Review: "Heiress" by Rachel Hawkins

Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
Published January 2024 via St. Martin's Press
★★★★

There should be some kind of warning when your life is about to change forever. (loc. 53*)

Ashby House is a legend, and so is the family that owns it. When Ruby dies and ownership passes to her adopted son, Camden, he wants nothing more than to forget the house, forget the tens of millions of dollars that come with it, and live a quiet and normal life. But his wife, Jules, isn't so sure that the money wouldn't make a difference...and the rest of Cam's family is not content to let that money lie untouched in a bank account they can't access.

To complicate matters: everyone knows more than they're saying.

I read this because I love a good enormous-rambling-house mystery, and also because I read a number of Hawkins' YA books once upon a time and have been curious about what she's done with adult mysteries.

The shift in genre has paid off: this is satisfying. You know early on that most of the characters are harboring secrets, and few of those secrets, when they come out, are surprises—but learning the hows and the whys and the outcomes makes it worth it to keep reading. I can get frustrated with twists so sharp that they zigzag without warning, but here, for most of the twists, we can see enough of the shadow of what's coming that the twists feel like they fit naturally into the story. Few characters come out of this book looking squeaky clean, but somehow I still found myself rooting for many of them, and that's satisfying too.

The one thing I really would have liked more of: the house! I live in a studio apartment, and that suits me just fine, but I'd like to get the house drama somewhere. I wish we'd seen more of Jules exploring, wandering through a library and billiards room and servant's quarters that haven't been used in decades and seeing it all through her eyes, or Ruby's.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*I read an ARC, and quotes may not be final.