When a high-paying nanny job at a luxurious Scottish Highlands home ends with her imprisonment for a child's murder, a young woman struggles to explain to her lawyer the unravelling events that led to her incarceration.
It is easily the worst nightmare of many people - being arrested and accused of a crime that you did not commit. Rowan Caine is living a nightmare come to life when something terrible happens to one of the children who has been left in her care at her new job as a nanny for a strange family in Scotland. Rowan writes to a lawyer hoping to clear her name and prove her innocence, and The Turn of the Key is that letter. Learn about the peculiar, but generous family who employs Rowan to care for their mercurial children. Discover their “smart home,” equipped with enough bells and whistles to totally give anyone the creeps when you learn that the house is “watching” your every move. Listen to the strange noises that haunt the home in the middle of the night and try not to go mad. Uncover the secrets that not only Rowan is keeping, but that house has hidden away as well. Try to keep yourself and the children alive.
When it comes to the enjoyability factor, Ruth Ware’s The Turn of the Key takes the cake! I listened to an audiobook production of this gripping suspense thriller, and from the very first paragraph, I was completely absorbed in this novel, which is saying a lot because my mind tends to wander. Ware’s storytelling is engrossing and compelling, and she had me 100% invested in the story.
The conclusion of this story is where I found myself let down with this book. It is my opinion that the “truth” that is revealed is fairly weak and doesn’t match the tone of the rest of the book. I was expecting a more explosive ending that left my head spinning. On the other hand, being that this entire novel is told in the form of Rowan writing to her lawyer to explain her truth, the conclusion does, in a way fit. The truth is so ordinary and predictable that it makes sense that the police do not believe her … because there has to be more to the story, right?! This is in no way to say that the ending of the book is bad; rather, the conclusion is just the least satisfactory part of an otherwise entertaining suspense story.
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Rating: **** Stars (I really liked it) Reviewer: Brooke, Public Relations Librarian
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GENRE: Epistolary Novels; Gothic Fiction; Psychological Suspense
THEME: Too Good to Be True (Whether it's a perfect marriage, the appearance of a "long lost" family member, or a stranger who inserts himself into the main character's life, something doesn't add up. Each has secrets that can harm or even kill.); Unreliable Narrator (Readers may not be able to trust the version of events narrated to them in these complex and sometimes disturbing stories.)
TONE: Atmospheric; Creepy; Menacing; Suspenseful
STORYLINE: Intricately Plotted; Open-Ended
WRITING STYLE: Compelling
CHARACTER: Flawed
LOCATION: Highlands, Scotland
TIME PERIOD: 21st Century
SUBJECT: Child Murder Victims; Children; Household Employees; Letters; Mansions; Nannies; Rich Families; Secrets; Social Isolation; Surveillance; Technology; Women Murder Suspects; Women Prisoners
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