Title: The Last Heir

Genre: Legal Thriller / Family Drama
Tone: Suspenseful, slow-burn, emotionally charged
Setting: Modern-day Mississippi (or any Southern U.S. state steeped in tradition and old money)

Plot Summary:
In 2021, Jack Monroe, a retired blue-collar worker and devoted father, is mysteriously killed in what is ruled a “freak accident” — a slip-and-fall at his remote lakeside property. The case is quickly closed, but Jack’s only son, Eli Monroe, a struggling journalist with a drinking problem, suspects something darker beneath the surface.

A year later, in 2022, Jack’s wife Margaret — Eli’s fiercely independent mother — is diagnosed with early-onset dementia and placed in a care home. Within months, she becomes nonverbal and isolated, with access to her finances completely cut off. She dies quietly in 2023, leaving behind a modest but important estate: land, life insurance, and decades of saved pensions.

But when Eli tries to claim what’s left of his family legacy, he runs into an unexpected roadblock: Susan Lattimore, his cousin and the executrix of both estates. A high-powered estate attorney with a polite smile and ice-cold resolve, Susan claims that Margaret named her sole trustee and granted her full financial control. She insists Eli was left out of the estate due to “mental health and substance issues” and that he is legally incapacitated from receiving funds.

Eli knows that’s a lie. He’s sober now. Clean. And ready to fight.

With no money and few allies, Eli seeks help from Nina Reyes, a disbarred attorney-turned-private investigator with a shadowy past of her own. Together, they uncover a paper trail of manipulation, gaslighting, and legal shell games going back years. Susan has been quietly siphoning funds, transferring property under shell corporations, and doctoring documents — all while projecting the image of a family savior.

As Eli digs deeper, he realizes that Susan’s deception might stretch back to his father’s death — and that both deaths might have been orchestrated to protect something hidden on the family land: an old civil rights-era secret that, if exposed, could ruin a local political dynasty and shift generational wealth.

The deeper they go, the more dangerous it gets. Eli is followed. Threatened. Someone tries to set him up for a parole violation. But he refuses to back down — even if it means losing what little he has left.

Themes:
Inheritance & legacy: Who deserves it? What does it mean to earn a legacy?

Mental health & bias: How the legal system uses “incapacity” as a weapon.

Family betrayal: The deepest cuts come from within.

Justice vs. revenge: Can one become the other?