Book Review: The Turn of the Key

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware


This book is better than “In a Dark Dark Wood” but not as good as “The Woman in Cabin 10.” The main character still acts a bit dumb, but not colossally dumb like “go on a weekend retreat with people you haven’t spoken to in years” kind of dumb. She takes a job as a nanny of three small children in a redone Victorian house in Scotland. Naturally enough, spooky things start happening. This book made me mentally outline the steps I would take if I were in a creepy house with things being moved and mysterious footsteps overhead. The option to “not tell anyone because they might think I was crazy” did not make the list. The option to “check video footage because every room has cameras in it” did make the list. Also, “tell everyone what you’re hearing so you can make sure there’s not strangers breaking into the house” and “get carbon monoxide levels checked in case you’re hallucinating” or at the very least “get someone to sage smudge the place.” But Rowan instead decides that the right thing to do is shrug and flirt with the groundskeeper, hoping things resolve themselves.

The good thing about this book is that there is tension and a creepy setting. Rowan is basically left alone with three and a half small children (one of the kids comes home temporarily) while the parents bugger off and do god knows what. The house is a “smart” house so everything is controlled by your phone or a pad, which sounds like a nightmare if you ask me. Strange things happen almost from the get-go. Doors are locked and then unlocked. Keys go missing and reappear. She hears footsteps coming from a place where there should be no access. And there are rumors of the last few nannies who quit right away. One of the children says ominous things about “the ghosts hate you” and there’s a rumor of a little girl who died of poisoning. The book starts out with Rowan in prison, talking about a girl who died and insisting she didn’t do it, which is a nice framing. You do eventually find out what happens, and it’s tragic and horrible and sort of believable if you don’t look too hard.

The bad thing about this book is that Ware invested too many points into the mystery and the big reveal and the secrets and neglected the character building. The relationship between Rowan and the girls is one of the pivotal plot drivers, and yet it’s barely sketched out. Jack is a main character, but his story is also just barely sketched in. Rowan’s relationship with her father is also very, very important, but he’s not even mentioned until the book is more than halfway over. As a result, the story felt like it needed to be longer, deeper, and maybe told a little slower. The secret garden was a cool element, but it felt like it was just thrown in there. There was a bottle of wine poured out, which was a huge clue as to what was happening, but it was just a throw-away scene talked about in retrospect.

I feel like the author sacrificed too much character development and relationships on the altar of the plot twist. Also, there were a few things which, in retrospect, were implausible. Who removed the key and put it back? Who bolted the door and how did they do it? The ending came so fast that I didn’t even think about the impossible logistics until much later. It wasn’t a bad book, and it had a lot of good elements, but to maximize the tension it needed to be paced a lot slower.




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