Camden McTavish has been living quietly in California, renting a small place and tending bar. That’s where he met Jules, there for the cheap wings. They fall in love and get married, moving to Colorado, where Cam gets a job teaching at a boys’ school and Jules works for a museum, teaching visitors about how the pioneers would churn butter while wearing period costumes.

And then, Camden gets an email from his cousin, saying that he’s needed back at the family home. The place has fallen into disrepair, and they need Cam’s help to fix it. Cam is the one with all the family money, after all. His mother had made sure he was the one to inherit her millions along with her estate, although his mother had made sure her sister Nelle could continue to live there until she died.

Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore was Cam’s mother. She had adopted him after the deaths of her four husbands. She had known a lot of grief and sadness, and Ruby had wanted something good in her life, wanted something good to continue the McTavish line after she was gone. So she chose Camden as a son, and then she chose him as her sole heir.

Ruby had lived a difficult life, starting with a kidnapping when she was little more than a toddler. She had been outside of the family home, Ashby House, when a miscommunication between her mother and the nanny left her alone. She’d had time by herself to wander into the woods, to find danger. After long searches, where none of the family or police had found the young girl, finally her father found the man who had taken her. He was an itinerant worker on the estate, and said he’d nabbed the girl to take home to his wife, who had been heartbroken after losing a child of her own. But he quickly gave the child back to McTavish, so he could take Ruby back home where she belonged.

But she’d always wondered where she really did belong.

Camden hadn’t been back to Ashby House since she’d died, back when he was in college. He’d grown up around Ruby and her sister Nelle, Nelle’s alcoholic husband, and their two kids, and Cam had always felt like an outsider. He’d been bullied and slighted, and when he had the chance to leave, he never wanted to go back.

But now Jules knew about Ashby House, and she wanted to stay. She didn’t want to stay in their tiny Colorado rental when there was a gorgeous family home, a mansion, where she could live and not have to struggle. And Camden wanted Jules to be happy. But could they make it work, her happy and him miserable? Ashby House had always hidden secrets and lies, cruelty and isolation. Would Cam and Jules be able to overcome the McTavish family curse, or would those lies envelop them and choke the life out of them too?

The Heiress is the latest gothic thriller by the Rachel Hawkins, a master of twists and chills. These characters are masterfully complex, with layers of secrets that push the story forward into unexpected corners. Told as a narrative interwoven with magazine articles and personal letters, this story unfolds slowly and intensely, a path of delicious bread crumbs that take you through the history of Ruby and her family while keeping you guessing what could possibly come up next.

I will be honest. I wasn’t sure I’d like this book. I’ve read Hawkins’s books for several years, and I thought The Villa was about as perfect as a novel could be. I just didn’t think she could repeat that genius. And while I will still love that one a little bit more, I have nothing to complain about with The Heiress. It is tightly plotted and fascinating to read. It’s an absolute pleasure, and I’m afraid Hawkins’s is just going to have keep writing at this exceptional level for me to stop saying that one of her novels is that much better than the others. The Heiress is an amazing story, pure fun for thriller lovers, and definitely not to be missed. And now, I’m already waiting impatiently for her next book.

Egalleys for The Heiress were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.