“The Turn of the Key” - Ruth Ware

 📱 Ruth Ware is gifted at ratcheting up atmospheric tension. Here, she takes us back to the Scottish Highlands, to Heatherbrae House, a mansion featuring a Victorian aesthetic with all the modern technological conveniences. She smoothly inserts the inherent suspicion of being surveilled by home technology into this gothic thriller. We found ourselves fearful of malevolent smart home tech, compounded by the presence of a Mrs. Danvers-like housekeeper, a vindictive child, and the looming threat of deception from all sides - human and the house itself.

📱Day 1 at Heatherbrae House, and we’re already unsure of whether it’s technology glitching or somebody deliberately gaslighting Rowan, who has just arrived to take on the nanny post for the wealthy family that inhabits Heatherbrae.

📱Ware has written this novel from the POV of a letter to a prospective defense attorney. Immediately, we know that a child has died. Ware cleverly disarms the reader by revealing the tragedy early. A current of mistrust runs through the narrator’s desperate account. We immediately question the reliability of the narrator.

📱”Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier has a similar creepy, gothic vibe.

📱Ware does provide closure as to what actually happened at Heatherbrae House, we are left to ponder what became of the narrator. If anyone has an opinion - I’d love to know! I’ll share my thoughts below the spoiler alert!

🚨🚨🚨 SPOILER ALERT 🚨🚨🚨

When the letter exonerating the narrator is found, the prison authority states that it doesn’t matter. The ambiguity of what this could mean is maddening! To me, Rowan can’t still be serving out a sentence on a wrongful conviction, so that leaves 2 options: 1) she was tried and acquitted, or 2) she was convicted but by the time the letter was discovered, she has somehow died.