The Turn of the Key

Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Suspense
Type: Trade Paperback
Pages: 284
Source: Local Public Library
Publisher: Scout Press (Simon and Schuster)
First Published: August 27, 2019
Opening Lines: Dear Mr. Wrexham, You don't know me, but you may have seen coverage of my case in the newspapers. The reason I am writing to you is to ask you please ...

Book Description from GoodReads: When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

My Rating: 4 stars

My Review: Ruth Ware and I have had a tumultuous relationship to date. I've read two of her previous books (The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Death of Mrs. Westaway) but neither captivated me like they had (apparently) the rest of the reading world.  

From the start, this book had a different feel and it had me on my toes.  And by 'toes' I mean, I was delightfully creeped out, jumping at small sounds and questioning the potentially villainous motives of my Alexa devices because this is an old-school Gothic thriller with a modern slant. I simply couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Ware almost had me believing in ghosts and the malicious intentions of unseen things that go bump in the night.

I also enjoyed the epistolary (letters) format as readers become privy to the letters a young nanny writes to a solicitor asking for his help because she has been charged with murder. The story revisits her experiences when she first takes a job as a nanny for four children in a large, secluded house on the Scottish moors that has been decked out in all the modern gadgets. Think Alexa on steroids.  So, we have an old house, Scottish moors and, don't forget the secret garden. I'm tellin' ya, it's the perfect isolated setting for creepy shenanigans.

The plot ticks along at a good pace and I didn't even mind being asked to suspend my feelings of disbelief at times because I loved the feeling of foreboding that builds. But I did have an issue with the ending. Gah! After all that delicious build-up of tension, we're left with a quick, slam-bam-thank-u-ma'am ending. I needed more closure.

I'm so glad I picked up this book (even after my rocky start with Ruth Ware). I enjoyed this chilling blend of horror and psychological thriller and its modern twist. I'm happy to say that it has finally put me squarely on the Ware bandwagon.