The Turn of the Key

Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press, 2020
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: 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's 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 events that led to her incarceration. It wasn't just the constant surveillance from the home's cameras, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turn the light 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.

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 - but somebody is.

Review: I struggle getting into the print versions of Ruth Ware novels, but Imogen Church brings Ware's stories to life with her reading/narration of the audio versions. I found this book to be so entertaining and sometimes creepy. The end was strange with unanswered questions, but still a satisfying novel.

Ruth Ware Novels
The Death of Mrs. Westaway
The It Girl
The Lying Game - review coming soon
The Woman in Cabin 10