Ruth Ware is the author of the bestsellers The Woman In Cabin 10, The Lying Game, and In a Dark, Dark Wood. With The Death of Mrs. Westaway she brings a touch of Daphne DuMaurier to her story of a woman wrapped up in a lie to gain an inheritance.
Harriet Westaway makes a meagre living pretending to tell fortunes and read tarot cards on the Brighton pier. With no family, and drowning in past due bills, she thinks it a wonder to receive a lawyer's letter stating she is part of a family inheritance. It's a mistake of course, Harriet has no family, but the wish for money makes her travel to the Westaway estate and impersonate a long lost granddaughter. Constantly berating herself for lying (which gets tiresome) she meets the oddball Westaway relatives and discovers she will be a sole beneficiary. Some don't care, others are outraged, and mysterious accidents begin happening.
This creepy mansion, long-lost-relative, secrets-from-the-past-about-to-be-unearthed mystery, complete with an angry-yet-silent housekeeper is quite light, and tries to impersonate a golden age mystery, but fails for the same reason In A Dark, Dark Wood did - a lead character without enough oomph. Harriet isn't strong enough to speak up and comes off as a wuss, I thought. Anyone who has read Agatha Christie or DuMaurier will quickly see through the plot twists, which lessens the "spellbinding menace". Her novels always cover the Costco tables, so will probably all become movies. This was Just OK.
New paperback cover price $24.99. Costco sale price $19.99. Thrift store price (unread, across the street from Costco) $.75 cents
2018 / Tradeback/ 368 pages
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