Book Review: "The Turn of the Key" by Ruth Ware
“The Turn of the Key” by Ruth Ware
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 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.
Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, The Turn of the Key is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.—Simon and Schuster
Rating (out of 5): 4.25
Review: Spooky season is beginning to descend upon us, and with that comes not only pumpkin spice lattes, apples in season, switching from white to red wine, and re-watchings of Hocus Pocus, but mystery reading season! To be fair, every season is mystery reading season for me, but it just feels the most appropriate in the fall. I’ve always said that my autobiography would be titled “Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time,” and I must tell you that the year after I graduated from college and didn’t know my roommates, and was still making friends in a new city, I decided to read a ton of mysteries all October while I was alone in the house. This did not make me less afraid of the dark/being serial killed, but it did make me more well-read! I call it a win. One of the books I read that fall was “The Turn of the Screw.”
My good friend asked me if one needs to have read “The Turn of the Screw” to appreciate this, and I will give an emphatic no to that, although it is fun to have the reference of the original! I was excited to try this one out. I loved “In a Dark, Dark Wood,” but was less enthused by Ruth Ware’s subsequent books. I’m very happy to say that this one broke the chain, and I loved it without reservation.
I found Rowan’s character quite endearing, flaws and all, and understood why this nannying position was so appealing to her. We learn early on that she has a secret or two, but not what they are, and I was rooting for her to pull through the entire time—though of course we start the novel knowing that that will not be the case. There’s something terrifying about being in charge of children, no matter how competent you are, that brings all of your most primal childhood fears to the forefront. Having this anxiety built in early on helped build the atmosphere.
I have to put an aside in here and tell you that once in college I was nannying for my professor’s daughter and they left her with me for a week. That week I decided to read a ton of Ann Rule, sleep not a single wink, and convince myself that murderers lurked outside their property all night. Will I ever learn?!
The atmosphere in general is excellent—a secluded home with very little contact to the outside world, unfamiliar and unfriendly locals, and creepy little children lend an air of foreboding to the book from the beginning. I found the “smart house” elements believable as well, when often I find invented technology in novels to be implausible and remove me from my investment in the narrative. Also, Jack, the groundskeeper, is a nice little bit of rough, and lends some sexy excitement to the plot.
As it’s hard but particularly important to stay spoiler-free in a mystery, I want to just emphasize that as the action continually picks up, I became more and more invested in Rowan’s story. Stranger and stranger happenings begin to occur and Rowan wonders whom she can trust, if anyone at all. Ultimately, I found the ending creepy and unsettling but still satisfying, which is exactly what I want in a mystery!
TL;DR: A solid spooky read to start off witchy season. This one has everything: creepy children, old houses, nanny with a secret, sexy groundskeeper, and decades-old secrets. Also, the UK is inherently creepier than the States.
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