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  • The Turn of the Key

  • Written by: Ruth Ware
  • Narrated by: Imogen Church
  • Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (811 ratings)

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The Turn of the Key cover art

The Turn of the Key

Written by: Ruth Ware
Narrated by: Imogen Church
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Publisher's Summary

From the number one New York Times best-selling 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 Rowan stumbles across an ad for a live-in nanny, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss - with a staggeringly generous salary. And when she arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten - by the luxurious "smart" house fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What Rowan doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare - one 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 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 children, 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, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

Rowan 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. Which means someone else is.

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

©2019 Ruth Ware (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

What listeners say about The Turn of the Key

Average Customer Ratings
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a pretty good page turner

I am familiar with Ware and I liked the turns and twists of the book. I am reading heavier stuff, but this was a good break in between.

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1 person found this helpful

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Review for Turn of the Key

I couldn't wait to listen. whenever I needed to drive and walking. It was easy to pick up where I left off.
I really couldn't figure what happened to the little girl. What a twist to the ending.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

VERY DETAILED...But great story

This book is pretttty slow. Very detailed where every single thing is described in unnecessary detail. I listened to most of the book at 1.25 and 1.5 speed. Performances are great all around. But it’s worth it at the end. The story concludes very well

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic book

This book was amazing. The narration was great and the story kept me interested the whole time.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic Read!

A heart wrenching story that keeps you guessing what’s real and what isn’t until the very end. Fantastic read!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

Great story, narrated brilliantly. I was hooked right from the beginning through to the end.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

One of the best narrations ever

The brilliant narration helped the overall story or should I say the pace, it kept it truly fast and engaging.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

Not her best work. The story is weak and the ending seemed like grasping to wrap up a dismal plot.

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Hardly memorable

I enjoyed this book when I read it (listened to it), but a month or two later, as I go to write this review, I had no memory of it. I truly drew a blank. Of course, once I read the book summary, it came back to me, and I remembered the storyline. There were surprises and twists and turns I did not see coming, so it was good in that respect, but my lack of recollection afterwards tells me that it wasn't compelling enough to engage me on a deeper level. Even for fiction, I want to be moved in some way, to be made to think, to ponder the lessons long afterward.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great story

I loved the flow of the story and how flawed but real the characters were.

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