There is nothing like a book involving an old Victorian house to send some chills down your spine. Welcome to the Heatherbrae house nestled in the misty Scottish highlands.

No one has lived in this house for decades owing to the old wives’ tales attached to it. A house that carries a reputation for being witness to numerous accidental deaths of children. Local lores have sometimes convicted family members and, at times, the invisible others. Blissfully unaware of this disturbing back story, a child care worker in London come across the advertisement looking for an au pair (nanny).

The Turn of the Key (Review)

The position seems like a lucrative one with a much bigger salary and access to luxurious amenities. An offer that would be hard to resist, rather a job she would like to fight for and win. Everything seems perfect through the blurred vision of time; her new boss comes off as kind and understanding. The house on her first visit is absolutely inviting and a hub of smart technology mixed with some Victorian structural details. Rowan, our lead character, can’t wait to assume her responsibilities at Heatherbrae.

Technology exists to ease our lives, but the same can be quite frightening when manipulated by mysterious entities. Never have I ever been this afraid of giving a few simple commands to Alexa than I have after reading this book. You can rip a house apart, but much like humans, its core remains the same. This unnatural collaboration of an app-operated Victorian house throws off the au pair’s every natural instinct. We as readers are used to reading about musty old houses with hundred-year-old carpets, but the simple fact that I have been able to visualize myself fearful of spending a night at this pristinely modern high-end house speaks volumes about the storyline.

The creaking noise of an unseen wooden flooring, hidden rooms between walls, and the app called ‘happy’ taking control of everyone’s lives living in the house give the au pair a constant discomforting feeling of being watched. She might not be wrong; the house had once belonged to a scientist experimenting with poison plants and has a poison garden within its grounds (which cannot be removed because of its historical significance) with a toddler, two little girls, and a teenager living in the premises there’s an accident waiting to happen.

What’s more intriguing is that the handsome gardener who also lives on the property and is surprisingly always right on time to Rowan’s rescue shares the same last name as the scientist. Left alone with kids she barely knows, a huge binder of rules, and nights of sleep deprivation in an infamous house that raises eyebrows at local coffee shops, Rowan finds herself the suspect of one of the Elincourt’s children’s murder. The whole book is her plea to an attorney whom she begs to take up her case and help her prove her innocence because all the likelihood and evidence say otherwise.

The story has retained my attention until the last page; I find the story comes full circle, as it starts with a letter and ends with a new letter. You’ll get your answer or explanation by then. Because everyone reading this right now, they have only one question, “What happens at the end of The Turn of the Key?” I’ve had my highest fulfillment of scare cravings and plot twists in this one. In my opinion, this “The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware” is a definite five-star read, and a must grab for mystery and horror story lovers whenever they want to get a good fright. You can get the book here! 📖

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