Ruth Ware's new Suspense Novel Is a Sinister Enigma

The Turn of a Key is the latest novel by popular Psychological Suspense author Ruth Ware. This new offering is an ambiguous one. The novel has jarring narration and plot twists which may leave many readers uncertain, depending on how they interpret the final pages.

The opening story setup is promising. Rowan Caine takes what seems a cushy, high paying job as a family nanny in a remote manor house in the Scottish Highlands. But troubles for Rowan begin almost immediately. The parents must leave on a work assignment in Europe. The three small children left with Rowan are an unruly handful. Then there's the house itself, which seems to have a sinister presence about it.

There are faint echoes of the Henry James classic The Turn of the Screw. The children whisper vaguely about ghosts somewhere. The novel works overtime to build Gothic creepiness, from phantom footsteps in the night to an ominous locked door.

The structure of the novel has the story narrated by Rowan in letters to an attorney as she is being held in jail after a death in the house. But the plot takes a wrenching turn in the last third when vital new information is suddenly given to the reader that has been withheld from the beginning. Talk about an unreliable narrator! Things turn even more upside down at the conclusion when more new revelations make the reader question the validity of the entire prior narrative.

The Turn of a Key is a psychological enigma which offers one direct answer at the end. But is it the right answer?

THE BITTEROOTS a Rugged Montana Crime Thriller

The Bitterroots by C.J. Box is the author's fourth Western-set crime novel to feature investigator Cassie Dewell, who appeared previously in The Highway and Badlands and Paradise Valley. Cassie is mid-thirties, not very tall, and somewhat overweight. But she's a sharp investigator and a good shot when she has to be. This combination makes her character both realistic and appealing.

Cassie is a former sheriff's detective in Montana and North Dakota, but she left law enforcement after bad experiences in two departments. She's now a private investigator based in Bozeman, Montana. A local attorney has a defendant in a sexual assault case and hires Cassie to dig into the background of the charges.

Cassie travels to the isolated town of Horston, where the alleged assault took place, set below the rugged Bitterroot Range in western Montana. Once there, she runs into early trouble. A powerful local ranching family wants her to quit poking into the rape charges and leave town. But Cassie finds some details of the case don't add up. As she keeps digging, she ends up arrested in the local jail. Then it gets even more dangerous for her.

 The Bitterroots is a western crime novel as tough edged as its rugged setting. Author C.J. Box has another compelling read in the Cassie Dewell series.