This book is a psychological thriller about young women who apply for a position as a carer to an elderly lady, and end up dead. At the opening of the novel, two young ladies –Matilde and Jemima – have already died when another, Una, takes the position. The elderly woman, Elspeth, is very rich and lives in a large, mansion-style home with her adopted daughter, Kathryn, and is not as frail as she puts on. Una makes friends with the cook, and through conversations, Una surmises that the deaths of the two previous carers were possible murders, and Kathryn seems to be the prime suspect. Kathryn is an unlikeable woman, married to a man who does little to help her with her two sons. She doesn’t like any of the carers, who – not by coincidence – look very much like Viola, Elspeth’s real daughter who left home as a teen. Una relays all her concerns to her best friend, Courtney, sharing some also with Aggie, the cook. When Una seems to get too close, finding a bag of clothes and Jemima’s passport in the cellar, she is mysteriously killed. After Una is killed, Willow is hired. And the amateur sleuthing continues.

Anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller and murder mystery with many twists in the plot.

The strained relationship between Elspeth and her adopted daughter, Kathryn. This is used to throw suspicion on Elspeth for a while, then on Kathryn, keeping readers constantly guessing. I liked that the details of the past are slowly uncovered to the readers from different characters’ perspectives.

The way the police were made to seem incompetent. They ignored the obvious, took years to finally link like-murders together. Then it took years for the PI to find out that Viola was in fact dead. I didn’t like the end of the book, as the true murderer was revealed, and all the information spouted out to back up the actions of the murderer.

Disappointed. The first half of the book had me totally engaged. But I lost some interest after Una’s murder. Then, I was disappointed with the manner in which the murderer was revealed.

Did such a brave thing having a main character killed off. I was made to connect with this new girl, only to have her find out information that becomes detrimental to her survival. I reveled in the danger, as she sniffed around for evidence of what was really going on in the McKenzie home. Then I was startled to read of her murder.

The author writes so many twists to the plot to keep readers enthralled in trying to solve the murders. The clever writing of the different perspectives, gives insight into the characters' psyches. The voice of the killer was also part of these perspectives, which had me trying to find out who this voice belonged to.

After Una’s murder, the conversations between her best friend (Courtney), the new carer (Willow) and Peter (Jemima’s brother) became a bit repetitive. And although secrets were still being uncovered, the story seemed to move along too slowly. Then, in a final twist at the end, when the murderer was revealed, family ties that we are not privy to are also revealed as explanations.

Although I was disappointed with the second half of this book, I do like the writing style of this author, and would read more of her books.

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Created Oct 18, 2024 at 10:23pm • Submit your own review...