Book review The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

In today’s edition book blogger Kimberly Foreman reviews a mystery novel in time for Halloween.

Genre: Mild horror / mystery

‘Spooky Season’ is coming! And with it, I’ll be reviewing a couple of spine-tingling books for you to get you in the mood for Fall and Halloween! I’m starting off with one of my favourite authors of all time – Ruth Ware. She is the mistress of mysteries and never fails to deliver a page-turning suspense or thriller. Although I have loved all of Ware’s books (and short stories), The Turn of the Key is my personal favourite.

The story starts off with our female protagonist – Rowan – writing a letter to her lawyer. She tries to explain what happened during her time at Heatherbrae House. The house is owned by the well-off Elincourts, and Rowan is hired as the nanny to their four children. It’s a creepy, Victorian building but inside it’s kitted out with the latest tech devices – an old building with a modern, steely interior. There are cameras and gadgets everywhere and Rowan can’t help but feel like she’s being watched. As readers, we can feel Rowan’s unease as she tries to settle into the isolated house in the Scottish Highlands.

But Rowan’s unease isn’t unfounded. Not only are the cameras watching, but strange, ghostly things start to happen in the house – doors locking on their own, footsteps in the dead of night, and music playing in the attic…

As Rowan struggles on and tries to cope with the hostile children, tragedy suddenly strikes as everything reaches breaking point. But will Rowan be able to convince her lawyer of her innocence? And just how much should we readers trust her?

This was brilliant from start to finish, and wow, what an ending! I kept wanting to reach the end to unravel the mystery but at the same time, I didn’t want to finish the book because I was enjoying it so much. Aside from the intriguing plot, this story was chilling – every chapter gave me goosebumps. It was eerie and spooky and everything a good ghost story should be.

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