Expected to be published January 2024 | When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.
Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.
But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.
Characters
McTavish Family
- Ruby – the daughter of the McTavish’s who goes missing in the woods; she is found months later
- Nelle – Ruby’s younger sister, born right around the time that Ruby is found
- Howie – Nelle’s son
- Jules – Cam’s wife
- Cam – Ruby’s adopted son
- Libby – Howie’s daughter; Nelle’s granddaughter
- Ben – Howie’s son; Nelle’s grandson
Other Characters
- Jimmy Darnell – the man accused of taking Ruby
- Duke – Ruby’s first husband; very rich attractive young man; shot by intruder on their honeymoon
- Hugh – Ruby’s second husband; Ruby’s dad’s business partner; electrocuted in accident on their property
- Andrew – Ruby’s third husband, a painter; mysterious cardiac death
- Roddy – Ruby’s fourth husband, met him at a club. He was fun! very rich; died in a sailing accident
My Review
I think this was one of my favorites that Hawkins has written! There was enough suspense, but nothing that was too dark that had me too creeped out to go to bed at night. I would categorize this as a family drama.
I had to slow down on the ending to make sure I was truly grasping how it all tied together. I also appreciated that it didn’t end with everything tied up perfectly. I would recommend this as a read!
Trigger warnings: missing toddler (I am VERY sensitive to this topic and was able to get through this if that helps with how triggering it is), death of spouse
Spoilers
Instead of spoilers, here is a recap of the book since I was trying to keep notes as I was going to make sure I could keep everyone straight.. pardon all the typos from auto correct…
Starts with excerpt about the woods not being a good place to get lost in. Then a news paper clipping from the 1940s about the wealthiest man (Mr. Mason McTavisg) in North Carolina’s 3 year old daughter, Ruby Anne McRavish, going missing in the woods during a hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Present day – Jules comes home from work as a reenactor at a museum that recreates old farmhouse scenes. Finds Cam at the kitchen table. – Flashes back over a decade ago when they meet in a college bar. She is broke, working two jobs. He is a bartender – she goes in for cheap wings, he gives her a free beer. They leave together. – now, in Colorado, Cam is a teacher at an all boys prep school. He tells her that his family wants him to come home.
Newspaper article about Ruby McTavish, one time kidnap victim, dying at the age of 73. Details that she was found 8 months after her disappearance with a family in Alabama. Her alleged kidnapper, Jimmy Darnell, was killed trying to escape the local jail. All four of Ruby’s husbands died mysterious deaths. — we find out that she adopted a son named Cam through her charitable works with disadvantaged youth.
Emails from Cams cousins telling him he needs to come home to deal with the house. Then jumps to Camdens point of view. Jules and Cam pack up and drive there to start fixing the house up.
Cam seems to be really helpful around the house… Ben seems like a slimy tool. Libby seems…? Housekeeper seems to like Cam.
Nelle ends up coming in and telling Cam that Jules needs to stop snooping in all the bedrooms… she’s clearly looking for something. Wonder what it is? (This is right after she goes for a hike with Ben and we find out they know each other… and Ben had “done his part by getting Cam to the house” so now it’s her turn. Jules is loving the house and the reading in the sun room. She is so hopeful that Cam will have them move there.
We find out about Ruby’s exes though letters. Duke, the first husband, she meets at a party for Nelle. They get married, in the honeymoon he gets abusive. Pulls a gun on her. Ruby takes the gun and shoots him and kills him, stages it as a robbery gone wrong. She gets away with it. Ruby helps build the business with money she gets from Dukes family. She makes smart investments.
She the marries Hugh, her fathers right hand man next. Mainly to regain power in the family after Nelle has married and had a son, Howard. (Nelle’s husband is cheating all around). She ends up killing Hugh by hinting she wants him to hang up Christmas lights for their anniversary in the barn that her father had started to put together. She knew it wasn’t finished and would electrocute him if he did…. And eventually her plan worked.
Third husband Andrew, she meets while trekking around the world – he’s a painter. She actually loves him. They move back to the house together. She tells him about killing Duke. He understands, she feels free. But when she tells him about killing Hugh – he doesn’t understand… and he falls out of love with her. So she starts to poison him with ant killer… and he dies.
Jules we find out had emailed Ben and told him a story that she was going to help him get the house and in return for a little money, Cam could be free of all the family drama.
Ruby had confessed she was not actually Ruby – she was Dora, the daughter of the traveling worker . She finds her half sister and learn she has a niece. She confesses this to Cam when he is 15 and he never tells.
Roddy – Ruby’s fourth husband – met in a club. Heir to a fortune once he married. Fun but into drugs. Ruby pushes him off of the boat while sailing and he drowns (he didn’t know how to swim).
Cams’s cousins decide to have a dinner party. Once they find this out and celebrate that they’ll be able to get the house of money from him. Cam shocks them by admitting he already knows the truth. Jules and Cam get into an argument because Jules wants him to fight back. We then learned that Cam actually feels responsible for Ruby dying because Ruby had taken a bunch of pills and told him to call an ambulance to save her. She knew he would because he was a good person. He didn’t.. he wanted his freedom, so he watched her die — and then eventually smothered her with a pillow to make it go faster. Jules shows him the letters that Ruby had killed all of her husbands to show him that she deserved it to make him feel better that she said she found in the house. The next morning when Cam and Jules wake up – Nelle is dead.
Cam goes on a drive to see his birth mother that he tracked down, but has actually met her – he just wants to see her as a calming thing. Jules and Ben get into an altercation while Cam is out of the house – Ben finds a letter between Jules and Ruby. Jules accuses Ben of killing Belle. Ben hits her over the head so she hits him and kills him and then decides to set the house on fire, which also kills Libby (by accident, kind of?).
We find out that the letters that Ruby was actually writing were to Jules, who is her great niece (the daughter of that Ruby had tried to set up with Cam to be a final middle finger to their family name. Jules thinks cam doesn’t know this, but he actually does. They met accidentally, but have fallen in love.
Epilogue. Jules is pregnant. They are happily married. She has stored the letters that have ruby’s confession and her confession in rubys painting: she Also finds another newspaper clipping in the painting. It looks like Ruby found the real Ruby – the nanny actually took her..