By Ruth Ware

People do go mad, you know—if you stop them from sleeping for long enough. But it was the lies that got me here in the first place … and I have to believe that it’s the truth that will get me out.
rowan caine

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“This appropriately twisty Turn of the Screw update finds the Woman in Cabin 10 author in her most menacing mode, unfurling a shocking saga of murder and deception.” —Entertainment Weekly

When Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House in the Scottish Highlands, she’s smitten by the luxurious “smart” home outfitted with all modern conveniences—and by the beauty of the Highlands surrounding her and a picture-perfect family who can do no wrong. With a staggeringly generous salary noted, she’d been looking for something else entirely when she stumbled across the ad for the live-in nannying position. And after giving it some thought, it had seemed like too good of an opportunity to miss.

But what Rowan doesn’t know is that upon accepting the position, she will be stepping into a nightmare … one that will end with the loss of a child and herself sitting in prison awaiting trial for murder.

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.

This was my first Ruth Ware book … and I was not disappointed. For me, setting and ambience are huge components of what draw me to a book and keep me reading. I’ve always said, if you don’t create a setting I love, I will bounce quicker than Tigger in a Winnie the Pooh movie. Ruth Ware set the tone right out of the gate with setting this novel in the Scottish Highlands. Add in a haunted Scottish manor with potential ghosts roaming to and from, and color me hooked.

There were twists and turns, mystery and intrigue, and—in the end—a whodunit I didn’t see coming. While Rowan was not my most favorite character ever written, the author developed her well and gave me enough of her background to empathize with, even if I didn’t always approve of her methods or motivations throughout the story. Simply hanging out in the Scottish Highlands for just south 400 pages was enough to keep the pages turning, and me coming back for more.

If mystery is your game and you like to travel to places full of lore when you read, you won’t be disappointed with this offering from Ruth Ware.

Though I’m not sure I’d go so far as to call her the “Agatha Christie” of our day, she turned in a decent read that ticked most of the boxes.

xoxo,

Melissa