4.5 stars!

A boy, his housekeeper and his absent mother.

This book surprised me - I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. I truly adored it!

Nine-year-old Samuel is under the care of his family’s housekeeper, Ruth. Samuel’s mother was abruptly called away on business in the middle of the night several months prior and Samuel longs for her return. Samuel focuses on his mother’s postcards to get him through the lonely days in his family’s large countryside estate.

Samuel was an outstanding character that I will never forget! He is definitely one of my most favourite book characters I’ve met this year! My heart belonged to Samuel for the entire duration of this novel - I had an immediate connection with him. His character was so endearing, innocent, real and heartfelt.

This novel has a very basic plot but there is so much involved within this seemingly straightforward story. This book won’t be for everyone. The author packs some heavy themes and emotions within this simple storyline. A child’s love for their mother and their longing for their mother’s love in return is largely indescribable but this author portrayed it so vividly. I truly felt what Samuel felt. My heart broke over and over for him and his situation.

Audiobook rating: 5 stars! The narrator was excellent! He added the perfect amount of emotion to this delicate storyline. I was hanging on every word. I feel that the narrator immensely increased my enjoyment of this novel. I love when that happens!

Thank you to NetGalley for my review copy! Thank you to my lovely local library for the audio loan!

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

2.5/5
This book was a quick, but slightly boring, read. Nine-year-old Samuel lives in an English estate with his housekeeper Ruth, as he awaits the return of his mother. Samuel grows suspicious of callous Ruth as the days tick by and is convinced she has something to do with his mother's absence. The idea was intriguing at first, but became repetitive. The thrill and suspense all but disappeared by the end, though I did find the ending interesting to unravel.
I related to the theme of the missing mom having recently lost mine to cancer, and I felt the main character's pain and loneliness as he waited for his mom to return from her travels, wondering if she would ever come back. I liked how Giles wrote from the point-of-view of a 9 year old boy and found his inner thoughts and actions believable. I just didn't care much about the story and found it to be more of a family drama than a gothic suspense novel.

Stephen Giles shifts from children's books to childhood fears in "The Boy at the Keyhole," a tense psychological thriller with dark twists and secrets.

Samuel knows that his mom will return from her trip abroad. He just knows that she wouldn't abandon him, leaving him with Ruth, a larger-than-life housekeeper at his family's crumbling and aged mansion in the damp and depressing English countryside. He just knows it.

What comes next is a dark tale of a little boy who longs for his mom's love after his dad dies. Samuel's mom is in America seeking financing to keep the family business - and home - afloat. Ruth is left to care for him in the large, lonely home where the few resources are stretched tighter than Samuel's frail nerves. Her heart seems as closed as the locked door to his mother's dressing room.

He sees things. He hears things. He fears things, but mostly it's Ruth herself. Despite receiving his mom's postcards from abroad, he's convinced that she's killed his mom to keep the family's wealth for herself. But as Samuel drifts further from truth, it's the hard, cold facts that haunt him.

There are few characters in Giles' novel, but that's OK. Samuel and Ruth carry such weight that there's no room - or need - for others. Their story is sad and shocking, leaving readers sighing with sadness, yet anxious for more from this talented storyteller.

I truly wanted to love this book, but it just wasn't the book for me. I like my suspense of thrillers to be a bit more exciting. Parts of this book made me think that it was written for a much younger audience than an adult, but not all, so overall I just don't think I liked the style of the book.
I will let Chapter Chatter Pub know about its release.

Quick read! I really enjoyed this book. Told from the perspective of Samuel, a precocious nine year old boy, the story is set in 1961. Samuels father has passed away, and his mother has went abroad to deal with business while Samuel is left in the care of the family housekeeper Ruth. As time goes on without his mother returning, Samuel begins to suspect Ruth has done something awful to his mother and begins to investigate. Samuel is quite likable, while Ruth is not - so as you’re reading this book you really don’t know which way the story is going. Great book, but I wasn’t too happy with the ending, which is just my take because I like things all wrapped up with a bow at the end....

In 1961, 9 year old Samuel is being cared for by the family housekeeper Ruth. His mother was suddenly called away to America on business and has been gone for months. Samuel begins to suspect that Ruth has killed his mother, and he tries to prove it.

I don’t know who is the intended audience for this book. It is told from the point of view of a child and its blandness and lack of suspense makes it feel like a middle school version of psychological suspense. However, the ending would be confusing and disturbing for a child. For me, the whole book was just obvious, repetitive and boring, and the ending did nothing to redeem that. Do not believe comparisons to the works of Shirley Jackson or Daphne Du Maurier. That might have been the author’s goal, but he didn’t reach it.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a free, ARC digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I began liking this book from the very beginning. It is a fairly short book, so it picked up suspense fairly quickly. It is written from the point of view of a young child, which I always enjoy.

