Wow, wow wow! I never guessed the ending! I suspected early on, but ruled it out! This is Ruth Ware at the very height of suspense. A dream nanny position that goes awry in so many ways, with a romance thrown in for good measure. Who do you trust? I highly recommend this book/author!

Wow. This is the best thriller since Finn’s - Woman In The Window. From the first page, you will be totally hooked. The story progresses at the perfect pace. Ware is a true master story teller.

The story centers around a female au pair that decides to hit the Scottish highlands for a highly paid full time nanny position. The setting is described as a beautiful, but disconcerting modern/Victorian combo house seemingly with a split personality. Rowan, the main character, is to care for three girls of varying ages while the parents travel for work. It tension in the house is evident from the front door. Mysteries abound as Rowan is plunged into increasingly stressful and painful situations.

This is a great read. Recommend it highly. No one does it like Ware.

Wow! This was a book I could not put down. Really kept my interest and had no idea how it was going to turn out. Interesting in how it was written in letters to an attorney. Ruth Ware has done it again - great read! If you like mysteries this is a book for you.

Fans of Ruth Ware will not be disappointed in The Turn of the Key. Suspense, mystery, bumps in the night. Be prepared to be scared while reading this book through the night; you won’t be able to put it down until you’re finished.

I’d been wanting to read Ruth Ware when this book became available from Netgalley (thanks for the ARC) I couldn’t miss the opportunity!
This was a good, interesting read overall, but the primary device for unspooling the story was a letter that the protagonist is sharing with us — she is writing to a famous lawyer hoping he will take her case, because she has been accused, while serving as a live-in nanny for a ridiculously wealthy couple in their eccentric and frightening (haunted?) high-tech house, of murdering one of the children in her care. Unfortunately, this device became tiresome and a bit of a distraction. The characters were interesting, even if unlikeable, and the misdirection, while expected, was a surprise, creative and believable.
I’m glad I read this book, I recommend it, and I look forward to reading another by Ruth Ware, but now that my review is all said and done... I’d tweak my rating to 3.5 star not 4.

This book belongs in a special category here on Paul's Picks... it is a rare one-day read. I was obsessed with this one. A scorcher of a slow burn that took me back to its pages in 5 sittings. I just had to finish.

Ware has a way of depositing her characters alone in an unfamiliar place. An expensive yacht in The Woman in Cabin 10, a family's manor house in The Death of Mrs. Westaway, and in this novel, an ultra-modernized country estate in the Scottish Highlands. Rowan Caine travels to Heatherbrae House to interview for a nanny position. She finds a couple, Sandra and Bill Elincourt, who is trying to do it all: raise a modern family and run a successful architecture firm. They need help... while they are trying to work and while they are away at their projects and conventions. Rowan thinks her resume and a good interview will get her the position, along with the staggeringly high salary. But certain information is left out of the process... namely, the Elincourts will be leaving in two days, the newly-remodeled smart home has a history of eerie 'coincidences,' and one of the middle children is especially difficult.

Rowan rolls up her sleeves and gets to work trying to acclimatize herself to the daily routine (as described in the 150-page binder Sandy leaves her). She battles with the SmartHome's tablet and its many intrusive cameras, and gets to know the attractive driver/ handyman/ gardener, Jack. She also has a creepy run-in with Bill.. But, she suffers through the creaks of the house at night and the girls taking her into the historic poison garden on the grounds. Things slowly get more serious as Rowan feels her control over the situation start to slip...

The story is told as a letter of desperation asking for a lawyer's help as Rowan awaits trial after the death of one of the children. She is stuck in a women's prison in Scotland several months after the crime that she claims she is innocent of. It's a clever way of setting up the plot, a confession of sorts that really allows Rowan to tell her version of the story. Themes of family secrets and all-consuming surveillance make for a creepy tension-filled plot. Ware is one of the best at waiting at the right moment to drop a great twist. I found myself reading several passages over and over to make sure that got the big reveals while thinking, "Did that just happen!?!?!"

The Turn of the Key is another winner for Ware. If you liked her first books, then this will be perfect for you. And if you are new to her writing, pick this up for a superb weekend read.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Press, and Ruth Ware for an advanced copy for review.

