Albany Junior High School Library

Notes

Ruth Ware
343 pages
Inspired by Henry James' novella The turn of the screw On cover: There dream house will become her worst nightmare
Summary: When Rebecca stumbles across an ad for a live-in nanny, she's looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss - with a staggeringly generous salary. And when she arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten - by the luxurious "smart" house fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture perfect family. What Rebecca doesn't know is that she's stepping into a nightmare - one that will end with a child dead and Rebecca in prison awaiting trial for murder. Writing to her lawyer from prison, Rebecca struggles to explain the unravelling events that have led to her incarceration. It wasn't just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn't just the children, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn't even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant. It was everything. Rebecca knows she's made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behaviour toward the children wasn't always ideal. She's not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she's not guilty - at least not of murder. Which means someone else is