A family business that grows larger and larger and larger (inspired by Ferrero / Nutella story). The parents have three children, and they follow the simple rule that the oldest inherits the business, and the younger ones are encouraged to become helpers but not required.
Then … in a suspicious accident/event … both the owner and the oldest child are killed. Everyone starts reaching out to the second sibling, but they have mysteriously vanished. And so the youngest one—who was never trained for this and had accepted they never had anything to do with the company—is suddenly asked to lead the company.
This can be …
- A comedy kind of thing.
- Or it can be a thriller/cozy crime, as they try to figure out who inside the company would kill the owner/oldest child, and where the other one vanished to. (While trying to save the company and learn on the go.)
- -> It seems obvious to me that someone would want the inexperienced child to lead, and then, throughout the entire story, they whisper the wrong advice in their ear and stuff.
- -> So the murderer would be his closest assistant who seems a friend and really helps him out at the start, until (s)he realizes certain advice they gave was VERY WRONG and they KNEW IT.
- Maybe there’s some TERRIBLE SECRET hidden in the company’s past/present. Like slave labour, unethical sourcing of materials, lying about what’s inside the chocolate, a hidden branch doing shady stuff to competitors, etcetera.
- => That’s why the second sibling had NO interest taking over and they now have to struggle with this new information and hiding it/exposing it in the right way.