The Turn of the Key

By Ruth Ware

What it’s about?

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

What I think:

You can’t make it through October without reading at least one spooky read. The Turn of the Key has been on my TBR for over a year so I finally got around to picking it up.

This is such an enthralling read. Once I’d started I could not put it down and finished it in a day.

Ruth Ware is so good at creating tension and situations that are seemingly innocuous and can be easily dismissed. It’s hard to tell whether characters are imagining events or whether there is something more sinister happening.

Rowan is such an interesting character. I didn’t really like her much if I’m honest. But as the story develops and she becomes more paranoid I found my sympathy increasing.

The idea of a house that is so controlled by technology is truly terrifying and doesn’t appeal to me at all. One of the most sinister parts is when Rowan takes a shower and the smart shower offers her the choices of all the previous nannies. This is a stark reminder of the young women who have come before her.

This is dark and twisty. There’s lots of spooky atmospheric details, lots of modern gothic and twists to keep you guessing. The perfect read for Halloween and a last chance to get these gorgeous pumpkins in a pic.