Category: Fiction

Title: The Turn of the Key
Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback, Ebook
Release Date: August 27, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I loved this thriller!

I read The Turn of the Screw by Henry James a few times in university, and I loved it. I was excited to see what would happen in this adaptation.

This story was very fast paced. I read it in one day because I couldn’t put it down. It was quite creepy too. One new element in this adaptation was that the home was a “smart” home. Everything was connected by an app, including the water in the shower and the locks on the front door. These things were convenient, until they malfunctioned. The home was originally a Victorian house, but was renovated to have this modern technology. I love how this can be compared to the original book, Turn of the Screw, which was a Victorian novella, but has been adapted into this modern story.

One thing that I can’t really talk about is the ending. It gave more closure than the original story, but it felt a little rushed, especially in the last couple of pages. I’m curious to hear what other readers thought of this ending.

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Have you read The Turn of the Key? What did you think of it?

Title: Wherever She Goes
Author: K.L. Armstrong
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: June 25, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

When it’s your word against everyone else’s–what do you do?

Bree Finch has fallen on some troubled times: her marriage has ended, she’s separated from her young daughter, Charlotte, and she’s haunted by a past she can’t escape. Routine helps, and every afternoon, during her lunch break, Bree goes for a jog in the park near her office. It’s the same every day: the same route, the same mothers with their children, the same people walking their dogs.

One day, during her jog, she spots a young boy a bit older than Charlotte, a boy she saw just the day before with his mother. But his mother is nowhere to be seen now. Nervous, Bree watches the boy as he wanders into the parking lot. And then she watches as a man grabs the boy, forcing him into an SVU. She watches as the boy cries and screams for his mother. She watches as the man slams the door shut, revs the engine and takes off. 

She runs after them into traffic, and tries to take a photo, but can’t. The SVU is gone.

Bree can’t deny what she’s seen, and she can’t get the little boy or his screams out of her head. But, she’s the only one who believes that she witnessed the kidnapping of a child. No one else at the park saw the boy or someone snatching him, and she can’t give a detailed description of the child. The police don’t believe her, nor does her estranged husband, with whom she has a tense and complicated relationship. Instead, they begin asking Bree the questions: Why is she always alone in the park? Why does she spend so much time there? Does she realize that she makes the other mothers nervous, with the way she watches them and their children?

Then, days later, a woman is murdered–and Bree is the first person the police talk to. 

Not because they think she may have witnessed something. 

Not because they believe her about the kidnapped boy. 

Because she’s their main suspect. 

Review:

This was an amazing new thriller!

I was glued to this book. I read it in one day because I couldn’t put it down. It was fast-paced and unpredictable.

Bree was an unreliable narrator, which added to the plot. Even when she would talk about seeing things, I couldn’t really trust her. I was still unsure about some things she said right until the end.

I usually don’t like books that don’t give you enough clues to solve the mystery. I don’t think there was a way to figure out this mystery before the end, but I loved it. It was an exciting story because I was so surprised at the ending.

I highly recommend this gripping thriller.

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Have you read Wherever She Goes? What did you think of it?