Summer Reading: The Death of Mrs. Westaway

Ruth Ware has become one of my favorite authors (I read In a Dark, Dark Wood as part of my summer reading list a few years ago, I read The Lying Game in one day while I was camping in Hanna, and I am currently reading The Woman in Cabin 10). These books are all intense psychological thrillers involving vulnerable young women isolated in dangerous locations and I find them to be incredibly suspenseful. This is especially true of The Death of Mrs. Westaway, the next selection on this year's summer reading list. Ever since her mother died in a tragic car accident, Harriet "Hal" Westaway has been living a hand-to-mouth existence reading Tarot cards at her mother's stall on the pier at Brighton. She has more bills than she can possibly pay and is threatened by a loan shark wanting the money she owes. Soon she receives a letter from a solicitor informing her that she is a beneficiary in her grandmother's will. She knows that this cannot be true as she was told by her mother that her grandparents died before she was born, but she is so desperate that she decides to travel to the funeral and use her Tarot reading skills to pretend to be the heir. She finds herself at Trepassen House, an imposing and somewhat menacing estate, with all of the rightful heirs, who have dangerous secrets, and discovers that she herself is part of the biggest secret of all. Hal is one of Ware's most vulnerable characters (although I really appreciated the fact that she is not an unreliable narrator) but she has a powerful instinct for survival so she is one of her most interesting characters. I found her situation to be very compelling and I was very invested in the resolution which I found to be quite satisfying. I loved Ware's descriptions of Trepassen House. The atmosphere is so ominous and mysterious and the tension builds and builds until the dramatic final confrontation. The use of Tarot card readings adds to the sense of dread. There are lots of twists and turns and, just when I thought I had it all figured out, I was completely thrown off by the ending. This is an incredibly suspenseful Gothic thriller that I enthusiastically recommend!

Note:  Have you read The Death of Mrs. Westaway?  What did you think?