The whole book I felt I went back and forth trying to figure out about the boy's mom. Was she dead? Did she leave him for buisness in America? Is the housekeeper who she says she is? Is she really the villian? The author gave clues that made me conclude one thing in one chapter and something totally different in the next. I was on the edge of my seat! I love writing so suspenseful. I just knew the ending would be phenomenal. However, the ending left me questioning what the ending really was????? The ending was just a hint of an ending. I am not sure if the author left the ending this way because there is going to be a sequel, or if the author wanted the reader to come to his own interpretation of an ending. Needless to say, I was not too happy with the ending. The ending unfortunately put a bad taste in my mouth for the whole book.

I am not sure what I thought I might find in the pages of this book but I don't think it is what I found. :(

It's about a young boy Samuel who is worried about his mother who has gone off on business and been gone for about 5 months. His housekeeper Ruth has been looking after him. Now she is not a very nice person but she is taking care of a little brat so I guess I might act like her too...lol.

One of Samuels friends puts a little seed of doubt in his mind about how the housekeeper probably killed his mom and hid her body. This makes Samuel start wondering a lot about what happened to her as she has been gone for so long, so he starts snooping into things and accusing the housekeeper which in turn makes her very upset.

So what happened? Well what happened was a boring book with characters that I couldn't stand and an ending that was just not that great and to top it off something happens to an animal which further ticked me off but I was already pretty bored with this to begin with so by the time that happened I was pretty much done.  I will say the ending twisted differently than I thought it would but at the same time it wasn't a good ending.

Also, I have a hard time believing this is an adult psychological thriller as it's about a young boy. So I am putting it in the YA category and it really is the most non thrilling thriller I have read this year.

During this whole book both Barb and I was not feeling it so I am sure we will have similar thoughts but I am curious to see her review!

9 year old Samuel lives with his housekeeper, Ruth, in a rambling old English manor. He spends his days pining for his mother and hoping for her return. The family's fortune has run out long ago, forcing his mother to leave in the middle of the night to try and raise money in America. At the opening of the book, she has been gone for over 100 days. Samuel periodically receives postcards from her, but longs for the day she comes home.

One day, his best friend, Joseph, plants the seed that his mother's disappearance might not be quite what it seemed. Suddenly, Samuel becomes suspicious of Ruth, obsessively trying to prove that she really murdered his mother.

At around 200 pages, this is a slim little book filled with tension and unreliable narration. While it wasn't truly a page turner, it kept me engaged and entertained by the mystery and tragedy of the story.

Stephen Giles' debut novel, The Boy at the Keyhole, begins with nine-year-old British Samuel, left in the care of the family housekeeper Ruth. Samuel's father died and left his wife, Samuel's mother, to deal with the mounting debt of the family factory business, as well as the family estate.



Samuel's mother has been gone 116 days so far. She sends Samuel postcards from her trip abroad to the United States, where she is trying to secure bank loans to keep the factory afloat. She left suddenly, in the middle of the night, without saying goodbye to Samuel. The only one who saw her leave was Ruth.



Ruth is a stern woman, and is not happy to be left caring for a young boy not her own. She has had to let most of the other staff go, as she is unable to pay them. She has taken to selling baked goods at the farmer's market to make enough money to feed herself and Samuel.



Samuel has many questions about his mother and her trip, questions that Ruth brushes off. When Samuel's schoolmate suggests that perhaps Ruth murdered Samuel's mother and buried her in the cellar, Samuel finds himself drawn into a web of wondering exactly what happened to his mother.



What kind of mother leaves her only child without saying goodbye? He adores his mother, and she adores him. His suspicions lead him to search the house for clues, angering Ruth. Why won't she let him talk to his Uncle Felix? Why is she lying to him and others?



The Boy at the Keyhole takes place almost exclusively at the estate, and as I was reading it, I could picture this as a stage play or movie. We see the story through Samuel's eyes, and as his paranoia and suspicions grow, so do ours. Did Ruth kill Samuel's mother and if so, why?



Giles tightens the screws slowly, and reveals things about Samuel's mother that a nine-year-old wouldn't understand. Ruth certainly seems to be hiding something, and the case that Samuel builds against her is convincing.



