The #1 instant bestseller from the Agatha Christie of our times.

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.

About The Author

Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language, and a press officer before settling down as a full-time writer. She now lives with her family in Sussex, on the south coast of England. She is the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail (Toronto) bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood; The Woman in Cabin 10; The Lying Game; The Death of Mrs. Westaway; The Turn of the Key; One by One; The It Girl; Zero Days; and One Perfect Couple. Visit her at RuthWare.com or follow her on socials @RuthWareWriter.

Product Details

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 11, 2020)
Length: 384 pages
ISBN13: 9781982157524

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Raves and Reviews

“Irresistible from first page to final line.”
— THE GLOBE AND MAIL

"Let’s just say that if you’ve got an Echo, you’re going to unplug it as soon as you finish the book. . . . What Ware does beautifully is infuse The Turn of the Key with a creepy Gothic sensibility. For all of the novel’s contemporary touches—particularly the house’s malevolent smart technology—she has delivered an old-fashioned horror story, peopled by children with ‘eyes full of malice,’ a dour housekeeper straight out of Rebecca and an inscrutable handyman."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"A superb suspense writer. . . . Ware is a master at signaling the presence of evil at the most mundane moments. . . . Rowan stays put for reasons we won’t understand until the final act of this tragedy. And that’s when Ware’s gifts for structuring an ingenious suspense narrative really come to the fore. . . . Ware pulls out a stunner on the penultimate page that radically alters how we interpret everything that’s come before. Brava, Ruth Ware. I daresay even Henry James would be impressed."
— THE WASHINGTON POST

“This appropriately twisty Turn of the Screw update finds the Woman in Cabin 10 author in her most menacing mode, unfurling a shocking saga of murder and deception.”
— ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"A ghost story for the twenty-first century, a propulsive gothic thriller with characters you’ll really care about. With this book, Ruth Ware proves she’s the true heir to Wilkie Collins. Creepy, engrossing, and oh-so-hard to put down."
— JP DELANEY, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before

"Ruth Ware has been called the Agatha Christie of our generation… The Turn of the Key is a great read. You’re going to enjoy it very much."
— DAVID BALDACCI, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Redemption and One Good Deed

"Ware cleverly puts a high-tech spin on [The Turn of the Screw’s] gothic foundations of spellbinding menace set in a remote cavernous mansion with mysterious locked doors and a spooky garden… Ware’s James-like embroidery of the strange and sinister produces a Turn of the Screw with cellphones and Teslas that will enthrall today’s readers… it will not disappoint."
— BOOKLIST, starred review

"Diabolically clever. Twisty and creepy, The Turn of the Key is Ruth Ware's best book yet. Read with a blanket nearby, because you will get shivers up your spine."
— RILEY SAGAR, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Time I Lied

"Ware hits another one out of the park. Fans of hers or anyone with a taste for the disturbing will stay up late devouring this."
— LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review

“Ware does a good job of creating tension. . . . But above all, Ware skillfully lays the bread crumbs to the novel’s satisfying conclusion . . . [that] leaves readers with one final, haunting question, one that will stay with them long after they turn the last page.”
— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review

"Pure suspense, from the first gripping page to the last shocking twist."
— ERIN KELLY, bestselling author of He Said/She Said

“Truly terrifying! Ware perfects her ability to craft atmosphere and sustain tension with each novel.”
— KIRKUS REVIEWS