The Turn of the Key
By Ruth Ware
I have many thoughts about this book. Some other reviewers say five stars, but not I. The story begins with the main character, Rowan Caine, sitting in a jail cell writing to a potential lawyer in an attempt to explain herself, to tell her story, to convince one person that she did not murder a child under her care.
Rowan begins her story from when she first came across an advertisement from a family in the Scottish Highlands seeking a live-in nanny. Rowan has the credentials, and the pay is hefty, so she immediately applies and ends up securing the position. Then a mystery unfolds. Rowan suffers spooks and shenanigans from the smart house’s complicated tech and the children run amok. And, I don’t care to talk anymore about the plot. This story doesn’t inspire me to write a review to share all the reasons one might pick up this book. I want to complain. Beware small to mid-sized spoilers ahead.
This story is reminiscent of a haunted house mystery, but I could not sink into the tension because Rowan and her employers, Sandra and Bill, are all unbearably terrible. Rowan, despite her credentials is a terrible nanny. I’m surprised more kids didn’t die! She left the children unsupervised multiple times, lost her temper often, and decided to leave the small children alone in the smart house, so that she could sleep with the married, skeevy groundskeeper. I am appalled. It’s almost like she hates children and has never worked with them before. Not to mention she falsified her identity for no good reason. I guess that’s technically a twist, but who cares. It’s a red herring twist and only an idiot would sign an employee contract with that kind of lie.
Meanwhile Bill, the children’s father, sexually harasses everyone, and I don’t have time for that noise. Ick. Throw him in a Breaking Bad bucket and move on. Sandra, the mom, takes the brunt of the child rearing and business running, and she desperately needs help (and to be married to someone who isn’t a predator), but her poor judgement also leaves me thinking the child-body-count should have been higher. These dummies decided to build their malfunctioning smart house on the same lot as a poison garden and didn’t train Rowan at all before having her start. Then they left Rowan, a total stranger, alone with the children and the poison. Why do this?!
Sure, all parties were desperate (except for barrel Bill), but I couldn’t shake the fact that if one thing didn’t kill the kid, the neglect probably would have. This is a terrible mystery and no fun to unravel. It was boring, and frustrating at best. Skip this one unless you enjoy rage and dissatisfaction.