Review of The Turn of the Key, by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Mystery 0

The Turn of the Key

by Ruth Ware
read by Imogen Church

Review written December 30, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Simon & Schuster Audio, 2019. 12 hours, 13 minutes.

The Turn of the Key is Ruth Ware at her most frightening. Never mind what I said in my last review of one of her books – even though this is the fourth one of her books I’ve read in the last half of 2024, I had no idea what was going to happen in this one. Well, except what the person telling the story told us – she was in prison for murder for the death of a child. The book is her writing to a lawyer the other ladies in prison have said is good for no-chance cases.

Before I talk about the book, let me say that this book is extremely well-written and had me on the edge of my seat all the way. The plot wasn’t predictable, and so many small things combined to keep the tension high. So why am I not giving it a star? Well, a child dies. And even watching all the pieces come together to explain mysterious events isn’t enough to make me feel good about the story. I was left with a sinking feeling at the end of the book, so I feel like my review has to include a fair warning. Not only does someone die whom you’ve come to care about, it’s a child.

And the author absolutely tells you that right from the start. So if I wasn’t able to handle that, I probably shouldn’t have read the book. And I did thoroughly enjoy reading the book and couldn’t stop thinking about it – but it didn’t give me the usual happy feeling at the end when a mystery is solved.

Anyway, that said, the story is told by Rowan Caine. She discovered an opportunity to be a nanny for two architects and their four children in a remote part of Scotland. Rowan is up front that she told some lies to get the position, and her reasons are some of the mysteries in the book. But it has an enormous salary, and the family seems nice, and the teenage daughter is off to boarding school when Rowan is first due to arrive.

The initial interview – a day with the family – went great, but when Rowan shows up for duty, she’s told the parents are heading to a conference the very next day. The previous nannies have left because they thought the house was haunted, but Rowan firmly believes that’s a load of bunk. All the same, when she starts hearing pacing in the night above her room – where there shouldn’t even be a room – and when the “smart” house malfunctions in the night, and when the children get her told off after they lead her into the poison garden on the grounds – well, she doesn’t know what’s going on or where to turn. The lady who comes in to clean doesn’t seem to like her, and the handyman/driver is helpful, but she doesn’t want him to think she’s a neurotic female who needs to be rescued.

The situation builds, with one thing after another. Just when Rowan thinks she’s getting a break, something more happens. And it all ends with the death of a child. And when Rowan tried to explain to the police what had been going on, she only makes them more suspicious.

It’s another thriller with expertly done, twisty suspense. Pick it up with a fair warning.

ruthware.com

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Review of A Christmas Visitor, by Anne Perry, read by Terrence Hardiman

Audiobooks, Christmas, Fiction Review, Mystery 0

A Christmas Visitor

by Anne Perry
read by Terrence Hardiman

Blackstone Audio, 2006. 3 hours, 59 minutes.
Review written December 24, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

Okay, here’s one last cozy Christmas mystery for this year. This is the second one written by Anne Perry. The sleuth in this book is the gentleman Henry Rathbone, a friend of William and Hester Monk from her Victorian mystery series. He’s the same main character as in A Christmas Odyssey, a book I decided not to review because it’s not really a cozy mystery, searching the “dark underbelly” of London for a friend’s long lost son, and contains some casual transphobia against the characters found there.

But this book has plenty of coziness and snow-covered landscapes to get you in a Christmas mood. Henry Rathbone is the title visitor, visiting a family of friends at their estate in the Lake District of England. But unfortunately, a few weeks before, Judah, the owner of the estate, was found dead after apparently trying to cross icy stepping stones late at night after his son’s recital. Judah was a judge, and meanwhile, a man recently freed after years in prison, is accusing Judah of wrongfully imprisoning him in order to buy his estate.

As the family gathers from far-flung corners of the earth, it’s left to Henry to break the news to Judah’s siblings, rather than leave it to his widow. It seems strange that Judah would have gone for that walk late at night, and no one believes the accusation for a moment, so there’s plenty to investigate, and we get time with the interesting family members at the same time.

I have clearly listened to too many Anne Perry Christmas mysteries this year – I’m starting to be annoyed by how they can be weak on actual proof of the crime, and that it’s just about figuring it out, which is often guesswork. But still, taking me to Victorian England in the snow at Christmas time is a nice way to honor the holiday.

anneperry.us

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Review of A Christmas Escape, by Anne Perry

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Mystery 0

A Christmas Escape

by Anne Perry
read by Steven Crossley

Recorded Books, 2015. 3 hours, 41 minutes.
Review written December 20, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

Yes, I’m listening to one Anne Perry Christmas novella after another in the lead up to Christmas, after I finished all the eaudiobooks my library has available that are eligible for the Cybils in the Young Adult Speculative Fiction category. Overdrive informs me that this is the thirteenth one she wrote.

