After talking about how I’m not a fan of digital books at all and how I would rather not read than read on a screen, I bought a Kindle. Yep, I’m one of those people now. Sorry people of ‘paperbacks rule!’ club.
The reasons why I bought a Kindle are well…something I’ll be tackling in an another post. But one of the first books I read on my new device – which I named Cleopatra by the way (it’s inspired by The Lumineers’ hauntingly beautiful song) was The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware.
I have no idea how I came across this book but it’s definitely my favourite book that was published this year. Not that I’ve read all of them. But this book has certainly made a place in my all time favourite thrillers list.
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.
Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, The Turn of the Key is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
My Thoughts :
The book started off slow; I had to keep forcing myself to read it in the beginning. But once I was 100 pages in, I read the rest of it in a single sitting on a train ride. And I’ve got to tell you – it was an early morning training train and I was super sleepy.
But this book kept me awake the whole ride. Yes, it’s that good. The overall vibe the house gives you once you’re settled in, is creepy. The scenarios that happen inside the house are creepy, And the ending is sort of creepy too.
It feels like a modern haunted house story. And if you’re someone who has ever babysit or has kids of their own, you will be relating a lot to a majority of this book.
To sum up, a creepy atmosphere, relatable situations faced by the protagonist and a surprising ending lead me to give this novel 4.5 stars out of 5!
If you’re going on a long flight, take this along. Bare along with the initial slow start and you’ll be thanking me for this recommendation once you’re through with the story. Go check it out!
What’s your favourite book of 2019 ? Have you read The Turn of the Key ?
The Mechromancer 
One thought on “The Turn of the Key – A modern take on haunted houses!”