This is a taut, Rebecca-esque Gothic murder mystery that I would very likely have rated 4 stars back in my teenage reading days. But my reading tastes have changed over time—the genre isn’t a favorite anymore (I picked this book up as it was a 2019 Goodreads Choice Award in the mystery/thriller category) and I’m harsher with believability errors in a story. And so 3 stars are what it gets. Regardless, I enjoyed the story and Ms. Ware’s writing. 

You know within the first few pages of the book that a child is dead and the narrator, a young woman named Rowan Caine, working as the nanny, stands accused of murder. The book is written as a letter by Rowan from prison to a solicitor, in which she pleads her innocence and beseeches him for help in her case. She describes the events leading to her incarceration, in great detail in this letter. This had me scratching my head: who writes a letter, that too to an attorney, describing every thought, emotion, dialogue and scenery? Wouldn’t an in person recounting of events have been more believable? But you realize at the end (I’m not giving anything away) that Ms. Ware was forced to choose this narrative construct for her story to work! While this detracts from believability, she has nevertheless crafted a compelling suspenseful story.

The writing draws you in with its setting in an expansive Scottish estate and a hi-tech Smart home which is a character in itself—where everything from the lights to the shower and kitchen appliances are controlled through digital panels and apps. And of course, there are cameras everywhere! Ms. Ware skillfully uses the combination of the young nanny’s unfamiliarity with the house, the often unsuccessful interaction with the technology needed to live in it, and the recalcitrant children in her charge, to successfully create an eerie atmosphere guaranteed to give you goosebumps if you read the book in a quiet house after dark! Being a parent is perhaps helpful in empathizing with the general sleep deprivation and disorientation that Rowan feels in having to attend to a toddler, two young brats and a teenager, all at the same time; and the nightmare to come.