Wow oh Wow! Another piece of perfection from Ms. Ware. A huge thank you to Ms. Ware & NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Whenever I am preparing to devour a Ware novel I know I'm in for a fantastic wild ride and this latest gem does not disappoint at all what so ever. I'm not sure what more a thriller reader could need it's a jammed pack murder mystery with twists and turns some you may be able to see coming but other I promise you won't. Murder Mystery in the Scottish Highland how can one go wrong

I went into Turn of the Key expecting a scary thriller that I couldn’t put down, I was wrong. The description of the book does not match the actual story. The description talks of a nanny who applies for a job because she wants to live in a smart house and then bad things happen. The smart house is scary and there’s ghosts.

To start Rowan, the nanny, is frustratingly boring. You know from the start that she’s not being honest, that she doesn’t want to take care of kids. The entire book, outside of the last few pages, is a letter she’s writing her lawyer explaining,in excruciating detail, how she didn’t kill a child. It is a very slow burn, which some people may like but I lost interest early on. This was a struggle for me.

Here is what we learn during the slow burn, Rowan is lying, one of the kids probably needs to see a therapist and hates nannies, the parents of the kids are never around, the kids daily schedule, that something/someone is in the hidden room above Rowan’s room, a love interest (completely unnecessary), the house which the current family has redone and added smart home features to has a terrible history, there is a poison garden (interesting) on the land.

We never get to know the kids, the parents, the love interest, in fact we barely get to know Rowan until the last 15% of the book when finally things start happening. The sad part is once the story ended I realized how much of the story didn’t play a role in the outcome. The ending is abrupt and dissatisfying, especially after pages and pages of details that weren’t necessary.

***SPOILER ALERT***



The “scary” smart home and ghosts were all in her head and although I believe our mind can scare us, I was hoping for a little more than 2 letters at the very end to explain everything that happened.

Thank you Net Galley and Gallery/Scout Books for providing this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was excited to get this book as an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review of the book.

The story was an interesting concept to me and one that I thought I would enjoy, having read several other books by this author.
However it felt like the build up to the big "reveal" or twist was ultimately a let down.

One of the most twisted books I've read in a long time. There is no guessing-ahead here. The story unfolds evenly and draws you in more and more with every turn of the page. Totally original and well worth your time!

Another Ruth Ware book I have had the pleasure of reading! This book read at a good steady pace revealing bits of goodies along the way until all is revealed at the end...well almost ;) Another of Ruth Ware's books I would highly recommend!

The Turn of the Key is the perfect summer/fall thriller. There were so many twists and turns and it truly made my heart pound at some points. It is written in the form of a letter from a nanny to her attorney, which I found to be pretty unique. The writing is excellent - which I have come to expect from Ruth Ware.

If you are looking for a dark thriller that is unpredictable, definitely add this to your TBR list!

#The Turn of the Key #NetGalley

Another Ruth Ware's signature suspenseful style writings! Once you start the book, you have to keep reading to find out all of the who-why-where-what happened. So, there has been a murder, so the nanny was being blamed, this book pulled me in right away. I needed more details!
Here's a "lucky" Nannie getting the job she wanted in a beautiful home, with a wonderful family. Maybe she did exaggerate a little on her references, but, hey, things are going to work out fine now, right? Then why is she trying to get help from an attorney she doesn't even know?
Details I needed, details I got. Maybe even more than necessary! This was a good book, written in a good style, with a good ending. What more could a reader want?

Another page turner from Ruth Ware. A nanny position in the Scottish Highlands that seems too good to be true quickly turns dark.

The ultimate summer thriller is here (...or will be in August)!

The Turn of the Key was utterly jaw-dropping, heart-racing, and filled with so many insane twists. The story follows Rowan, a young woman who has found the perfect nanny job. The parents offered her a hefty salary and other perks in exchange for living with them and caring for their three young children in their beautiful Victorian mansion. However, Rowan isn’t exactly welcomed by the children - nor the home itself. The narrative is based on Rowan’s letter to an attorney, which was a really interesting creative choice. Ruth Ware nailed it though!