I enjoyed this one for having quite a different flavor from the others – instead of being set in a remote English village, it’s set on an island in Italy, next to an active volcano. Our main character Charles Latterly isn’t obviously from any other of Anne Perry’s books. He’s a lonely gentleman going on vacation over Christmas to warmer shores. The host makes him welcome in the small hotel, with wonderful food, and assures them that it has stood safely there at the foot of the volcano for generations.

Charles goes out walking on the hillside the next day and encounters a charming fourteen-year-old girl and her elderly guardian. But when they get back to the hotel, there’s disharmony among the guests when the visiting author claims that someone tried to push him off the mountain.

And then things get much more frightening the next day when the volcano begins to erupt. To be completely safe, they need to get down to the beach, but that means walking a long way – and sure enough, before they set out they discover a murder.

I enjoyed listening to this one a bit more than the others, because the danger of the eruption had me riveted. The mystery itself felt contrived, and the motive unlikely, and it wasn’t solved by deduction so much as guesswork. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story. And I liked the friendly, almost fatherly relationship that developed between Charles Latterly and the teenage girl in the time of danger.

And, yes, everything resolves and most of the characters reach safety on Christmas Day.

anneperry.us

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Review of A Christmas Beginning, by Anne Perry

Audiobooks, Christmas, Fiction Review, Mystery 0

A Christmas Beginning

by Anne Perry
read by Terrence Hardiman

Blackstone Audio, 2007. 4 hours, 7 minutes.
Review written December 19, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

Another cozy murder mystery for Christmas! I’ve discovered I can make up for always needing to read for the Cybils Awards in December by listening to audiobooks of some of the titles I’ve missed. Overdrive informs me that this is Number Five. I think I might have read it many years ago, but now the completist in me wants to write a review. The order definitely doesn’t matter, because most of the characters come from various others of Anne Perry’s books.

A Christmas Beginning features Superintendent Runcorn of the London police, a former boss of Monk – the main detective in one of Anne Perry’s other series. (I hope to listen to some of those other series soon.) It appears that Runcorn and Monk don’t like each other much.

In this book, Runcorn has come to the small island of Anglesey on vacation at Christmastime. To his surprise, he runs across a disagreeable man he knew in conjunction with a London case. But this is notable because during the course of that case he fell in love with the man’s beautiful sister, Melisande. He goes to church in hopes of encountering her as well. He does, but learns that her brother has gotten her engaged to a local constable who is also a gentleman. Runcorn is very aware throughout the book of his socially inferior status, which was all the more important in the late 1800s when this is set.

Later in the churchyard, Runcorn discovers the body of a beautiful young lady whom he also saw in church, the sister of the vicar. She was a friend of Melisande, who begs him to help solve the case. It turns out that the young lady had been courted by three different men, including Melisande’s brother and her current fiance. The woman seems to have been killed by someone who knew her, because she was facing the assailant and didn’t run away. So if Runcorn can figure out why those courtships ended, maybe he can learn about the case. And even though solving the case will make the local constable look good, he cares so much about Melisande’s peace of mind, he can’t bring himself to turn away.

And that’s the crux of this novella – solving the crime is dependent on learning about the relationships of the deceased. And you’ve got a little romance thrown in as well. It’s more of a story than a puzzle, but it’s a nice cozy Christmasy one – you can read about the characters out and about in the cold while you’re cozying up to this book by a fire.

anneperry.us

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Lying Game, by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense 0

The Lying Game

by Ruth Ware
read by Imogen Church

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2017. 13 hours, 40 minutes.
Review written August 27, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

I’m listening to too many Ruth Ware books too close together. I listened to my first one when I was on the Newbery committee reading only children’s books – and it was a perfect contrast. Now I confess I keep going because I’m a bit of a completist, and I know that I do enjoy her audiobooks. This one was still good, still got me listening avidly, full of tension – but I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the others I’ve listened to.

The main obstacle? It’s hard for me to sympathize with liars. (Fictional liars cause so much trouble that could just be solved by telling the truth! Yes, this is a pet peeve.) Isa, the main character of this book, was part of a “lying game” with three other friends when she was away at boarding school. Kate was in charge of it, and awarded points if you fooled people, with different points for various levels of lying. But one of the big rules was that they didn’t lie to each other.

