Adding to the mystery is the existence of a contradictory will that names Kristina Maier as Hoffman's sole beneficiary. Eleanor, on finding this second will, takes it upon herself to identify and locate Kristina; in so doing she pieces together a back-story that stretches from Austria at the end of World War II all the way to Victoria and San Francisco. The moral terrain of her father's life – the choices he has made – is echoed in the topic of Eleanor's doctoral thesis on the myth of Faust. Indeed, analogies to Faust's pact with the Devil occur throughout: even the smallest victories are attended by loss.

The chapters of The Last Will and Testament of Henry Hoffman are broken into short sections, a structure that lends itself to rapid pacing and a multilayered approach. However, this dynamism is undermined by a broadly familiar plot and too many instances of clichéd language, which readers may find exasperating. The following examples occur within the space of two paragraphs: 'lumps of rubber chicken'; 'rickety laminex table'; '[t]he house was a shambles'. Tesarsch also allows himself some dubious similes: 'When he entered her, after the initial pain she opened her eyes and took in the humble surroundings, with the breathless shock of a fish left stranded on the shore as the tide receded.' Such lapses diminish an otherwise promising novel.