I read The Boy at the Keyhole in one sitting, as I couldn't stop reading until I knew what the heck happened to Samuel's mother. There are more than a few nailbiting scenes, and the ending is an unexpected jolt that sent me back to re-read it to make certain I knew what had happened.



If you are a fan of books like Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, The Boy at the Keyhole is the perfect read for you. I highly recommend it to everyone who likes a good, smartly-written two-character psychological drama.

Stephen Giles goes Gothic with his twisty psychological chiller The Boy at the Keyhole (Hanover Square Press, digital galley) set in 1961 Britain. In an old country house, 9-year-old Samuel worries that his widowed mother, who left on a business trip while he was asleep, has been gone too long and isn't coming home. Despite assurances from housekeeper Ruth, imaginative Samuel begins to suspect that Ruth has murdered his mother and hidden her body. Creepy.

from On a Clear Day I Can Read Foreve

What happened here?! Seriously, I don't know how to review it because I have no idea what I just read... I love Shirley Jackson-esque dark tales where kids both know and over-think secrets and no one is quite what they seem. The book opened with that feel, and I was very eager to dive in. Unfortunately, this one sank for me fairly early on...

It started out with a lot of promise, all gothic and dark with the promise of weird twisty psychological suspense. And then it dragged on and on and on and on. For a short book it took me forever to read, and it felt like it was a thousand pages long even though it was barely over 200. I understand it was supposed to be from Samuel's point of view and he's a boy of nine. I understand that to achieve a sense of that the author wrote from the perspective of a child. But my gracious goodness, dozens of pages would go by and literally nothing would happen beyond the poor boy rehashing the same three thoughts.

And the ending... What in the name of creation was that?? It didn't end, it stopped. They are not the same thing. I read and reread the end, but still don't know where anything stands. Sometimes ambiguity is good and a fun - even if unsatisfying - way to "end" things. And sometimes it just feels like a page or two was left out or someone called "and STOP!" and the author, well, did. I'm in the latter camp here.

All in all I found this to be an unsatisfying read that felt unnecessarily convoluted and didn't take the reader anywhere in the end.

The Boy in the Keyhole drew me into it's decaying English estate immediately . There was an air of Daphne du Maurier that I also enjoyed right away. However, I feel like the plot didn't pick up the pace enough to keep me excited about this book.

Overall, I think the author does a great job writing form the perspective of a child, making it an attribute that adds to the unreliable nature of the narration rather than being an annoying device.

I think readers who really enjoy a slow burning psychological thriller like The Death of Mrs. Westaway or Rebecca will definitely appreciate this as well.

Very interesting book. The ending came to no conclusion, although the writing and story line was enough to keep me reading.. If there is or were to be a sequel I would question myself as to whether to avail myself of it or not

Favorite Quotes:

Ruth could do that. Make a decree, like a queen or something, that certain topics had reached their end and that would be that.

Now that he stood on the precipice of this wrongdoing, he felt the fluttering in his chest that made every breath sound as if he were sitting on a rattling train.

The same wine his mother said made his father prone to unsettling fits of national pride and falling asleep midsentence.

Part of the reason Samuel was sent to the local school and not somewhere more distinguished, like his father and uncle had, was because his mother didn’t want him turning out like his uncle Felix, who she said was a pompous buffoon wrapped in tweed, dipped in gin and rolled in horsehair.

Samuel saw the lies easily enough; they practically leached from her skin like poisonous gas. She twisted everything, turning the truth in on itself until it looked like something else.

My Review:

I am in quite a pique over the ending, or lack thereof, so rating this skillfully crafted book puts me in a quandary. The story didn’t seem anywhere near a stopping point, yet it ended. Gah – I am infuriated as I was riveted to my Kindle while reading and hissed in complaint at any interruption. Needless to say, adulting did not happen today, as evidenced by my profane and childish reaction to hitting the last page. Yet, I cannot deny that Stephen Giles is a master storyteller who is extremely gifted with the word voodoo. His writing was mesmerizing and laced with observant details and massive insightfulness into the mind of a child. His characters were compelling and deftly written, I was eager to learn every little nuance I could wring from the narrative. His storylines were tautly written and adroitly textured, I was on edge and keenly interested through. I couldn’t settle on a theory and developed and cast off several while reading. The housekeeper was vile and monstrous, harsh on a good day; the mother was absent, irresponsible, and self-absorbed; and the child – oh, he squeezed my heart, I ached for him. But that ending - he really left me hanging, would it have killed him to have kept going just a few more pages? It rankles, but I have to give him his due. Sigh, 5-Stars. This would make an excellent movie.

