The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

 

This is the second book I'm reading by Rachel Hawkins, the first one being The Wife Upstairs, which turned out to be right above average. This book I thought was very good. The story is quite engaging and I found myself quickly absorbed in the story.

The Heiress starts out with 3 epigraphs from the Outside magazine. One of the epigraphs talk about the disappearance of a 3 year old, Ruby McTavish, during a family picnic in the Appalachian Mountains. Another epigraph defines the word, Changeling, setting the tone of the novel.

The story centers around Jules Brewster and her husband Cam McTavish. The McTavish is a powerful family that the town is named after, Tavistock. Cam is the owner of the Ashby House, high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, an old giant mansion that's the family estate of the McTavish's. Cam inherited it from his mom, Ruby. Ruby McTavish is the one that was abducted at age 3, but she was recovered 8 months later. Ruby has a sister named Nelle. Nelle's grandchildren, Ben and Libby, together with Nelle, live at Ashby House. In the first chapter, we read about Ruby's obituary. Her obituary mentions about her abduction at age 3 and the discovery 8 months later. It also mentions her abductor as an ex-employee, Jimmy Darnell. Ruby lived as Dora Darnell when she lived with Jimmy. The obituary also mentions Ruby's 4 marriages, notably with each husband ending in death. What a start! I'm thinking Ruby never came back - the girl that came back isn't Ruby, because why else would the beginning of the book mention changeling. Ben writes to Cam and tells him that the Ashby House is in desperate needs of repair so Cam being the owner of the house, needs to either go deal with it or send them some money to do it. Given the way the will was done, Cam got to inherit all the money and the house when his mom Ruby died, but Ben, Libby and Nelle have the rights to live at the house.

Cam reluctantly decides to go visit Ashby House, at his wife's urging. Jules is very excited about visiting Ashby House as she's seen pictures of it online and how magnificent it is. She talks to Ben in secrecy about how they worked together to get Cam here. Hmm...

One night at dinner, Ben and Libby presents an envelope to Cam - it's the DNA result that proves Ruby isn't a McTavish, but Cam already knew that. Her real name is Dora Darnell. Cam reminds everyone that it doesn't change the fact he's still entitled to his inheritance. I knew it!! I knew it!! Then the family members said they want to investigate her death. That's when Cam quickly is like, you guys can have it all, the money, the house, just let me leave. So now his wife Jules is suspicious, and asks him (privately) what did he have to do with his mom's death. He tells her his mom wasn't a great mother. She's super manipulative and on the night of her death, she took sleeping pills and gave him the choice to call the ambulance. Not only did he not call the ambulance, he made sure she died, even suffocated her with a pillow at the end (arguably, to shorten her misery). With the McTavish name, he had a lot of power and made sure the death certificate claimed it was heart failure, but he did feel guilty about it.

The next day, Nelle is found dead. Cam and Jules decide to leave. Cam goes into town for some business. Jules is packing. When Cam comes back, the house is on fire. Jules managed to escape, but Ben and Libby are dead. WHAT?? The house is gone, but the painting of Ruby survives. How's that even possible? Jules tells the cops that Ben set the fire. But Cam thinks it's got to be Jules. I totally agree with Cam. I also think Jules saved the painting before she started the fire and that's why the painting survived.

Throughout the book, we are also reading letters written by Ruby that is found at the house. From these letters, we learn about a lot of stuff, like how all her husbands died. Mostly killed by her for one reason or another, but with the McTavish name, she got away with it over and over again. In her letters, she also talked about the abduction but says although she thinks this event had a huge effect on her, she really doesn't remember being abducted. Her fourth husband's last name is Kenmore. When he died (she pushed him off the boat), she was given the nickname, Mrs. Killmore, by the media, and it stuck. 

After the death of the fourth husband, Ruby hires an investigator to find out what really happened with her abduction as a child. That's when she found out she's not a McTavish at all - she is Dora Darnell. She found her biological sister Claire, who told her that her parents sold her to the McTavishes for money. This is when she decided she needs a kid to give the inheritance to, because she doesn't want to give any to the McTavishes. She adopts Cam and made him her sole heir.

At the end, we find out that all the letters from Ruby is actually correspondences with Jules. Jules is Claire's granddaughter (a Darnell). Ruby gave Jules directions on where to find Cam in hopes of starting a relationship with him, so that the fortune is shared with the Darnells again. Jules' last name is fake. Jules ends up falling in love with Cam so she thinks it's all meant to be, but never told Cam the truth. Cam, apparently knows her plans all along, also chooses to never bring it up because he's in love with her as well. The End.

In case you are wondering - the reason why the senior McTavish left all the fortune to Ruby, who he knows is not a blood relative (because he's the one that paid the Darnells to have Dora due to their resemblances and Darnells need the money) is because the senior McTavish knows all of his offsprings are lazy and entitled. He also felt guilty about taking Dora from his birth family. The real Ruby turns out to be abducted by her nanny Grace Bennett. She took her from the family picnic and moved out of state because she wanted a child. 

I just LOVED this story. It all ties up nicely. So many exciting parts and interesting tidbits, and very well written. I thought the cover of the book is beautiful as well.