The Turn of the Key
"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, and The Death of Mrs. Westaway comes Ruth Ware's highly anticipated fifth novel. 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 unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn't 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 wasn't just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview.
Where The Turn of the Key keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Also by Ruth Ware
Books in conversation with The Turn of the Key
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about The Turn of the Key
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Writing from a Scottish prison cell to a barrister she hopes will take her case, twenty-something Rowan Caine walks through the months she spent as live-in nanny at the Elincourt family's smart house Heatherbrae outside Carn Bridge. A child died on her watch, and Rowan swears she did not do it.
Loosely. Ruth Ware has acknowledged Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898) as inspiration. The Turn of the Key (2019) updates the haunted-house-and-governess premise to a smart-home thriller in modern Scotland.
No. The Turn of the Key is a standalone Ruth Ware thriller. Each of her novels is independent.
The Turn of the Key was written by Ruth Ware, published in 2019 by Pocket Books.
The Turn of the Key is 352 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Turn of the Key takes most readers 5 to 8 hours to finish.
The Turn of the Key is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
