I am a big fan of Rachel Hawkins’ adult Gothics, books like The Wife Upstairs and The Villa. Yes, she dabbled in travel thrillers, but that book wasn’t for me. So I was very excited to read The Heiress, a book set in the United States in a big creepy Gothic mansion. Here’s my Review with Spoilers for The Heiress with the Ending Explained!
Jen’s Quick Take on the Heiress:
- Gothic vibes (young bride arrives at a decrepit family mansion)
- Slow to get going but with some very cool Dark Family Secrets revealed at the end
- High (4.1) Goodreads Rating
- One aspect of the book felt a bit inspired by a popular TikTok book – can you guess based on the cover (below)?
- On my list of Most Anticipated Mysteries and Thrillers of 2024
If you’ve read The Villa, you will find some similar structural elements:
- A past/present storyline
- Secret letters written by a character that reveal secrets
- A spooky mansion setting with rundown glamour
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
To be published on January 9, 2024 by St. Martins Press. Thanks to the publisher for providing me a copy for possible review, which I accepted under FTC guidelines. I read this book in December 2023.
Review with Spoilers for The Heiress
I found The Heiress pretty slow going for the first half. Cam and his wife Jules arrive at the McTavish family mansion. There’s a lot of hostility toward them as the outsiders who will inherit it all. That is alternated with letters written by Ruby about her four husbands (can you guess the TikTok famous book yet with the green and gold cover?)
I also felt The Heiress tipped its hand A LOT by opening with a quote about a changeling, which is a child put in place of another child. This was deliberate, so the author wants us to know right away that “Ruby” probably isn’t the real Ruby at all.
There was another BIG clue which is a spoiler and which I’ll discuss in the protected section below. So I was able to guess another big part of the plot.
The family tree elements of this book were COMPLICATED.
I actually made a diagram which got so complex I can’t even add it here. (Plus, more spoilers.)
I did enjoy the ending and appreciated the fact that all the loose ends got tied up. But overall I feel like too many reveals were saved for the end. I think if they’d have been spaced out more, the suspense would have been higher and my enjoyment greater.
Still, if you like books about Evil Families, or are a fan of a slow burn Gothic, give The Heiress a try.
Spoilers for The Heiress and The Ending Explained
Spoilers below, so don’t read further if you don’t want to see them.
These were my questions about The Heiress. Please let me know yours in comments and I will add them to the post!
Who Was Ruby McTavish in the Heiress?
Ruby was (not surprisingly) Dora Darnell. If Ruby was indeed a changeling, who else could she be?
The Darnells didn’t kidnap Ruby. Instead, Ruby “disappeared” (as we will later learn, she was kidnapped by her own nanny). Ruby’s father found a child who looked like Ruby and offered to buy her from her own father, Jimmy Darnell.
In addition, Ruby/Dora is somewhat of a a serial killer. She murdered ALL her husbands. After she’d killed Duke, the first unfortunate husband, you could see where things were going.
Ruby tracked down her biological sister Claire Darnell, who admitted that their father sold her sister Dora (now Ruby) to the McTavish family and that their mother Helen had burned all the money.
Ruby, childless at the time, decided to adopt a child (Cam) just to spite Nelle and keep and her family from the money.
Who Was Jules Bennett?
I thought Cam being adopted was a HUGE clue that Jules had to be related to Ruby. Because if Cam WAS Ruby’s biological son, that would make Jules and Cam’s marriage a bit incestuous.
Jules was the granddaughter of Claire, Dora’s biological sister. I think that makes her Ruby’s grand-niece, but correct me if I’m wrong. My brain got fried from all the genealogy in The Match by Harlan Coben. (I just found the part where Ruby calls Jules her great-niece. I looked it up and they are the same thing!)
Ruby wrote the letters in the book to Jules. When Jules tells Cam she “found” the letters, she was lying. She had tracked Ruby down and tried to blackmail her, but Ruby didn’t care. She was delighted that one of her relatives would be marrying her heir, Cam.
Jules also wrote back to Ruby.
Fortunately, Ruby didn’t address the letters to Jules by name, so Jules could pretend she knew nothing about any of it.
Who Killed Ruby?
Cam claims to have killed her back in 2013. He didn’t want to be tied to the McTavish family, but Cam was essential to Ruby’s revenge plan against the family.
He didn’t REALLY kill her, he just didn’t save her when she overdosed on pills.
Did Cam Know Ruby’s Real Identity?
Yes. Years before, Nelle had secretly done a DNA test on Ruby, but Ruby found out and bribed someone to fake the results. Then she did a real test and learned that she wasn’t really Ruby.
What Happened to the Real Ruby McTavish?
Grace, Ruby’s nanny thought the McTavish family was toxic, so she abducted Ruby to save her.
Ruby grew up as Faith Hollingsworth and was raised by Grace, who became known as Faith’s mother, Lydia Hollingsworth.
Does Cam Know Jules’s Real Identity?