The Short of It:

This story is a little bit twisty, which I like.

The Rest of It:

What’s a young boy to do when his mother leaves in the middle of the night for America, and the only person he has to look after him is his housekeeper Ruth? Ruth doesn’t seem all that fond of him and when things begin to go missing, Samuel begins to question the true whereabouts of his mother. All he has to go by, are the postcards she sends from America.

But are they really from her?

Ruth and Samuel live in this big, old Victorian house. It’s full of secrets and strange happenings, locked doors and mysterious appearances. Is it haunted, or is Samuel just a very imaginative boy? When his mother doesn’t return after months of being away, his imagination gets the best of him. What has Ruth done with his mother?

The Boy at the Keyhole was a fun read. I really wasn’t sure what to think as I turned the pages and the ending was pretty surprising to me but it had all the elements I enjoy (a creaky house, a mean-spirited caretaker, a young boy with an active imagination). It kept me guessing right up to the end.

I’m not sure if this is being marketed as YA but it did feel like YA at times but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. If you’ve read it, send me a private message so we can discuss the ending.

I’m counting this book towards the R.I.P Challenge.

Imagine you’re a young boy whose father has died. Your mother is away looking for some money to keep the family business going. Imagine things disappearing from the house. Imagine you’re lonely and the only news of your mother comes in the form of short postcards from the across the ocean in America. Imagine there’s never a return address or a place you could call to speak to her. Imagine the months going by. and one by one, the other people in your life are going away, the maid laid off, the gardener’s time reduced. Your uncle is absent and the only constant in your life is Ruth Tupper, a rigid housekeeper who sometimes is so scary mad you think she might kill you.

What kind of things might you also imagine when your mother does not return for months? It might be easier to imagine Ruth killed her than to imagine she just doesn’t love you. The Boy at the Keyhole imagines all of that and it’s terrifying.


The Boy at the Keyhole succeeds almost too well in capturing the thoughts of a child’s mind. Samuel circles around his suspicions a lot, his thinking is roundabout and circular at times like a child. This can make some of the books seem a little slow, but then I think we need that to pace ourselves for the nights Samuel lays in bed, trying so hard to pretend to sleep as Ruth ominously comes in to check on him. His fear is so real and so fraught with real jeopardy that it needs to meander a bit to remind us he is a child. Samuel is a complex child, a loving son who is desperately missing his mother, perhaps all the more intensely since even in memory she was more absent than present. Ruth Tupper is equally complicated, she feels a deep obligation to the family and Samuel, but then she is so rough with him, so hard and cruel at times.

This is one of the few thrillers that surprised me at the end. Really surprised me. I probably should rate it higher but I am mad at the ending. It might have been a lesser book, more trite and predictable, with just about any other ending, but dang it. This is not what I wanted.

I received a copy of The Boy at the Keyhole from the publisher through NetGalley

The Boy at the Keyhole at Hanover Square Press from Harlequin Books
Stephen Giles at Wikipedia

If you are looking for the perfect spooky read for October, pick this one up!

A young boy is severely missing his mother who left suddenly in the middle of the night. She left him with his nanny and he has no clue why she didn't wait to say goodbye properly. Through stories with friends and clues and wonderment he starts to wonder if his mom left of her own accord or if she was forced to leave or is she even alive?

What a perfect short and sweet spooky book. I curled up with this for a day and I couldn't stop reading it. I went back and forth wondering what the heck happened and if anyone was responsible. Some have said it was a slow burn and I can agree, but I read it quickly because I wanted to know how it was all going to conclude.

I will not ruin the ending for anyone, but it was definitely satisfying in that I felt like it was the right ending. It just all worked for me. I hope Stephen Giles has another one of these up his sleeve, I would love to read one by him every October.

This is an unusual book, written from the viewpoint of a 9-year-old boy. Samuel is a sympathetic character who has a very imaginative mind. One can't help but be sympathetic to a little boy whose father has died and mother disappeared - supposedly traveling for months without even saying goodbye. He wants so much to believe that his mother would never leave him for so long that he grasps at some pretty wild theories. As far-fetched as the theories might be, though, they start to feel possible as Samuel discovers things about Ruth.

The descriptions lend a creepy gothic feeling to the book that fits perfectly with Samuel's suspicions. I was never fully convinced by these suspicions; but I never completely ruled them out either. The suspense built very well right up to the astonishing twist near the end. I almost wish the book would have ended right there because the actual ending seemed unfinished somehow and left me wondering what would happen next. But maybe that's what the author intended.