The Turn of the Key

Rowan applies for what seemed like it should be her dream job but like the old adage' if it is too good to be true...' she quickly discovers that it isn't quite what she expected - it is in a remote area of Scotland; all past nannies, and there seem to have been many, quit after a very short period of time; there are rumours of ghosts; the children seem to take an immediate dislike to her; and the house is part old rundown Victorian replete with a poison garden and part modern 'smart' house. Still, the pay is amazing so she accepts when it is offered to her. Problems quickly arise with her attempts to navigate the 'smart' house and the fact that, almost immediately, the parents leave for a business trip - that and the odd sounds that show more interrupt her sleep every night. When one of the children dies, Rowan is the only suspect and is arrested.

Damn, author Ruth Ware really knows how to ramp up the tension in her latest, The Turn of the Key. Like the house, the story is kind of a hybrid of psychological thriller and gothic novel. It is hard not to make comparisons to Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier and, of course, Henry James especally in the title but this is not a criticism - it is definitely more homage than copy. Like the house, the story is a kind of psychological thriller/ gothic hybrid and much like early gothic novels, it is written as an epistolary narrative - Rowan gives her version of events in a letter to a lawyer and there are reasons to suspect she is an unreliable narrator. We only learn what really happened in letters she receives while in prison.

The book is full of twists and turns keeping the reader tied to the page. It is also creepy enough that said reader might want to put it down before dark. My only complaint and why I deducted half a star was the reveal near the end but it wasn't enough to interfere with my enjoyment of the book. A definite high recommendation for anyone who loves to be completely sucked into a thriller with strong touches of gothic.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Gallery/Scout Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less

Ruth Ware appears to have been inspired by "The Turn of the Screw," a Henry James story about a high-strung governess who may have committed murder. Ware gives it a twenty-first-century spin in her thriller, "The Turn of the Key." Rowan Caine leaves London for a high-paying job as a live-in nanny who will care for three girls, ages eight, five, and eighteen months. Rowan's employers, Bill and Sandra Elincourt, are busy architects whose high-tech smart house (controllable via an app), is located in the Scottish Highlands. It will not take long for the heroine to suspect that she may have accepted this position too hastily.

Ware masterfully creates an unnerving atmosphere that, as the days pass, becomes increasingly unsettling. Rowan's show more necklace inexplicably vanishes, the electronics in the house go haywire in the middle of the night, and the nanny is kept awake by footsteps that seem to originate from an empty space above her bedroom. Bill and Sandra are away on business, so Rowan is thrown into a distressing situation with little preparation. The kids are irascible if not downright nasty at times, and Rowan is annoyed by the ridiculously complicated instructions that Sandra leaves behind in a two-hundred-and-fifty-page binder.

The author keeps us guessing by throwing in numerous red herrings that may or may not be significant. Poor Rowan is, for the most part, left to her own devices, but at least she receives occasional help from a hunky handyman and a part-time housekeeper. In the concluding chapters, Ware goes overboard with no fewer than five twists that require a sizable suspension of disbelief. Nevertheless, in spite of the finale's implausibility and ambiguity--significant questions remain unanswered--we care about this desperate woman who narrates her story from a jail cell. Ware deserves high marks for her smoothly written prose, lively dialogue, vivid imagination, and a wild ending that few readers will see coming. show less

I absolutely loved it! THE TURN OF THE KEY is creepy, twisted, and disturbing, and totally absorbing — a modern-day The Turn of the Screw, but far more entertaining.

Rowan Caine’s new dream job as nanny for the seemingly perfect Elincourt family quickly turned into her worst nightmare. Their remote home in the Scottish Highlands called Heatherbrae House was an unusual hybrid of modern “smart” design and spooky Gothic Victorian. Inside its walls, cameras were watching, machines were listening for your next command, and Rowan was isolated with four young girls and whatever was causing the disturbances at night…

I enjoyed that this book was written in epistolary format, as desperate letters written by Rowan to a lawyer as she’s show more in prison awaiting trial for murder. The build up of suspense was fantastic, and the ominous atmosphere of Heatherbrae House kept me on edge. Had I been in Rowan’s situation, I would have been scared witless!

THE TURN OF THE KEY is another excellent thriller from Ruth Ware. Highly recommended to fans of eerie modern Gothics.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. show less

If I were to make a list of my must-buy authors, Ruth Ware would always be at the top. I've loved her ability to take the main characters of her novels and isolate them within the story in ways I've never read before in other authors. Whether it be the outsider in a family like in The Death of Mrs. Westaway or the misfit ex-best mate from In A Dark, Dark Wood, the protagonist of the story is always left isolated, either by a bleak, remote location or by being the odd man out among a group they can't confide in or rely upon. The situation is little different in The Turn of the Key. Rowan finds herself the nanny for three small children in the bleak, remote Scottish Highlands. With little preparation to rely on, Rowan is on her own when show more strange things begin to happen around the house and hostilities between her and the children arise. She must find out the source for the disturbances before harm can come to her and her small charges.

