After several successful thrillers (The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game), Ruth Ware – whose sales now exceed 4 million copies – returns with The Turn of the Key, a dark and addictive novel.
While Rowan Caine finds little interest in her job at a daycare, she comes across a dream job advertisement: a family is looking for an experienced nanny to take care of their three little girls in a stunning mansion in Scotland. With excellent pay, a company car, and eight weeks of vacation per year, Rowan doesn’t hesitate much and sends in her application. In the end, perhaps everything was too perfect.
Because as soon as she arrives, Rowan feels hostility towards her, and her unease grows. Is it due to Maddie’s reluctance, one of the children? Or the omnipresent surveillance cameras? The abrupt departures of previous nannies? In any case, the dream job is increasingly revealing itself to be a true nightmare, of which Rowan will be one of the victims.
The Turn of the Key begins with the end, where we understand that Rowan is in great difficulty and something serious has happened. To discover what, we need to trace back Rowan’s story, in the form of an epistolary narrative – Rowan writing to her lawyer – and uncover what transpired at Heatherbrae House. Ruth Ware sets up a completely anxiety-inducing atmosphere in this beautiful Scottish property and uses new technologies as new elements of fear.
The author establishes her setting and leads both characters and readers where she wants without them suspecting the entirety of the story. Rowan, her heroine, though mysterious and possibly guilty of certain things, remains endearing, her personal story and way of being make her touching. The children, of course, Ellie and Maddie, Rhiannon, the rebellious teenager, Jack, the handyman, and Jean, the cantankerous housekeeper, not to mention the parents, Bill and Sandra, will all play their part in this drama.
Ruth Ware maintains suspense and unease throughout the thriller; the further we progress in the story, the more questions arise. The poignant conclusion will reveal all the mysteries of The Turn of the Key.
