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Book Review of The Turn of the Key

The Turn of the Key
IlliniAlum83 avatar reviewed on + 181 more book reviews


If you liked 'Gone Girl', 'The Woman in Cabin 10', or 'The Girl from the Train', you should enjoy this thriller that I couldn't put down.
The story follows a young woman, dissatisfied with her childcare worker position in London, to a nanny job in an isolated area of Scotland. When the parents, both architects, take off for a business trip the morning after her arrival, she starts to wonder what she got herself into. With a crotchety older cleaning woman and handsome, young grounds caretaker the only adults around, she quickly becomes lonely without other adult contact and overwhelmed with a disruptive 8 year old, shy 5 year old and toddling 18 month old to care for. Plus, within days, the rebellious 14 yo returns for summer break from her private school where she boards during the week.
More hazards exist in the wild grounds than free-wheeling parents who are frequently gone should expose their young girls to, but more worrying are the creepy things that keep happening in the 'smart' house that is wired to watch your every move. Plus, there are those creaking footsteps above her head that the nanny awakes to every night though there is no known third floor nor attic. When the girls warned her at the interview that 'the ghosts won't like it', R should have listened.