In the present, Isa gets a text from Kate, and she comes running – along with Thea and Fatima, back to Kate’s home on the coast next to the school. Isa brings her baby along, and lies to her partner and everybody else about why she’s visiting after fifteen years away. Supposedly, it’s to go to an alumni dinner at the school, but really it’s because the body the girls buried together has been found.

I always worry when the main character of a Ruth Ware book is in a happy relationship! Fortunately, Isa’s partner doesn’t die, but it’s definitely not smooth sailing. (See above about Lying.) And with Isa taking her baby everywhere, you’ve got to have great danger at the end of a thriller, and as feared, Isa’s baby is the one in danger.

But there’s twisty stuff going on finding out what happened fifteen years ago and who they can trust now and what part of the things even they thought about that body were truths and what part were lies. And can they keep the lies of the past from destroying their lives now?

ruthware.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The It Girl, by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review, Suspense 0

The It Girl

by Ruth Ware
read by Imogen Church

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 17 hours, 9 minutes.
Review written August 9, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Well, I have to confess – as I began listening to this audiobook, I was sure right from the start that I knew who the killer was and that I’ve been listening to too many Ruth Ware books. Reader, I was wrong. I’ll say no more except that she can still keep me guessing! And even when I thought I knew the solution, the story still kept me listening.

The It Girl is about a murder that happened ten years ago at an Oxford college to April Clarke-Cliveden, the roommate of Hannah Jones, at the end of their first year.

April was everything Hannah wasn’t, beautiful and rich and popular. She did have a habit of playing practical jokes that edged on mean-spirited, and she obviously wasn’t faithful to her boyfriend Will – a guy Hannah had a crush on – but April was vibrant and alive and drew a circle of friends around them.

As the book opens in the present, the man who was convicted for April’s murder, the creepy porter of their college, has died in prison, still maintaining his innocence. It all makes Hannah very uneasy, since she gave the evidence that put him away. Could she have been wrong?

We get the story told us “Before” and “After” – the story leading up to April’s death, their happy days at Oxford, and in the present, ten years later, with Hannah happily married to Will and expecting their first child. But a reporter who’s friends with one of their friends from Oxford gets under Hannah’s skin with the idea that maybe that porter wasn’t guilty after all.

And yes, Ruth Ware managed to surprise me. She tells a story so engaging it’s hard to stop listening, with characters you feel like you know, and then she adds a compelling mystery with of course danger to the main character when she learns too much, too late.

There are still some Ruth Ware books I haven’t read, and let’s see how long I can stand to wait before putting the next one on hold.

ruthware.com

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Review of Death at Morning House, by Maureen Johnson, read by Katherine Littrell

Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Death at Morning House

by Maureen Johnson
read by Katherine Littrell

HarperTeen, 2024. 9 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written October 28, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I believe that in reading this book, I’ve caught up on all the Maureen-Johnson-authored murder mysteries. And they’re good! As you can tell from her guidebook for adults, Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village, she knows the conventions of the great mystery novels and how to use them to create something modern and new.

Death at Morning House is a stand-alone murder mystery, not part of the Stevie Bell Truly Devious series, but like those books, there’s a place where mysterious deaths happened almost a hundred years ago – and there’s a more recent death – and then someone goes missing in the novel’s present day. We do get the story of the old deaths slowly revealed, and our teen protagonist Marlowe Wexler discovers clues to the modern-day deaths. And yes, finding those clues puts Marlowe in great danger – in this book, before she even knows who’s responsible.

As the book opens, it’s the start of summer, and Marlowe is taking the girl she’s long had a crush on to her aunt and uncle’s cabin – a place Marlowe is paid to watch over in their absence. Marlowe had gotten a special scented candle in a scent her crush likes – and while they are kissing, the candle explodes and the house sustains serious fire damage.

Marlowe does not respond well. She’s afraid to talk to her crush. She becomes famous in her small town as a pyromaniac (even though the police confirm it was an accident), and she decides the only way to cope is to mope around in bed.

But then her history teacher tells Marlowe about an opportunity to spend the summer on an island in the St. Lawrence River, part of a team of teens offering tours of a historic home there. It sounds like a great way to get out of town, but the teacher doesn’t tell Marlowe that the reason there’s an opening is that one of the local teens who was planning to be there recently died at a party after prom. And part of the history of the house is the two children who died there from the original family that owned the house.

It all adds up to a great story with interesting characters and a strong sense of place. And of course, a big storm comes in not long after someone new goes missing, so there’s no way to get off the island for help if anything bad should happen.