One of the best parts of this how the author interlaced modern themes with a gothic undertone. The writing is reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe in some places - if he were to write a story in present day. Ware explores implications of technology, specifically having a “smart home.” One of Ware’s greatest strengths as a writer lies in her ability to propel a story through creating effective internal dialogue. The nod to the Victorian era was a nice touch too.

The thriller genre has exploded over the years which is fantastic for readers like me, but unfortunately, some of the stories become formulaic (guys... I’m so over the unreliable narrator trope) and the twists become predictable. Not this book, though. The Turn of the Key sets to bar for what a 2019 thriller novel should be.

Add this to your TBR list immediately and preorder! Thank you so much @netgalley and @gallerybooks for the ARC!

The Turn of the Key begins with a former nanny writing letters to a lawyer she hopes might be able to get her out of prison. There's a creepy smart house (smart houses, usually turn out to be creepy), misrepresentation, veiled hints of supernatural elements, secrets aplenty, and a slow build up to the last section of the book.

The prologue has Rowan, the nanny in prison for the death of one of her charges, writing letters that explain her situation. She explains wanting the job of nanny and taking a few shortcuts to obtain the lucrative position. The reader already knows she is in prison, but Rowan recounts the events that led to the death of the child for the lawyer (and the reader).

Is Rowan a reliable narrator?

I'm not sure the technique of using the prologue works that well--sometimes knowing the end works well, sometimes it doesn't. It may have been better to simply follow Rowan's journey from applying for the job and through the events that followed afterwards. There would still be plenty of perplexing circumstances to keep the reader in doubt about what is going on.

I looked forward to this one and wanted to like it more than I did.

A modern take on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, but lacking the chilling ambiguity.

Read in May; blog post scheduled for July 26.

NetGalley/Gallery
Psychological Mystery. Aug. 6, 2019. Print length: 384 pages.

I have read all of Ruth Ware's books so I was ecstatic to get my hands on an ARC of The Turn of the Key. It did not disappoint.

This story is set in a remote Scottish countryside, outside a small village with a handful of characters. The setting itself is creepy - no neighbors nearby, a house with a tragic history and a main character who both seems to be keeping secrets and to be uncovering them. It mixes supernatural, ghost-story elements with realistic, creepy behaviors from characters which keeps you guessing. The story is about a nanny who leaves the hustle & bustle of London to care for 3-4 children after a string of previous nannies didn't work out. We don't know why exactly and we will get a chance to come up with theories along the way as the story progresses. The parents seem disengaged and a bit "off" when they leave their children on the new nanny's second day but that just adds to the confusion about who you can trust and who you can't.

Ware's writing is descriptive and utilizes not only the characters off-putting behaviors to arouse suspicion but also the setting - a mix between a modern and victorian house. The original house was drastically remodeled to incorporate "smart home" and ultra modern fixings.. Side note: nothing is creeper than little kids in stories that say bizarre,, dark things and this book has got that.. Just enough to give you the shivers, but not scare you to death.

This was a fast-paced, page turner with the story unraveling at a speed that kept you guessing. And that ending!!! I think it's important to keep thriller and mystery reviews devoid of spoilers. Ware fans who loved The Death of Mrs. Westaway and in a Dark, Dark Wood are going to devour this newest release. I personally found it to be her best one of those three because while it has an eerie undertone, it also presented with reality-based dark tones, but not graphic.. And if you haven't read any of her books yet - this is definitely the time to start..

Ware is definitely a master of weaving a great campfire dramatic story in a novel format.

I absolutely loved the creepy as hell smart home setting. It added a unique and very real dynamic to the story. I didn't care for the ending too much though. It was pretty anti-climactic. The story is worth reading though just to experience the extreme stalkerish smart home setup.

This was just ok, a little slow. I did like the letter format, written from a prisoner's defense perspective. However, I felt there was a lot of detail that kind of fell off--lots of ghost stories without really being a ghost story. The narrator almost builds a gothic tale, but then nothing really happens with it. It's just not the most thrilling thriller.

This book kept me intrigued throughout. Some of the plot at the end seems a little far fetched, but nothing that made me angry. It was a great read. I have loved all of Ruth Ware's books and this one is no different.