The turn of the key by Ruth Ware
Story synopsis : When Rowan stumbles across the advert, it seems like too good an
opportunity to miss: a live-in nanny position, with a very generous salary. And
when she arrives at Heatherbrae House, sh
e is smitten by the luxurious ‘smart’
home fitted out with all modern conveniences by a 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 her in cell
awaiting trial for murder.
She knows she’s made mistakes. But
she’s not guilty – at least not of murder. Which means someone else is…
My take :
The story is narrated in the form of
a letter written by a nanny, who is in prison, accused of being responsible for
the death of a child in her care, to a prospective lawyer. She wants this
lawyer to specifically take on her case, and in the letter, she goes on to
describe the sequence of uneventful incidents that led to the tragedy, so as to
convince him of her innocence.
So Rowan is a woman working at a day
care centre for kids, when she is tempted by an advertisement she comes across,
for a full time nanny, for a family with four kids living in a remote house in
the Highlands. The renumeration they are offering is far beyond her
expectation, and soon Rowan takes up the job at Heatherbrae house, with Sandra
and Bill Elincourt.
The house is a hi-tech house, where
everything right from the doors to lights to curtains, worked through the ‘Happy’
app, and a panel of buttons here and there. Many things work even on voice
commands, and there are speakers and CCTV camera’s everywhere.
The couple has four kids; Rhiannon,
14, who stays at a boarding school and comes visiting on weekends; Maddie, 8;
Ellie; 5 and Petra 1.5. Rowan is overwhelmed by the huge responsibility that
comes on her shoulder, as Bill and Sandra are forced to leave her alone with
the kids, as they have to travel for a business venture for a week.
There is Jack, who helps with odd
jobs around the house, and takes care of the two dogs belonging to them, and
Jean, an elderly woman who comes for washing and cleaning every morning. Rowan
finds Jack very helpful, but Jean seems quite shrewd. But her main challenge is
the two girls, Maddie and Ellie. They seem hellbent on making life difficult
for Rowan, and whatever she does, she finds that she cannot please them.
Slowly Rowan finds out about the
history of the house. The house is supposedly haunted, and four nannies before
her left the place back to back, for no apparent reason. As Rowan digs further,
she finds out the history of the house that makes it haunted. Amidst all the
drama, every night, strange things begin to happen. Rowan does not believe in
hauntings and ghosts and she is determined to find a logical reasoning behind
the events.
What happens next is bet left to
readers. The end was quite surprising, as there were not one or two but three
unexpected twists that had me going back and reading the relevant parts all
over again.
The story progresses a bit slowly in
the beginning, too slow in fact. The detailed description of every small event
of daily routine could easily have been skipped. There comes one point where
you wonder what exactly is going to happen and where is the book going. But after
about 60% of read, the book catches pace, and then everything happens with a
suddenness that you have to catch up with.
The characters are described very well,
and in details. Though this is one more book where I feel the narration should
have been in third person rather than first person. You will understand the
reason, and probably agree with it, once you get to know the suspense.
Overall, I love to read and write
psychological thrillers, and this is one of the best I have read. I rate it at
3.5.
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