The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons!
Ruth Ware has been a favorite author of mine ever since I read all her novels last year. Her brand of descriptive writing and tense-filled narratives left me anxious to read her latest novel. The Woman in Cabin 10, the Death of Mrs. Westaway, In a Dark, Dark Wood, and the Lying Game all captured my imagination and left me highly entertained.
I could not have imagined that I would be left as exhausted and shocked as I was with Ware's latest.
I could not have imagined that I would be left as exhausted and shocked as I was with Ware's latest.
Turn of the Key is Ruth Ware's fifth thriller. It is published by Scout Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. In this latest tale of secrets and murder, we are introduced to Rowan Caine. She is a "super nanny" with an impressive resume of private childcare. She is currently employed at Little Nippers Day Care and yearns to leave her daily grind of dirty diapers; all supervised by a boss she cannot stand. She decides to leave her job and return to private childcare. Answering and advertisement from a wealthy family in need of a nanny for their four children, Rowan is headed to Scotland to Heatherbrae House to meet the Elincourts. She gets the position, which turns out to be a nightmare. Her new job ends in the death of one of the children, and Rowan incarcerated in a women's prison in Scotland.
As Rowan sits in her cell, she begins to write several letters to a lawyer that has managed to exonerate several hopeless cases. With a lot of evidence stacked against her, she unpacks her days at Heatherbrae House to the lawyer on paper. She tells him (and the reader) of nights and days filled with unexplained phenomenon, unruly children, and a housekeeper that seems to hate her. Scrawled messages of hate are found. The smart home they live in malfunctions. And strange shadows frighten Rowan, as she feels eyes watching her. But it is the last night at Heatherbrae House that has sealed her fate. A death of a child that she cannot explain. And a secret so shocking she can never tell. What lies behind the door at the turn of the key?
The Turn of the Key is a crazy ride through the mind of a condemned woman and the terrible last week of her job. In letter after letter to lawyer Mr. Wrexham, we are brought into the fear and anxiety that Heatherbrae House has wrought upon Rowan. Taken in by a family she barely has time to get to know, she is thrust into caring for the three younger Elincourts. Baby Petra is not so bad, being a toddler, but older girls Ellie and Maddie are two different entities altogether. Maddie is malicious and automatically hates Rowan. While Ellie wants to know Rowan and seems to take a liking to her. Fourteen-year-old Rhiannon, is absent for the first few weeks, away at boarding school. Maddie is Rowan's only adversary in the beginning. Then she meets the lecherous Mr. Elincourt, who hits on her the day he meets her. And the older housekeeper, Jean, also seems to hate her on sight. It is kindly handyman, Jack, that keeps Rowan level as she navigates through the maze of Elincourt life. The characters were very well-developed. The story building solid. And the suspense and creepiness seeped into every sentence. Cold, foreboding, and mysterious, the novel paced itself very well as I was led to an ending filled with shocking revelations.
I read the Turn of the Key with the amazing narration of actress, Imogen Church. Church has read all of Ware's thrillers and has done an exceptional job with each. This novel, however, was completely different in her presentation. Church became Rowan Caine and made me feel as if I were at the prison interviewing the character. Her delivery of the narrative was done in a theatrical manner that left me clinging to every word. This is her best work to date.
The Turn of the Key was a four-star read for me. It would have been five stars had the ending left me with more of an explanation. As great as the revelations were I was still left with an unanswered question that nags at me. With that said, I still loved this page-turning and suspense-filled mystery. It was loaded with excellent characters and left me sufficiently creeped-out. This is the perfect novel to read for any Halloween-themed read-a-thons. Grab a cup of cocoa and nestle under a warm blanket, because you will not leave your reading spot until this novel is done.
Have fun reading this week. Let me know in the comments below what you are reading this week.
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