I have to say that I am completely on board with Maureen Johnson’s recent trend of writing mysteries. She’s good! The situations and characters are varied, but there’s always an intriguing puzzle and characters you enjoy spending time with – and hope will stay alive.

maureenjohnsonbooks.com

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Review of One of Us Is Lying, by Karen M. McManus

Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

One of Us Is Lying

by Karen M. McManus
read by Kim Mai Guest, MacLeod Andrews, Shannon McManus, and Robbie Daymond

Listening Library, 2017. 10 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written June 9, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

So — I finally got this wildly popular teen thriller read after hearing an interview with the author about her 2024 book, Such Charming Liars. I enjoyed this one tremendously.

The set-up is that five high school students get detention with the notoriously technophobic teacher at the school because someone planted a phone in their backpack – all five of them.

And then one of the students has a fatal allergic reaction after drinking water. They try to save him, but his epi-pen is missing, and all the epi-pens have been removed from the nurse’s office. It turns out there was peanut oil in the cup.

All four of the remaining students are suspects. It turns out that they, along with many other students at the high school, had strong motives for killing Simon. He ran a gossip website that was always accurate — and all four of them had secrets queued up on his admin site, ready to post.

There are four narrators to this audiobook because all four of the teens get to give their perspective. Their secrets have repercussions, and the pressures of the school finding out those secrets affect their lives beyond the murder investigation. And of course, there’s a murder investigation going on, too. The four kids include the girl who gets good grades and has her plans for Yale under control, the jock who’s getting recruited to play baseball, the rich girl who runs in the popular crowd, and the social outcast who’s already on probation for drug dealing. Because they’re all viewpoint characters, they all get our sympathy, and we become invested in the question of which one is the murderer.

This is an excellent thriller about interesting characters, and I’m happy to see it ended up being the start of a series, so I’ve got more books on my list immediately.

karenmcmanus.com

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Review of The Sherlock Society, by James Ponti

Children's Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Sherlock Society

by James Ponti

Aladdin, September 2024. 336 pages.
Review written June 29, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy sent by the publisher.
Starred Review

James Ponti has a series called City Spies that is wildly popular at our library – I have to keep ordering more copies. So when I saw that he’s starting a new series, I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

The Sherlock Society is a fun four-children-working-together middle grade mystery. I can understand the wide appeal. Brother and sister Alex and Zoe Sherlock decide to make money during the summer by solving mysteries, with the help of two friends and their grandpa – who used to be an investigative reporter, and has lots of tips – and a car.

The making money part may not work out so well for them, but while trying to unearth Al Capone’s treasure, they find a more pressing mystery – who is dumping chemicals in the Everglades? Is it their fault that following the clues leads them into danger? And can they find the evidence to actually land the crooks in jail?

The mystery has lots of action, good tips from their grandpa, and a believable story even with kid detectives. Four children on an adventure is classic middle grade fare, and I love the way this author pulls it off. I’m sure he’s got another hit on his hands.

JamesPonti.com
simonandschuster.com/kids

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Review of Nine Liars, by Maureen Johnson

Audiobooks, Mystery, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Nine Liars

by Maureen Johnson
read by Kate Rudd

Katherine Tegen Books, 2022. 11 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written August 3, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’m happy that I’m caught up reading Maureen Johnson’s Stevie Bell books. They began with a trilogy, and teenager Stevie Bell looking into a long-ago mystery at Ellingham Academy, the elite private school she was attending in Vermont – with more people turning up dead in the present. After solving that mystery, Stevie has become internet famous as a detective. In The Box in the Woods, she solves another cold case at a camp over the summer – with new deaths, of course, and in this book there’s yet another cold case for Stevie to solve.

This time the mystery happened in England in 1995. In the present day, it’s November, and Stevie’s in school in Vermont, trying to keep a long distance relationship going with David, who is studying in London. Then he pulls strings to get Stevie and their friends a week in London in a custom study abroad program. No surprise that Stevie gets pulled into a cold case – this time it’s because of David’s English friend’s aunt. Also no surprise that not everyone involved in the present day investigation will stay alive.

I enjoyed the way the mystery was presented – with plenty of chapters taking us back to 1995 and the group of nine theater students who’d just graduated from Cambridge having a house party at a manor house – and having a wild time until two were found dead.

I know that Maureen Johnson has spent a lot of time in London, and her writing about the students in London brought me right back to London myself. I like the way she gives intriguing mysteries to these distinctive characters we’ve come to care about. So while you could read this book on its own – the mystery is self-contained – why would you want to tackle it without enjoying all the history of Stevie and David and their friends?

maureenjohnsonbooks.com

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