Mary Kubica leads us down the garden path in “Just the Nicest Couple” as we meet two seemingly lovely couples, each of whom could fit the title of “nicest couple.” However, as we quickly find out, neither of them fits that description. Both couples have their own problems, and as we learn more and more, we see just how serious—and how deadly—those problems might be.

Sometimes evil is easy to identify, and that’s how we are misled in Rachel Hawkins’ newest thriller, “The Heiress.” One of the main characters, Camden McTavish, fled the tiny town of Tavistock, North Carolina, where the ancestral family manor, Ashby House, was situated in the midst of beautiful mountains. His wife, Jules, doesn’t really know why he left the home where his adopted mother, Ruby McTavish, raised him. His family was the wealthiest family in the state, and Cam was the recipient of the whole estate when his mother died. But he rejected his inheritance and fled, ending up in California, where he met Jules.