The Turn of the Key (R)

Trade Paperback

When Rowan stumbles across an ad for a live-in nanny, shes looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to misswith a staggeringly generous salary. And when she arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smittenby the luxurious smart house fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture perfect family.

What Rowan doesnt know is that shes stepping into a nightmareone that will end with a child dead and Rowan in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, Rowan struggles to explain the unravelling events that have led to her incarceration. It wasnt just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasnt just the children, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasnt even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

Rowan knows shes made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasnt always ideal. Shes not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, shes not guiltyat least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Wares signature suspenseful style, this is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.