Review: The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

Title: The Death of Mrs. Westaway

Author: Ruth Ware

Published: May 2018, Gallery/Scout Press

Format: ARC E-copy, 384 pages

Source: Netgalley via Publisher

Summary:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game comes Ruth Ware’s highly anticipated fourth novel. 

On
a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter
bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly
that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the
cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her
claim the money.

Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the
deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong
about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it.

Full
of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful
style, this is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our
time.

My thoughts: Ruth Ware is one of those authors that I put everything down to read – I’ve read each of her books so far, discovering her when she was signing copies of her debut book, In a Dark, Dark Wood at Book Expo back in 2015. Since then, I’ve been such a fan – and I’m so excited that she will once again be at Book Expo this year – I so hope to see her again, so I can gush about her books!!!

As much as I have enjoyed her previous books, I think this latest one might be my favorite one yet. I love it as much for the characters as for the atmosphere – this one definitely has a much more Gothic feel to it and it works so well. Even the tarot card angle added to the overall creepiness of this book – all these layers give this book such dimension and suspense to create a well-rounded, utterly dark, unsettling sense of foreboding that makes up this book. 

This book is not so much a fast-burning mystery as it is a more slow-burning one, which I also really liked. And I loved the diary entries interspersed throughout the chapters that added to the overall mystery. At first, you are trying to figure out who they are written by and then you are trying to figure out who they are referring to. The overall mystery of this book is made up of many layers, so while you might figure out one, it’s unlikely you will figure out everything…and that’s the fun in this book. It really will keep you on your toes as all the pieces are slowly unraveled. 

This was such a creepy, twisty read. It is intriguing and cleverly crafted so that you just don’t want to put it down. This is definitely going down as a favorite!!!