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.

The couple now live in a small rented house in Colorado. When Cam’s cousin Ben writes him asking Cam to return because there is business he is needed for, including upkeep of the huge estate, he reluctantly agrees. Jules is excited to visit there, and Hawkins carefully reveals that there is more to Jules’ interest than we know. In fact, there is much that Hawkins is hiding. Important facts that are carefully doled out bit by bit. The ultimate effect isn’t one shocking twist as we might find in some suspense novels, but rather a series of small revelations that serve to change our view of most of the main characters.

At the center of the story is Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore, whose nickname, only muttered in undertones, is “Kill-more,” in honor of the four husbands who all died in quasi-suspicious circumstances. Ruby’s own background is mysterious, and as the beloved daughter to the wealthy McTavish family, she was kidnapped when she was just a toddler. After almost a year, private detectives hired by her father located her in the South and brought her home. Her younger sister Nelle, a nasty and bitter woman, doesn’t believe it was Ruby who was returned to the family. But their father left his entire estate to Ruby, and Nelle refuses to leave the family home. So she and her two grandchildren, also extremely unpleasant types, live there.

We learn more about Ruby from her own hand, through a series of letters she writes to an unknown person. In them, she explains the details of her marriages and her relationships with her father and sister. There are also pieces from society magazines about Ruby and her husbands. Bit by bit, letter by letter, revelation by shocking revelation, society piece by fluff article, we are able to piece together who Ruby really is. But Hawkins keeps a few secrets hidden.

When Jules and Cam return to Ashby, the welcome is far from warm. But in the acrimonious exchanges between Cam and his cousins, bitter truths are revealed and old animosities renewed. The surprises that Hawkins reveals have us questioning everything we thought we knew about the main characters. What is the truth about Ruby, Cam, and Jules?

Hawkins forces us to consider this question: What are the truths that that we can live with and the truths that we don’t need to know? As Camden shares the belief that in the end, the truth doesn’t matter, he says, “The truth isn’t some finite thing, it’s what we all choose to believe.” Is the truth some random fact from the past or is it who and what we are now? In this novel, we are left wondering who the good guys are. And what is the truth? It’s an interesting point, and Hawkins leaves us thinking carefully about our own truths and how they influence our lives.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.