Ruby Falls

On a brilliantly sunny July day, six-year-old Ruby is abandoned by her father in the suffocating dark of a Tennessee cave. Twenty years later, transformed into soap opera star Eleanor Russell, she is fired under dubious circumstances. Fleeing to Europe, she marries a glamorous stranger named Orlando Montague and keeps her past closely hidden.

Together, Eleanor and Orlando start afresh in LA. Setting up house in a storybook cottage in the Hollywood Hills, Eleanor is cast in a dream role—the lead in a remake of Rebecca. As she immerses herself in that eerie gothic tale, Orlando’s personality changes, ghosts of her past re-emerge, and Eleanor fears she is not the only person in her marriage with a secret.
In this thrilling and twisty homage to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, the story ricochets through the streets of Los Angeles, a dangerous marriage to an exotic stranger, and the mind of a young woman whose past may not release her.

This discussion guide and book of the month was shared and sponsored in partnership with Deborah Royce.

Book club questions for Ruby Falls by Deborah Goodrich Royce

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

Young Ruby experiences a shocking event when she is six years old. This trauma leaves her with lasting scars. Do you believe incidents from our childhood live on long into our adult years and how have you coped with your own less-than-happy childhood memories?

Eleanor marries Orlando Montague after only knowing him for six weeks. Do you think it is possible to trust an instinct formed in the instant? What, if any, consequences have there been in your life for the hastily-made choices of youth?

Eleanor decides not to tell Orlando about the cataclysmic event of her childhood, knowing that it is a mistake to withhold the information even as she does it. Have you ever found yourself having missed the moment for admitting something and finding it increasingly more difficult to tell the truth later?

Much of Eleanor’s life is “curated” by her, almost like a stage set. The English chintz curtains, the Italian wine, particular dishes, foods, and clothing that belonged to her mother are all part of the world that Eleanor creates. How do you find yourself curating your own world to make it one that you like to inhabit?

Eleanor forms an unlikely bond with Dottie, her much older neighbor. Do you have any cross-generational friends and how have they enriched your life beyond what it would have been had you only had same-age friends?

By the end of the book, you see that things are not what they seem. Were you able to go back—much like in the movie, The Sixth Sense—and follow the breadcrumb trail after the truth has been revealed to you to add up the clues you may have missed?

Ruby Falls Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the Ruby Falls discussion questions

“Royce’s prose is taut and propulsive. Ruby Falls inhabits a hallucinatory Hollywood where fact and fiction mingle freely and even the smallest acts can feel ominous...an enjoyable

pastiche with plenty of twists and turns.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Deborah Goodrich Royce does an outstanding job of creating a contemporary parallel story that connects Rebecca and Ruby Falls. This is highly recommended reading for those who like gothic stories infused with psychological tension and introspection. The tale exposes the fine paradox between magic, family ties, and the boundaries of what is real and what is not.”

— Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“Imaginative, unique, spine-tingling, and just the right amount of eerie, Ruby Falls is what a reader wants a psychological thriller to be.”

— Sandra Brown, New York Times bestselling author

“A tribute to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, this unnerving story about a Hollywood starlet haunted by her past will captivate you right up until the shocking ending.”

— Emily Liebert, USA Today bestselling author of Perfectly Famous

“Fans of Rebecca will be enthralled with how the classic story is woven into

the masterful plot of Ruby Falls.”

— Vanessa Lillie, Amazon bestselling author of Little Voices and For the Best