Psychological suspense novel with a surprise ending

The Turn of the Key

By: Ruth Ware

Rating: 5 of 5

This is the first book I have read by Ruth Ware. I didn’t know what to expect but the book, in the end, was much more than I could have hoped for.

There is so much psychological twists and turns, it was hard to try to think ahead to what the possible ending could be. Good thing, too, as I would never have expected what happened.

Rowan Caine is writing her hoped-for lawyer from prison. In trying to explain how she is innocent, she starts from the beginning and gives detail so he can understand.

Rowan is the new live-in child minder for four girls. The girls range in age from very young to a teenager. The salary should have warned her that this job was far from easy but, for her own reasons, it still made complete sense to leave family and friends in England and move to Scotland and an isolated manor house.

What she discovers is very odd, sinister and yet, she is still brave enough to keep going where others have fled, literally after half a day on the job.

Rowan is constantly trying to be the perfect nanny and not let any of her quirks show through.

The letters from prison were a plot device that I really liked. It gave us a taste of the future but without giving too much of the past away. I will certainly be looking for other books by this author.

I was provided a digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley.