor Whitehorse, the sole survivor of the original massacre, has finally found an ally willing to expose the truth. But as Alex races through collapsing tunnels with evidence that could bring down Colorado's most powerful family, they discover that Evelyn Morrison isn't finished killing-and this time, she's hunting her own great-great-grandchild.

A pulse-pounding thriller that combines family secrets with environmental justice, The Missing Heir explores what happens when inherited wealth comes with inherited sins-and asks whether the courage to break generational cycles of evil can be the most valuable inheritance of all.

Perfect for readers who enjoyed The Silent Patient, Gone Girl, and There There-a literary thriller that doesn't shy away from America's buried histories while delivering the page-turning suspense readers crave.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FTPTP9XQ
• ISBN13: 9798267875516
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 205 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"