Published in 2018, The Death of Mrs Westaway is a stand alone mystery novel and my seventh book by Ruth Ware. Like a heroin addict, I'm chasing the high of my very first Ruth Ware novel The Turn of the Key but again didn't manage to reach those giddy, gasp-worthy heights.
Harriet Westaway goes by Hal and when her mother died, Hal took over her job as a tarot card reader in a kiosk on Brighton Pier. Being hassled by a local loan shark, Hal can't believe her luck when she receives a letter advising that her grandmother has died and left her an inheritance. Not knowing much about the Westaway family yet confident it's a mistake, Hal ventures to the Cornwall estate for the funeral, hoping to stay quiet about any mixup and leave with enough to pay her loan shark and outstanding bills.
Needless to say, Hal gets more than she bargained for and the reader is drawn in by the tumbledown estate and fractured family members who don't seem to be mourning the death of Mrs Westaway at all. Secrets abound in this gothic mystery and someone is out to harm Hal.
The setting was gloomy and the atmosphere was tense which kept the pace rolling along however I felt there was too much internalising by our main character as she weighed the ethics of carrying out her deception and then struggled to unearth the truth of her parentage and the death of her mother. This slowed the pace right down and seemed a little repetitive at times.
Ultimately The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware will appeal to mystery readers who love a wealthy family with flawed characters, a neglected family estate in need of repair, a nasty as hell housekeeper and generational secrets that will blow it all apart.
Carpe Librum!