Yes, Cam tracked down the Darnell family too, and knew that “Jules” was actually Caitlin Julianne Darnell. When Jules walked into the place he was working ten years ago, he knew who she was and that it was no coincidence.
But he hasn’t said anything to Jules and is waiting for her to tell him the truth.
Who Killed Ben and Libby?
Jules claims that Libby’s death was an accident. Libby had taken Ambien and was too groggy to get out of the house after Jules set it on fire.
Ben threatened Jules and hit her with a paperweight. Then she hit him with a fireplace poker and set the fire to conceal her crime. She felt kinship with her great-aunt, Ruby the serial killer, at this moment.
Jules tells the police that she came across Ben burning something in the office and then the whole room caught fire and she had to flee.
Did Jules Kill Libby and Ben because Cam was disclaiming his inheritance?
Quite possibly! But in her defense, Ruby REALLY didn’t want the money going to Nelle or her family.
Who Killed Nelle?
Jules accused Ben of killing his grandmother. She says that Cam planned to disclaim his inheritance. If Nelle was dead, everything went to Ben. Jules thinks Ben smothered Nelle with a pillow.
What are your questions and comments on the book? Please leave them below and I will try to answer so we can discuss them all!
Oh my gosh, THANK YOU!!! You did such an amazing job reviewing and summarizing this book. I’m about 10% into it right now and I honestly couldn’t decide if it was going to be one that I wanted to devote anymore time to reading. I Googled the title and “spoilers” because that’s how I live my life, and you gave just the information I was looking for! For a new release, too!! Yes, this book looks like it will be intriguing, have an ending I’m happy with, and be well worth my time after all.
You are seriously doing God’s work for people like me. Thank you!
Thanks so much for this comment. You brightened my day 🙂
Where did Lydia and Faith come up in the book other than finding the newspaper clipping behind the painting? How were we to know “Lydia” was Ruby and faith was her daughter? Where was any mention of that? All I heard (audiobook) was Nelle was in the photo and so was Lydia and Faith.
was it mentioned somewhere else in the book?
I get hopelessly confused with audiobooks if the story is complicated!
Faith and Lydia were only mentioned in that one place near the end. After the fire, Cam tells Jules to get rid of Ruby’s letters but Jules hides them in Ruby’s portrait. As she does that, she finds the newspaper clipping that she assumes Ruby hid there, a picture of two woman watching a parade in 1987. Ruby has written on it: F & L (R & G?) plus a list of places and dates.
Which Jules interprets as meaning that the two women in the photo, Faith and her mother Lydia, are actually Ruby and her nanny, Grace.
Jules notes that “Faith” looks exactly like Nelle, who is the real Ruby’s biological sister. Jules concludes that fake Ruby figured out that real Ruby had been kidnapped by her nanny and that the two of them lived under assumed names as mother and daughter.
Hi Jen! In your spoilers above under “What Happened to the Real Ruby McTavish?” I think you may have gotten it mixed up! You mentioned Ruby grew up Lydia and had a daughter Faith but as you mentioned above Grace is Lydia and Faith is Ruby according to the picture.
Sarah – thanks so much. I really appreciate it when people correct my typos because I do make mistakes, especially when characters are other characters. Will fix it; thanks again 🙂
who was Jules writing her letter to? Wasn’t the house keeper’s name Lydia too?
Hi Aly! The way I read it, Ruby was writing to Jules and she was writing back. The housekeeper was Cecelia (I just looked it up.)
I just listened to the epilogue several times. I can’t figure out who Jules is writing to? She mentions Ruby so it seems she writing to someone else. So confused 😂
It IS confusing. From the formatting in the e-book, I think Jules is just talking directly to the reader as she does in her other chapters. Ruby’s letter chapters have her letterhead at the top and this chapter just has “epilogue” so that’s my take.
If anyone has another opinion, please weigh in!
Instead of this format can you post the review normally like the other spoiler reviews as that is in the form of a story summary so it’s more understandable to keep track
Hi! Thanks for the feedback 🙂
I don’t think you gave me a real email address so you won’t get an emailed response but I’d like to explain the format.
Google is changing their algorithms to prioritize content that answers a specific search intent. Apparently they think people don’t want to read long posts, they think people want a fast answer to a question.
If I don’t do what they want Google will not show my posts when people search.
I have considered making separate long summaries for download that are available to newsletter subscribers and if you want to request that I make one for this title, I can do that.
It’s a lot of work, but if there is interest I don’t mind.
If you email me at jen@Jen Ryland.com I will let you know when it’s available!
Just a quick question. What was the casserole that Cecelia made for Cam? [Hosting book club for this book and thought I’d make one… but didn’t recall if it was specified what type of casserole it was.]
You have asked the right person. I love a theme!
Book says chicken/cheese/crackers so I think it’s the Ritz Chicken Casserole recipe or some version of it. There are a lot of recipes for it online. Most use cream of chicken canned soup but if you don’t want to use that, google “chicken cracker casserole without canned soup” and I found a few without.