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.

Reader Reviews

Warda

(0/5)

202

Nov 21, 2024

DNF at 45%. How can a mystery/thriller be this slow and this boring? It’s a thriller: give me action. Suspense. And some character development instead. I happily spoiled myself for the ending. I still didn’t care. I just didn’t care. 😑😑No wasting time on stories this year that don’t have me invested by the time I’m almost halfway through it. I’m so annoyed that this was such a flop.

Nilufer Ozmekik

(4/5)

705

Review of “TURN OF THE KEY”: FOUR: okay, I loved it, it freaked me out, gave me enough chills, my all nails are shorter, oh, wait a second, I don’t have nails anymore and my arms are covered with stress bites, my hair is in the air, you made a great job, Ruth Ware, I wanted to clap but my hands are still shaking, stars!!!Let’s take a look: what we have on the menu:-A naïve nanny who has little secrets is now in the jail, waiting for her murder trial.-Creepy Victorian haunted house: A big, creepy...

Chelsea Humphrey

585

AUGUST 2019 BOTM SELECTION"Dear Mr. Wrexham,You have no idea how many times I have started this letter and screwed up the resulting mess, but I've realized there is no magic formula here. There is no way I can make you listen to my case. So I'm just going to have to do my best to set things out. However long it takes, however much I mess this up, I'm just going to keep going and tell the truth."And so begins our tale. I'm sure that, unless you've been walking around with your eyes closed and you...

Emily May

(3/5)

561

I am telling you the truth. The unvarnished, ugly truth. And it is all that. It is unpolished and unpleasant, and I don't pretend I acted like an angel. But I didn't kill anyone. I just fucking didn't. This wasn't bad, but it was nowhere near as good as I was expecting from an author like Ruth Ware. The protagonist, Rowan Caine, stumbles upon an opportunity that she considers amazing and I would consider an absolute nightmare-- a live-in nanny to four children, including one baby and one brat

MarilynW

236

This is my first Ruth Ware book and I plan to read more because of the good things I've read about her books. The Turn of the Key takes place in an old home, Heatherbrae House, that has been restored faithfully in parts of it while other parts have been gutted and transformed into the most modern of homes. The entire home has "smart home" features which seem to have been set to an overly intrusive level. Not only that, the features don't always work as intended or don't work at all, making the h...

Mary Beth

235

In the beginning of the book, Rowan is writing a letter to Mr. Wexham, begging for him to help her. She tells him that she is innocent of a crime of murder that she did not commit and that she needs his assistance with her trial that is coming up soon. He is a lawyer and she wants him to prove her innocence.There is an old house located in a remote area in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish Highlands. Rowan becomes a nanny for a family of three children in this creepy estate. The house has a

Chelsea (chelseadolling reads)

214

I had low expectations for this because I had heard such mixed things about Ruth Ware, but this was SO GOOD. It took so many of the classic thriller components but made them feel fresh and new and I'm a big fan. I cannot wait to see what Ruth comes up with next.

Emily (Books with Emily Fox)

444

This is my third book by the author so by this point I know she's great at creating an atmosphere, a creepy ambiance.New nanny working for a family living in a remote house in Scotland. Past nannies leaving after the house seems haunted with its dark history and secrets... you get it. It was interesting, even a bit unique since the main character wasn't likeable and that the format is through letters she's writing to a lawyer from prison since she's accused of murdering one of the child in her c...

Cindy

374

3.5 stars. The audiobook narrator does a great job with this book! I’m not sure how to rate this story. On one hand, the buildup is very slow and many of the “creepy” factors (which essentially things going bump in the night) can get repetitive without much action. On the other hand, I actually liked the red herrings and misleads, because it would provide unexpected reveals (although I did catch a big one halfway through, I liked some of the twists at the very end).

Paromjit

245

This is Ruth Ware's latest offering, a chiller of a psychological thriller with its central protagonist, 24 year old Rowan Caine working in childcare in London. She is looking for another post when she come across an incredible job as a live in Nanny for the Elincourt family, the parents Bill and Sandra are architects, living in the remote Scottish Highlands, and the pay for the post is unbelievable. If there is one thing you should beware of, it is that if a job sounds to be too good to be true...

Norma

Creepy, suspenseful, & mysterious!THE TURN OF THE KEY by RUTH WARE is a compelling, dark, twisted, and haunting mystery thriller that immediately sucked me in and had me totally absorbed within this tale.Right from the very start there is this intense sense of foreboding that definitely makes this quite the gripping book to read.....it is a slow-burn and the intensity level slowly increases as the story progresses. I absolutely loved the creepy modern gothic vibe going on here and RUTH WARE defi...

Kat

213

i’ve heard a lot of mixed things about ruth ware in the past, but honestly this was pretty solid. maybe it’s time i try more of her books lol.

Julie

195

Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware is a 2019 Gallery/Scout Press publication. Ware is back on track in this tense tale of suspense!! I have loved Ruth Ware since I read ‘In a Dark, Dark Wood’, yet, I really struggled with her previous book. I didn’t lose my confidence in Ware, however, and eagerly jumped into this, her latest effort, with gusto- and I was not disappointed!! As the story opens it becomes clear that Rowan Caine, a former nanny, is sitting in prison accused of having killed a child in he...

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The Turn of the Key

The Turn of the Key

The Turn of the Key

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