Book Title: The Death Of Mrs. Westaway
Author: Ruth Ware
Series: None
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Goodreads
Pub Date: 05/29/18
4 STARS

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.

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Centered around slow building suspense and tension you could cut with a knife, gothic thriller THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY is Ms. Ware’s most ambitious and entertaining novel to date.

All hail Queen Ruth Ware! It’s no secret that lady authors have been taking over the psychological thriller scene in the past decade (GiRl PoWeR), but there are a handful that seem to come to the forefront when planning out what we want to read over the summer months. Ms. Ware has been a highly coveted name in recent years and for good reason; whether you have read her books from the beginning or are just jumping into her scene, you’ll note that she writes a gripping novel with memorable characters and breathtaking atmosphere. While all of her novels would be shelved clearly under the psych thriller persona, this one shined more brightly than the rest, at least in my opinion, due to it’s departure into the gothic suspense territory.

I’m a huge fan of stories where the atmosphere is as formidable a character as the people who are making the action happen. The Death Of Mrs. Westaway was the perfect example of such a tale, and the oppressive setting ramps up the unsettled feeling in the reader from the very first page. I almost felt that this book gave off some serious Agatha Christie vibes, but with a modern flair. The slow burning mystery portion of the novel was fantastic; it’s not so much about the “who” but the “why” and the “how” in this case. The unraveling of what’s really going on had a very traditionalist feel to it, and I wholly embraced the slight changes in the story that brought us to a climax that was both intense and gripping.

Do you like playing detective, perhaps finding clues along the journey of your reading experience? Then you’ll most certainly LOVE The Death Of Mrs. Westaway. The devil is in the details, and that phrase couldn’t ring more true than it does in this particular story. I had such a blast trying to solve the mystery in all it’s parts and found, while a slow burn through and through, I couldn’t put it down due to the story’s compulsive nature. Dark, unsettling, and full of unexpected twists, Ms. Ware has created one of the “it” stories of 2018. Highly recommended!

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.