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?

TWIN PEAKS Return Doesn't Disappoint

It is happening again.

David Lynch's surrealist mystery Twin Peaks is back again after 25 years, on Showtime cable network, and it remains as eerie and disturbing as ever.

The narrative resumes where the original series left off. Familiar local characters return, much older now --- Deputy Hawk, Lucy Brennan, the Log lady. New characters are introduced in other locations. Beneath the surface, the transcendent evil that inhabited the woods around Twin Peaks has now spread through a portal to infect the wider world.

All the trademark Lynchian themes are present. The link between reality and dreams. The fluidity of past and future time. The synchronicity of seemingly separate occurrences. It's all a metaphysical jigsaw puzzle overlaid against a criminal investigation mystery.

We wait until FBI agent Dale Cooper can find a way to escape from the limbo place where he remains trapped. When that happens, Cooper can begin to oppose the shape-shifting evil that has been set loose. In Lynch's vision, gateways exist between different levels of reality, doorways often represented by the crackling of electricity.

The dreamy, disorienting spell of Twin Peaks pulls us in once more.

THE CIRCLE Portrays Sinister Social Media World

The movie version of The Circle is out staring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson. The original novel by Dave Eggers is a creepy portrayal of both the pervasive influence, and the growing threat, of an all-powerful social media environment.

The Circle is the name of a powerhouse social media network community which seems to be a combination of Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon all rolled into one overwhelming entity.

When Mae Holland gets a coveted job at The Circle headquarters, she is awestruck by the perfectly conceived design of the corporate campus and the perfectly aligned functions of the Circle operating model.

At The Circle, community joining and total sharing is the ultimate value above all else. Complete transparency of all individual lives of Circle members is required. Accepted Circle wisdom is:

All that happens must be known.
Secrets are lies.
Privacy is theft.

As Mae Holland gets ever more deeply immersed into her life within the Circle network, it becomes her only self-reality. But there are consequences. Meanwhile, the influence of The Circle over all aspects of human lives continues to grow exponentially. The goal is that every person on the planet must be required to have a Circle account. The Circle plan for absolute watching and knowing is being put into motion, as Mae eventually learns.

The Circle is a timely and chilling dystopian depiction of an insidious social media presence that in many respects is already here.

THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 an Eerie Mystery

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware is an eerie psychological mystery set within the claustrophobic confines of a huge luxury yacht.

Lo Blacklock is a travel journalist assigned to cover the week long cruise of the Aurora on the North Sea. The handful of passengers are a mix of wealthy or celebrity guests invited on the luxurious cruise. But it all changes when Lo thinks she sees a woman thrown overboard one night.

Lo's report of what she saw is not believed. No one from the passengers or crew is missing. Lo herself has had problems with drinking and use of anti-depressants. She suffers from sudden panic attacks. Is the lost woman all in Lo's head, or is there a cover-up going on of a real murder aboard the boat?

The Woman in Cabin 10 starts slowly, but builds in intensity as a paranoid Lo suspects everyone around her, until a startling plot twist changes everything that went before. The novel is the kind of story that fans of seemingly insoluble mystery situations will enjoy.


A CHILLING SUSPENSE THRILLER BY WILLIAM WILDE




Don't ever go into that room.

Now available in Paperback and eBook at Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BY7BG8#nav-subnav

WAYWARD PINES Series a Sinister Psychological Puzzle

Wayward Pines is a new mystery mini-series debuting on FOX TV May 14. The pilot episode (available now on Comcast On Demand) shows strong potential of a layered puzzle with unexpected twists to come.

Secret Service agent Ethan Burke is sent to the isolated town of Wayward Pines, Idaho to look for two missing fellow agents. He's involved in a sudden car crash and awakens in the town hospital. Nothing is normal after that.

Ethan can't get a phone call to the outside world. The local sheriff is menacing and unhelpful. The town residents seem to be hiding something. The highway out is a circular road, leading right back into the town again.

Ethan is suffering from a concussion. References are made to his past mental problems. Nothing about the town seems normal, or is it all in Ethan's own mind? Then it gets worse when he finds the body of one of the missing agents in an abandoned house.

Wayward Pines is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, whose past films have featured artificial reality situations with hidden secrets lurking beneath (Signs, The Village). In Wayward Pines, some characters seem to be manipulating events around Ethan, and at one point, he is referred to by a number. Is the whole town part of some kind of experiment or a test? Or is it a mental treatment facility or even a high tech prison?

Based on the first episode, Wayward Pines looks like a sinister psychological puzzle that should appeal to fans of other enigmatic series like Twin Peaks, Lost, and The Prisoner.

Uneasy Suspense in TWO FACES OF JANUARY

Two Faces of January, now out on DVD, is a deceptive movie that mixes intriguing character drama with uneasy, slow building suspense.

Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, the movie is set in Greece in the early Sixties. Three main characters come into accidental contact. Chester McFarland, middle-aged, and his much younger wife, Collette, are seemingly normal tourists in Athens. Rydal Keener is a young American ex-pat working as a tour guide while running minor money cons on the side.

In reality, Chester is an embezzler on the run after stealing investment funds from clients. Rydal is openly attracted to Collette as the three of them become acquainted. When Chester gets involved in an unexpected death, Rydal impulsively agrees to abet the couple's hasty flight to Crete to avoid the police.

Why does Rydal get himself entangled in a crime? Why does Chester allow Rydal to hang around with them, despite his obvious flirtation with Collette? This unstable triangle moves tensely toward an outcome we are never sure of. The plot has an edgy unpredictability that generates apprehension of something dangerous coming, but what is it?

Whether you read the Highsmith novel or see the movie version, Two Faces of January is a nice choice for fans of chilly, ominous suspense dramas.