The Turn of the Key
Ratings159
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings159
Average rating3.8
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A superb suspense writer…Brava, Ruth Ware. I daresay even Henry James would be impressed.” —Maureen Corrigan, author of So We Read On “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 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lying Game and The Death of Mrs. Westaway comes this thrilling novel that explores the dark side of technology. 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 events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the home’s cameras, 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. 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—but somebody is. 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.
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Reviews with the most likes.
hm so... the whole book was great until the ending and the little plot twists before the big plot twist. They weren't needed at all and take away from the story.
I didn't like the end or any of the plot twists but i still am rating this 4 stars because of the writing, characters, setting and just everything until the last 50 pages.
This book had me sweating and i had to close the book so many times because it was making me sooo nervous. I definitely want to read more books from this author!
This was fun and compelling in an easy-reading kind of way. Just what I was in the mood for - far from Literary Fiction, you know there's going to be a twist or two, (and there's enough information to figure some stuff out and feel smart), and compulsively readable. I even got the audiobook so I could read while doing other stuff. The narrator is fantastic!
One thing I really liked was the protagonist wasn't just making bad decisions for no reason, or because she's an alcoholic or something. She's being deprived of sleep, which is a very relatable reason for not having all brain cells functioning! Also, she realizes when something is creeping her out at 3am, but she can't really TELL anyone or call the police, because those 3am fears sound very explicable and unthreatening when described in words to someone who wasn't there.
I will say I found the very end to be a letdown. It didn't really deliver on the twisty turny, mysterious and spine-tingling setup, for me. I figured out The Big Twist at about 45% of the way in, so that revelation didn't have a huge kick for me, and the final answers about who did what were just kind of sad, rather than thrilling or deliciously Gothic.
Still, it was a lot of fun getting there!
I really, really enjoyed this. I listened to it on audiobook and the narrator did a lovely job.
This book was well written, at times creepy, and had a bit of a mystery as you knew part of the ending when you begin reading (the main character is now in jail for killing a child she nannies for) but you don't know how that ending came about or if Rowan is innocent or not as she claims:
I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending but am giving it a solid 4 stars for now, though I may come back and bump it up to a 5 in the next day or two if I'm feeling that way.
Edit: about a month later still sitting solidly at a 4 star. The very, very ending with what happened to the main character just could have been better for me.
