I really love books set in creepy buildings… and I love them even more if isolation is thrown into the mix, so The Turn of the Key had my name written all over it. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty-at least not of murder. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal.

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 wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. 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. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare-one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten-by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss-a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely.

Published by Gallery/Scout Press on August 6, 2019

The turn of the key novel