The Turn of the Key Review

By Ruth Ware

Rating: 2/5

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.

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This book was not at all what I was expecting. It has reminded me a little bit of my previous reads The Family Upstairs and Lock Every Door. But I enjoyed those two books way more than I enjoyed this one.

WARNING! Spoilers :)

It reminded me of The Family Upstairs because of the idea that our narrator is not reliable. Once we learn Rowan's real identity, I felt I could no longer trust her or believe anything she said. I even went back and reread a few passages, and unless you knew her true identity, it was written so you wouldn't bat an eye.

The other book, Lock Every Door, I was reminded of because of the majority of the book you're led to believe everything is paranormal but it's just twisted human behavior. In all honesty, I was definitely hoping for paranormal in this one. Especially after just reading Lock Every Door. It felt very much the same, just different places and characters.

Overall, I was disappointed in this book. I felt it could have been way stronger if the idea of all the smart technology was nonexistent. I felt it was too focused on that than the important stuff that happened within the last 50-75 pages.