The Death of Mrs Westaway: A modern-day murder mystery from The Sunday Times Bestseller

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Reese Witherspoon is developing an 'In A Dark, Dark Wood' adaptation". EW.com . Retrieved 20 November 2017. Out of nowhere, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her an inheritance from a wealthy woman she is told is her grandmother. Hal knows an entirely different story of her upbringing, her grandparents and her entire life - she knows this letter was not meant for her. Despite this, her desperation leads her to attending the funeral, attempting to con this family into believing she is who they say she is. From here, things slowly descend into mayhem. Hal makes her living as a tarot card reader, a skill she learned from her mother. What do you think of tarot cards? Have you ever done a tarot card reading? What happened? We also are able to see actual glimpses of the past, and events that happened at Trepassen that help piece together everything a bit more. And Ruth Ware is able to add some really amazing, and really creepy, parallels that make you feel really unsettled while reading. Again, the atmosphere of this book is really well done, and I couldn’t help feeling claustrophobic in that attic myself. Hal’s stress has been growing. Colder weather is bringing the slow tourist season and a loan shark is after her. With little money and nobody to turn to, she’s running out of options. Then, one day, Hal receives a letter from a lawyer informing her that her grandmother has died, she’s been named in the will, and is set to receive a piece of the family estate. The trouble is Hal doesn’t have any family. She looks through all her mother’s papers, hoping for some kind of connection, but finds nothing.

The Turn of the Key (2019) is about a nanny and four children, written as if updating Henry James's The Turn of the Screw in a 21st-century setting. [25] In a Dark, Dark Wood (2015): New Line Cinema has acquired film rights. Reese Witherspoon's Pacific Standard is attached to produce. [29] Before embarking on her writing career as Ruth Ware, Ware wrote five young-adult fantasy novels as Ruth Warburton, all of which were published by Hodder's Children Books. In a Dark, Dark Wood Setting." Book Rags, www.bookrags.com/studyguide-in-a-dark-dark-wood/settings.html#gsc.tab=0. Accessed 8 Nov. 2017.

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The Death of Mrs. Westaway begins with Hal, a girl in her early 20s living on her own in Brighton. Hal makes a living by reading tarot cards on the pier, a job she took on when her mother died three years prior. She lives in the same apartment where she grew up, working the business her mother ran, and barely making enough to pay the bills. Because Maggie never returned home, Maud had taken over the role as Hal’s mother. She had lied to Hal about her father hoping to protect her. When Hal was about to turn 18, Maud wrote to her mother that she was going to tell Hal the truth about her parents. Hoping to protect himself, Ezra killed Maud. Knowing that Hal had learned the truth, Ezra tried to kill her too, but fell through the ice on the lake and died. Well, I suppose it was bound to happen. I’ve really enjoyed Ware’s previous novels and I see that this one has been well received for the most part. But, for me this one was a bit flat. It took me an age to get into the story, and the tried and true attempts to build suspense, were too obvious to be effective. Most of the family, however, embraces her as the daughter of their long lost sister and seem ready to accept her into the fold. Once the will is read, however, Hal is not so sure she wants any part of this, thinking she has perhaps dug herself into a really dark hole. Then she decides she will “take this step by step...with the slow, measured pace of a reading. She had to turn each card as it came, consider it, find it’s place in the story . . . . . only the next card was not a card at all, it was a photograph. the photograph . . . .”

Christie, Agatha (31 October 2017). Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Reprinted.). William Morrow. ISBN 9780062693662. In her crime books, Ware's writing style is often compared to that of Agatha Christie. [4] [5] Ware has said that some aspects of her writing are directly inspired by Christie. [6] Ware's protagonists are usually ordinary women who find themselves in dangerous situations involving a crime. The first two of Ware's novels feature a murder mystery with a group of people trapped, or otherwise restricted from immediately escaping the dangerous environment. Christie was famously known for utilizing this plot device, in novels such as Murder on the Orient Express. [7] Ware and Christie both choose settings and situations that foster the sense of dread that propels their characters to paranoia and often they react violently as a result. These environments create a sense of isolation for the events to unfold in. [8] Ware's settings play a key role in drawing in the reader and are as essential and integral to her story as the characters. In a Dark, Dark Wood." Penguin Books, https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1099571/in-a-dark-dark-wood/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2017. The premise of The Death of Mrs. Westaway is interesting enough. Hal receives a letter from a lawyer with the wonderful news that her grandmother left her an inheritance. Except, she's certain the lawyer sent the letter to the wrong person. But she goes anyways and hopes to defraud the family out of some money she desperately needs. Yep, I can be on board with that.A big thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster Canada and Ruth Ware for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!