Book Review / The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

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 unravelling 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.


Published:     6th August 2019
Publisher:  Vintage Digital
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned

MY REVIEW

I literally read this in one sitting.  One lazy weekend morning when I woke up much earlier than I had hoped for but wasn't quite ready to get up yet.  I started reading it and could not put it down until I had finished that same morning!

We follow Rowan as she applies for and gets a job being a nanny for a wealthy family living in Scotland.  She is dropped right in the middle of the action when the parents state that they have to go away for business (they are architects) but that they have to go away that weekend, with Rowan only having turned up for the job about one day before that!  For the majority of the story, we follow Rowan as she gets settled in to her new job and its not an easy ride for her.  The kids are still adapting to having yet another nanny (the previous few nannies had not lasted very long) and there is also something strange going on in the house - maybe supernatural maybe not. 

I loved a lot of things about this novel but what I loved the most was the way this story had been written.  You are not right in the action following Rowan day by day, hour by hour.  You are reading a letter that Rowan is sending a potential lawyer who she is writing to help her out of a sticky situation.   As the letter goes on, Rowan describes what has happened to her along the way. 

Not to mention the excellent twist in the story nearer the end of the book that I really wasn't expecting and loved!  It added another level to the story I had already had and made me re-think what had gone on before to put it in a better context now I knew the truth. 

An amazing read that I just could not put down.  You need to read this book!