#44 [2024/CBR16] The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

I think I discovered The Heiress (2024) by Rachel Hawkins when I was browsing through my library app looking for available books. Surprisingly, I don't think I saw it on any lists. But the first paragraph was written well, and the main characters were living in Golden, Colorado--a town close to my heart. So, I decided to read it. 

The Heiress is the story of a very rich family in Tavistock, North Carolina. They live in a beautiful house named the Ashby House, surrounded by the gorgeous views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Ruby McTavish is the rich heiress in this book. She was kidnapped as a small child, but found again. She grew up to be a powerful woman who married four times. All of her husbands died, and Ruby never had biological children.

But Ruby did adopt a son later in life. Camden grew up in the storied Ashby House, but the snobbery of the family and meanness of his cousins made him come to hate it. Eventually, he moved away, met his wife Jules, and when the book begins the couple is living and working in Golden, Colorado. Camden is not even interested when Ruby dies and he inherits the property and most of the wealth. It isn't until Camden's uncle dies of a drunk driving accident that he is persuaded to return to Ashby House. 

Camden's wife, Jules, has never been to Ashby House and is intrigued by the elegance and grandeur of the place. However, Camden's aunt and cousins still live there, and they are haughty and unfriendly. They are the worst of what happens to people who grow up with lots of money and no consequences. 

The story is told from the alternating points of view of Camden and Jules. There are two main mysteries that I slowly figured out as I read. The first is what happened to Ruby when she was a child. Was she kidnapped? Was it really Ruby who came back? The second was what happened to Ruby's husbands. Four dead husbands are awfully suspicious.

***SPOILERS*** It turns out that Ruby was not kidnapped as a child, but after she disappeared, her father found a look alike from a poor family and basically bought her from them. He promised to pay the family a lot of money and help get the father out of jail, but he had him killed instead. The new Ruby grew up at Ashby house, but something was always off.

Ruby also killed all four of her husbands for different reasons. The first husband's murder seemed the most justified, but as the years went on, it became clear that Ruby was simply a cold-blooded killer much like her father and other members of her family.

***END SPOILERS***

This book kept me interested trying to figure out the mysteries. In addition, there were many twists and turns that reminded me of Gone Girl a little bit. On the whole, it was interesting, memorable, and kept me reading. I was, perhaps, a little disappointed in the ending, but I'm not sorry I read it.