THE THIRD HEIRESS

Joyce’s hardcover debut is a decently crafted modern gothic, with the standard castle on a cliff and some graphic sex. Jill Gallagher, a young dancer, is driving a car when it hits a tree and fatally injures her lover, Hal Sheldon, whose last words before he goes to his maker are “I love you . . . Kate.” Understandably curious about this Kate’s identity, Jill accompanies Hal’s body back to London, where she stays with his parents, the Earl and Countess of Collinsworth, their son, daughter, and Alex Preston (an American relative raised in poverty but now reclaimed by the Sheldons)—none of them pleased to make her acquaintance. Sick with grief, Jill makes her way to Hal’s old room, where she finds a picture of Anne Bensonhurst, the current earl’s mother, with best friend Kate Gallagher, an American heiress who disappeared when she was 18 and was never found. Jill notes the resemblance between herself and Kate, including their identical surnames. Could Kate be her great-grandmother? Jill, an orphan who craves a family history, becomes an obsessive detective; she imagines she feels Kate’s ghost reaching out for justice. Her hunt for clues, in London and at the Collinsworth home in Yorkshire, is interwoven with flashbacks to Kate’s friendship with Anne and her love affair with Edward Sheldon, Anne’s husband. Meanwhile, Jill’s East Village neighbor (conveniently psychic) warns her repeatedly that she’s in grave danger. Ever in turmoil about whom to trust, Jill finds herself attracted to Alex, a handsome tycoon with a Lamborghini and a sensuous collection of cashmere sweaters. Jill’s inner life gets pretty tedious, but, still, the author manages enough real suspense to spark curiosity about her second effort.