A young nanny takes a dream job in a high-tech house in the Highlands, and soon finds herself writing to a lawyer from prison
A dream job in the Highlands
When Rowan Caine sees the advertisement, it seems too good to be true: a live-in nanny job with a huge salary at Heatherbrae House, a beautiful Victorian home in the Scottish Highlands, fitted out with every modern convenience. The house is run by an app, with cameras and speakers in every room. Rowan takes the job. Now, months later, she is writing a long letter to a lawyer, explaining how she came to be accused of a crime she says she did not commit.
Who will enjoy it
Readers who enjoy creepy, twisty psychological thrillers with a gothic atmosphere and an unreliable narrator.
What you will get
A creepy, twisty psychological thriller about a nanny in an eerie high-tech house in the Highlands, told in letters from a prison cell.
The Turn of the Key Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Mystery & Thriller · Smart home · Nanny · Scottish Highlands
Length
384 pages · ≈ 11 h
More about this book
Ware's nod to The Turn of the Screw swaps a haunted country house for a haunted smart home, and the result is genuinely unsettling. From her first night, Rowan feels watched. Lights switch on by themselves, music blares in the middle of the night and footsteps sound from a locked attic. The children she cares for range from a hostile teenager to a toddler, and none of them seem pleased to have her. The parents leave almost immediately.
Telling the story through Rowan's letter to her lawyer is a clever device: we know early that something terrible happened, and that Rowan is not telling us everything. Ware builds the dread slowly, mixing modern technology with old-fashioned ghost-story atmosphere, including a garden full of poisonous plants and a house with a dark history. The final revelations come in rapid succession. The tragedy at the centre involves a child and is handled with restraint.
Fans of The Death of Mrs. Westaway will enjoy the gothic mood, and readers who like their twists layered will be satisfied. About 384 pages in the Gallery/Scout paperback.
The Death of Mrs. Westaway
The Woman in Cabin 10
In a Dark, Dark Wood
One by One
Before the Fall
Rules of Prey
The Black Echo
Sometimes I Lie
End of Watch
Something in the Water
Then She Was Gone
Mr. Mercedes