Ah summer- the perfect time to curl up on the couch in the AC during a thunder boomer and read! I was excited to start my most recent read as there was a lot of hype surrounding Ruth Ware’s The Death of Mrs. Westaway. I read The Woman in Cabin 10 last year and found it initially enticing but it ended up falling a little flat for me. Although my hopes were high, I have to say the same about this one.
Hal is our protagonist in this thriller. She is a tarot card reader in her early 20’s reeling from the recent and sudden death of her mother. She is struggling to pay the bills and even owes scary loan sharks money. In a twist of fate she is unexpectedly contacted by a solicitor (English verbiage for lawyer) who notifies Hal that she has been named in the will of a Mrs. Westaway whom has recently passed away. She knows nothing about her mother’s family and did not know her father, however she is doubtful that this correspondence is rightfully meant for her. Seeing as she has nothing to lose, she decides to go to the estate of Mrs. Westaway, called Trepassan, to claim her prize. She believes that she can use the people -reading skills and intuition that she uses daily to make a living to convince this family that she is Mrs. Westaway’s long lost granddaughter and hopefully get some money out of it. Little does she know that Trepassan holds many dark and twisted secrets and that the family she is about to meet may not be one she wants to keep.
The novel has a dreary almost Gothic vibe and is set in rainy, cold England which is the perfect setting for a murder mystery. As I was reading I felt as if I was on the Clue game board; It was the Colonel with the knife in the kitchen! As with most mysteries I did successfully guess “who dun it” and was not overly satisfied with the outcome. I do enjoy Ruth’s detailed writing style and her character development. Overall even though it held my attention I would say to skip this one. Hoping her newest thriller, The Turn of the Key has a little more oomph to it!
2 Book Girls 