Some situations have no simple resolution; all we can do is steer the course that causes the least harm. This isn't my first go with a Ruth Ware novel. I first read The Woman in Cabin 10 because I wanted to know what the hype was all about. Plus, I love thrillers. Like, really love them. Like, I'm in the process of writing one. And I wouldn't have started writing it if I hadn't read Ruth Ware's books.
The Death of Mrs. Westaway is predominantly told from the third-person, following Harriet 'Hal' Westaway, a poor fortune-teller from the seaside town of Brighton, UK. Her life telling fortunes with tarot cards on the pier doesn't pay well, but it's the legacy left by her mother, Maggie, who died in a hit-and-run accident several years before. Things change when Hal gets a letter from a lawyer in Penzance saying that her grandmother, whom she has never met, died and left her something in her will. But this woman cannot be her grandmother... Can she? Hal has her doubts. With unscrupulous debt collectors hot on her trail, Hal takes up the offer as a means of escape. It brings her to Trepassen House and to her newfound family: the will-obsessed Uncle Harding, his compassionate wife Mitzi, their children, Harding's brother Able, his boyfriend Edward, and the youngest of the brothers, angsty and aloof Ezra. She also meets the decrepit old housekeeper, Mrs. Warren, who seems to hate everyone but Ezra. The only person missing is Maud, Ezra's twin sister. As Hal learns about the Westaways, she discovers a secret deep and dark involving her mother and Maud, who are both Margarida Westaway - first cousins who share the same name. Will Hal be exposed as a fraud who does not stand to inherit anything? Will she be embraced by her newfound family? Worse... Is one of them out to kill her in order to keep their secret hidden away for good? I won't give the ending away because, well, it's absolutely worth finding out for yourself. I will say this, though - the novel doesn't lag. I'm someone who will easily put a book down and never look at it again if it starts to dull in any part. I didn't have that problem with his novel, and I haven't had it with any of Ware's other works. The way Ware writes tarot cards into the story is clever and appealed to me, someone who owns and uses tarot cards. She never strays too far into the mystical, keeping Hal and the story itself feeling realistic. But there is that touch of otherworldly mystery that drives the narrative. It's a novel worth reading, even if you're not big into thrillers. Where to find Ruth Ware online: Amazon Author Page
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives |