The Turn of the Key, Ruth Ware
The Turn of the Key, Ruth Ware
110 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

The Turn of the Key

Bestseller

Author: Ruth Ware

Narrator: Imogen Church

Unabridged: 12 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/06/2019


Synopsis

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A superb suspense writer…Brava, Ruth Ware. I daresay even Henry James would be impressed.” —Maureen Corrigan, author of So We Read On

“This appropriately twisty Turn of the Screw update finds the Woman in Cabin 10 author in her most menacing mode, unfurling a shocking saga of murder and deception.” —Entertainment Weekly

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lying Game and The Death of Mrs. Westaway comes this thrilling novel that explores the dark side of technology.

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 events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the home’s cameras, 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.

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—but somebody 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.

About Ruth Ware

English born author, Ruth Ware, grew up in Lewes, Sussex and then studied at Manchester University in North London. She had several jobs before her writing career became her profession. She worked as a waitress, bookseller, and when she lived in Paris, she taught English as a foreign language. After returning to North London, she became a publisher's publicity agent. What better way to become familiar with getting her own work published?

Her debut book In a Dark, Dark Wood immediately made the New York Times bestseller list, and was also bought for a potential film for Reese Witherspoon to produce. Her initial offering was followed by The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game. They are both best sellers and have also been sold for potential movie production.

Ruth Ware has a fourth book scheduled to be released in mid-2018. It is titled The Death of Mrs. Westaway. As with the previous three, the new novel will be another in the mystery and crime genre. She currently lives in Northern London with her two children and husband, Ian.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nilufer on April 18, 2023

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......more

Goodreads review by Yun on October 21, 2024

Ooh, misbehaving children and technology! Are ya scared yet? No? Me neither. Rowan comes across an ad looking for a live-in nanny at a remote country estate. When she applies and nabs the job, she is thrilled. But it seems the opportunity is too good to be true, and there are malevolent forces at wor......more

Goodreads review by Chelsea on October 12, 2022

"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, howeve......more

Goodreads review by Emily May on November 08, 2019

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 Wa......more

Goodreads review by Destiny on August 24, 2023

2.5 🌟 I am actually so mad I spent so much time on this......more


Quotes

"Imogen Church narrates Ruth Ware's unsettling update of Henry James's TURN OF THE SCREW. Nanny Rowan Caine arrives for her first day at what seems like a dream job to find that things are not as perfect as they first seemed. The house's 'smart' system malfunctions in the middle of the night, and the children hate her for no apparent reason. Church ably handles the children's voices and the range of accents, including the Scottish housekeeper's. Her increasingly hysterical performance captures Rowan's slow unraveling, upping the creepy factor as the novel's heavily foreshadowed tragedy draws near. This outstanding listen should delight Ware's many fans."

"Ruth Ware is good at writing creepy tales and this novel about a nanny moving into an apparently haunted smart house takes a gothic trope and modernizes it. Even better is an ending that you won’t see coming and that reframes everything you’ve just heard. Narrator Imogen Church underscores the story’s eeriness, as she sounds appropriately young and energetic, easily conveying fright and desperation."