The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins – Review

Published: January 9, 2024

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Series: N/A

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 294 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 5 Stars

Synopsis:
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.

But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.

Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

---

The Heiress is somewhat of a surprise favorite, despite the excellent review I saw prior to picking it up. I’m still somewhat new to the thriller genre and I feel like I haven’t found my ‘likes’ in the same way I have for fantasy and even, to a certain degree, romance books. I have to say, this book really knocked it out of the park on so many levels!

The Heiress follows the wealthy and well known McTavish family, specifically through the lens  of Ruby McTavish, her adopted son Camden, and his wife Jules. Ruby is dead and her story is told exclusively through a series of letters she wrote before her death revealing information about her early life and the fates of her many husbands. She immediately became my favorite character thanks to her narrative style and blasé attitude about the death of her multiple husbands – each of which she killed in some form or fashion. It was absolutely stone cold practicality and honestly, I appreciate that the author didn’t put it down to female madness or some such. Ruby totally calculated these deaths and it was really something unexpected which I loved.

Ruby’s adopted son and heir, Camden, has been estranged from the rest of the McTavish clan for years for a number of reasons, the main one being that he loathes the rest of his family and they don’t like him a great deal either. When his cousin reaches out about the state of Ashby House, Cam is cajoled into returning to North Carolina by Jules because she desperately wants to see where he came from and the family he’s been so studiously avoiding for over a decade. Cam wasn’t my favorite character because quite frankly, he was outshined by both Ruby and Jules but he was well written and likably flawed. It’s slowly revealed why exactly he left and spent years pretending  he didn’t have an absolute fortune at his disposal, traipsing from California to Colorado, where he took a job as a school teacher of all things.

Finally there’s Jules. She immediately starts things off with a memorable and likable character voice, though it’s also immediately apparent that she’s up to something. It’s unclear precisely what, but let’s just say I was expecting her to be somewhat of a villain right from the start. I won’t reveal if that assumption proved to be right or wrong, but I loved her either way! She clearly loves Cam and she’s determined to support him against his family, but it’s also clear she has her own agenda that she’s working toward.

This was an exciting book that kept things fresh with plenty of family drama and stunning reveals about Ruby, the McTavish clan as a whole, and even Jules and Camden. I didn’t want to put it down and the story was made even better by the excellent audiobook narration done by a multi-narrator team. This isn’t the first Rachel Hawkins book I’ve enjoyed, but it’s definitely my favorite and The Heiress has put her work firmly in the auto-buy category!