Review with Spoilers for the Heiress

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!

Character List for The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

• Camden McTavish: teacher
• Jules: his wife

• Ruby McTavish Callahan: Cam’s mother
• Mason McTavish: Ruby’s father
• Anna Ashby McTavish: Ruby’s mother 
• George Ashby: Anna’s mother
• Amelia Ashby: Anna’s father 
• Grace Bennett: Ruby‘s nanny.
• Eleanor “Nelle”: Ruby’s sister

• Howell: Nelle’s son
• Ben: Howell’s son
• Elizabeth “Libby”: Howell’s daughter 

• Cecilia: the housekeeper
• Nathan Collins: lawyer

Ruby’s Husbands

• Duke: killed in a robbery
• Hugh: electrocuted
• Andrew: poisoned
• Roddy: fell off a boat

• Dora Darnell: child who found and thought to be the missing Ruby
• Jimmy Darnell: Dora’s father
• Helen Darnell: Dora’s mother
• Claire Darnell: Dora’s sister

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!