The remoteness of the setting and the puzzling occurrences, mostly arriving after dark, greatly added to the mysteriousness of the story. In typical Ruth Ware fashion, she left me glued to the page and unable to close my eyes while reading after bedtime. This is something I rarely feel anymore with a typical mystery novel, but it's always delivered when I'm reading this author.

While I loved the build up of suspense, which was beyond creepy, the rushed ending left me feeling like I'd missed out on something. The "clues" felt as if they had been plugged into the plot at the last minute to fit in with the conclusion of the mystery. At the 80% point, while reading on my Kindle, I kept asking myself when hints were going to be dropped as to where the story was taking us. I didn't feel that I had seen any real clues, yet, and knew time was swiftly running out. I did love the ending in regards to how the events unfolded and the mystery was wrapped up, though once again Ware left me feeling shocked with the climactic twist. It just felt rushed to me. show less

4.25 stars

The book starts off with Rowan in jail, but we don’t know why. From there, she is writing letters to a lawyer, begging him to believe her story. We back up through these letters to find what happened. When she applied to be a nanny to three girls at their home, at the end of the interview, one of the girls gave her a “hug” and warns her away from coming back. Rowan takes the job, anyway, and is scared out of her wits when there are footsteps coming from above her room, apparently in a long-ago locked attic. The house itself is decked out with all modern amenities of a smart-house, where everything can be controlled via an app on a phone. This includes cameras and speakers in most rooms.

I listened to the audio and I show more don’t think I ever lost interest. This was so good. I really didn’t know what was going on and I wanted to keep listening to find out. It was creepy – at least there were plenty of parts that were. As the twists were coming at the end, there was one I guessed just minutes before it was revealed. The ultimate twist was the very end, though. The end added the extra 1/4 star for me. show less

Impressive gothic-horror story about a nanny in a isolated, spooked, Scottish Highland home, looking after three (cruel, unruly) children.

From the start it is clear that Rowan has something to hide – she is not completely honest. The story is told in the first person and consists of a flowing narrative moving forward in time from the moment Rowan applies for the job as nanny, the interview, to her arrival at the isolated family home, a day before the wealthy couple of architects is off on an extended work visit, dumping their three children on Rowan – a baby, called Petra, and two older girls – Ellie, five, sensitive and needing comfort, and Maddie, eight, behaving like a cruel queen bee. However, the thriller starts with a show more desperate number of draft letters from Rowan, in prison, pleading for help to a solicitor (Mr Wrexham) who is recommended to her by her fellow inmates as a guy who does wonders for desperate cases, such as Rowan’s.

From the word go, Rowan has to work hard to gain the confidence of the three girls, the housekeeper (a local woman, who slights her) and the jack of all trades, called Jack (duhhh…). Maddie, the oldest girl, who dominates her sister Ellie in a toxic way, warns Rowan of impending disaster and ghosts. On top of that Rowan has to struggle with the high-tech apps and sophisticated appliances that the modern architect couple has installed in their home. This adds a source of frustration and despair to the mix, which is very familiar to the reader (we all struggle with dysfunctional or misbehaving apps). Thirdly, there are the stories and rumours, which are dark to say the least – the house is haunted, a young girl died and her father went mad, a poison garden on the premises is used as a playground by the girls. To cap it all, there is a fourth ingredient, which is sure of creating suspense – a mysterious locked door, possibly leading to the attic, from where footsteps at night can be heard. Within four days, Rowan is brought to her heels, and one of the girls is dead. Rowan’s own perverted secret comes out and she is carted off to prison as prime suspect for child murder.

Well written, modern gothic. I read the last half of the book compulsively, driven by a sense of dark suspense. Chapot! show less

Rowan stumbles onto an ad for a live-in nanny that sounds too good to be true. It seems even more unbelievable that she’s offered the job so quickly, but when she moves in and is plunged head-first into the job as the parents immediately leave for a weeks-long business trip, she begins to see why they go through nannies so quickly. Rowan tells her story through letters sent to a solicitor from prison, where she’s awaiting trial for the murder of one of her young charges. She makes her plea that, although she did do some lying to get the job and that she wasn’t always the perfect Mary Poppins with the children, she did not kill the little girl. Between the manor’s dark past, strange and unexplained events occurring at night, and show more the suspicious nature of the other members of the house staff – not to mention the creepy, high-tech security system and the sleezy husband – Rowan is convinced something very wrong was happening in that house.

A fun mystery/thriller from Ware that kept me guessing throughout. The creepy factor was great and the tension and pacing were really satisfying. Rowan is a nicely drawn MC, who isn’t perfect and certainly isn’t 100% likeable, but in a way that makes her believable and not annoying or frustrating. And the twists are excellent. Definitely recommended. show less