Review: The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

Published: August 6, 2019

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Format: via audiobook

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis

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 unraveling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, 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, Jack Grant.

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. Which means someone else is. 

My Thoughts

I’ve always had an iffy relationship with Ruth Ware, I’m always excited by her new reads but sadly they don't live up to the hype. Now maybe it's just me who hypes them up so high but her books just never “get” there for me. Well, all that has changed with her newest book The Turn of the Key, this book is just...spectular!

The Turn of the Key is told through letters from the main character Rowen to a lawyer she hopes can help her. All we know is that she is accused of murder. We met Rowen who comes across an ad as a nanny so she goes for an interview to this massive home which is all decked out tech-wise. When she meets the kids things don't go well but somehow she gets the job and strange and scary things begin to happen.

She is soon left with the children while their parents go away and Rowen tries her best to get along with the kids but they are a handful and one of them continues to tell Rowen that she should leave or bad things will happen. The fact that Rowen begins to hear things and suspect somethings aren't right doesn’t help matters.

While Rowen does have reason to fear, she’s isn't so innocent we start to learn more and more about Rowen as the book goes on and soon her secrets are relieved and the real reason she came to this house. As things unravel Rowen’s real story doesn't help her case and she is left to defend herself. 

This book was just amazing to me, you get this story that straight up opens with a murder and a suspect already in jail. If that wasn't enough we get this huge mansion with a ghost or something and nannies that keep disappearing. Then we find out Rowen’s secrets which was a huge plot twist and lastly, we get a second plot twist at the end! Ruth Ware doesn't disappoint with this thriller it is one that pays off dividends! If you want a great page-turner of a book look no further than this one….it’s the ultimate read!

Review: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Expected Publication: July 25, 2017

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

Format: via Edelweiss

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...

The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father).

Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill that will keep you wrong-footed—which has now become Ruth Ware’s signature style—The Lying Game is sure to be her next big bestseller. Another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

My Thoughts

This was my first Ruth Ware book and after hearing so many amazing things about her previous novels I had to read her new one. The Lying Game is a story about four friends who met in school and soon make up this game named The Lying Game. They did this to pass the time and just have some fun but soon this game might take on a life of its own.

After years of not seeing each other one day, they receive a text message and know exactly what it means and soon all make their way back to the town where they went school and to see what exactly their friend Kate as summoned them back for. Each girl has their own thing going on but the book focuses on Isa who has just had a baby and is living with her boyfriend who sees she is changing since she received the message. Isa doesn’t want to drag him into her long ago problems but by protecting him she might lose him in the process.

Once the gang is back together we find out that a body has been found and its Kate’s father. We also find out all four girls had a hand in burying the body though why they did it and what really happened are two different things and they are just finding out the truth decades later. We also met Luc, Kate’s step-brother and someone Isa has always loved, who has secrets of his own that might or might not play into all this.

This was more of a mystery than thriller to me. It’s more like a who done it as to why and how Kate’s father was murdered. This was a compelling story with lots of twists and turns and you never can figure out the truth until the very end. And speaking of ending…wow, it’s really amazing! This is one read that I found addicting and it definitely made me want to read Ruth Ware’s previous reads.