The heiress A novel

Ruby McTavish is a famous North Carolina heiress known for two things: being kidnapped as a child and having four dead husbands. When she herself dies, her fortune and her family's estate, Ashby House, go to her adopted son, Camden. In the 10 years since Ruby's death, Camden has created a simple life for himself and his wife, Jules, as far away from the McTavishes as he can get. When he's forced to return to Ashby House, he's determined to wash his hands of his family once and for all by relinquishing his inheritance. But when Jules finds herself drawn to the house, and the family's secrets start to be exposed, it becomes a question of whether Camden will be able to escape Ruby's machinations even now. Featuring unreliable narrators and twists throughout, Hawkins' (The Villa, 2023) latest continues her reign as the queen of slow burn domestic thrillers. This is a page-turner that readers will find hard to put down and is perfect for fans of stories with ambiguous morals and dysfunctional families.

Hawkins (The Wife Upstairs) delivers a delicious tale of murder, greed, and the ties that bind. The flamboyant Ruby McTavish, who was famous in her home state of North Carolina for surviving a kidnapping as a child and burning through four husbands as an adult, controlled a vast family fortune until her death 10 years ago. Camden, Ruby's adopted son and sole heir, is now a high school English teacher living in California. He has not been back to Ashby House, his mother's estate, since she died, nor has he spent any of the money she left behind on himself. Instead, he puts the inheritance toward the upkeep of his deteriorating family manse and his cousins' dubious business enterprises. An email from one of those cousins brings Camden back to Ashby House so he and the others can finally hash out the details of Ruby's will. Camden's wife, Jules, urges him to go, not fully understanding the snake pit that awaits them in North Carolina. After they arrive, past secrets come to light, and dark questions emerge about Ruby's past, her intentions with Camden, and the fates of her husbands. Alternating Ruby's frank, funny letters with chapters narrated by Camden and Jules, Hawkins does an excellent job keeping readers off-balance throughout. Nonstop twists and surprises make this a true thrill ride. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Jan.)