2020 Book Review #19: The Turn of the Key

This is the 3rd book I've read by this author whom I discovered a couple of years ago.

WOW....she's an excellent page-turning kind of author.

STORY SUMMARY

Rowan Caine works in a daycare center called Little Nippers.  It isn't a great job and she's been passed over for a promotion.  She begins to look for a nanny position or new day care job and discovers one that sounds like a dream job.  It's for a family who live in northern Scotland (she would have to live in the house called Heatherbrae House and move away from London and her flat with her friend Rachel).  The husband (Bill Elincourt) and his wife Sandra are very wealthy.  They are co-owners and operators of an architectural firm.  They designed an old Victorian house to be part Victorian and part high tech.  In fact, the house is known as a "Smart House" where everything is digital including how you open curtains and the fact the fridge "talks" to tell you what you are getting low on.  They have 4 little girls:  Riahannon who is 14 and attends boarding school, Maddie (age 8), Ellie (age 4) and Petra (a toddler). It's the picture perfect setting for a nanny.  She accepts the position and moves in to what she thinks will be a dream job.

But...what she doesn't know is that she is not living a dream....it soon becomes a nightmare........One child will end up dead and she will end up in prison for murdering the child.  Except...she's innocent.

MY THOUGHTS

This book kept me up late at night!  I just couldn't put it down which is why I'm done with it so quickly.  It is spell-binding.

It's actually rather believable in an unbelievable way if you know what I mean. It's a bit creepy but only because of the weird surveillance/technology where even just kissing the top of the baby's head feels like someone is watching and judging her. 

There are many layers to this story.  The characters are so well developed and at times you think you know what's going to happen next but then there's a twist and you still have no idea what's really going on!

The story begins like a letter...in fact.. the entire book is told from Rowan's perspective in a letter to an attorney whom she wants to hire to take on her case.  Yet we never see the trial.  We only get the back story.  And its' quite a story!

Rowan has to explain all the events that lead up to her imprisonment.  She explains about the constant surveillance of the smart cameras set up everywhere in the house (except Bill's study), she explains about the strange night when everyone in the house woke up (Sandra and Bill were away on business so Rowan was in charge) to a malfunctioning tech system that included loud raucous music and flashing lights.   She explains how the girls really aren't as perfectly behaved as she was led to believe on the interview. She has to explain about Jean McKenzie the maid who comes once a day and Jack Grant who lives over the garage in his own little apartment and acts as a handyman around the house and grounds.  She has to explain about the attic and the creaking footsteps she hears at night yet no one else seems to hear.  

All of this is so well executed, you forget you are reading a letter.

The beginning of the ending is absolutely brilliant and I did NOT see that coming.  It involves a lie Rowan tells in order to get the job.  I don't want to reveal what that lie is because that will ruin it for you and it's done in such a brilliant way I was left gasping and like "WHAT??" 

And then there's a spellbinding twist at the very end......

Some of the themes in the book include:  teenage rebelliousness, alcohol issues, single parenthood/abandonment issues (physical and emotional), dishonesty, sexual harassment, legends, death, and the use of high technology/smart technology.

The book is a modern take on a Gothic type story.   It has been compared as a modern take on the novel The Turn of the Screw by Henry Jamess). (from the 1800

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some language and content).

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.