The way this book was written, I was so worried for Hal and what was going to happen.

The Writing: Ruth Ware’s writing is engrossing! She tells this story with a first person perspective and I found that I was really connected to the main character, Hal. I am totally on the Ruth Ware bandwagon now! The entire story is told from one perspective: that of Hal.įrom the moment the will is read out, the story moves from the straightforward path of deception to a maze-like structure, with Hal in the middle of it.This is my second Ruth Ware book, and I really enjoyed it. At every step, the reader has a full view of Hal’s extreme trepidation, but also her astonishing courage and presence of mind, the way she navigates the choppy waters of family conversations without giving anything away.

The build-up to the first mini-climax - the reading of Mrs Westaway’s will - is masterfully done. But soon enough, with danger too close, she flees, headed for a town far away from Brighton, about to walk into a family she plans to deceive, drawing upon her ‘people skills’ as a tarot reader. To her credit, despite her dire circumstances, Hal doesn’t rush off to claim the legacy - because she knows it’s not hers, and impersonation is a crime. It’s puzzling because Hal only knows about her maternal grandparents, who’ve been dead for ages she was brought up by a single mother, and was orphaned at eighteen by a car that hit her mother. Harriet ‘Hal’ Westaway - young, broke, threatened by a loan shark, and eking out a living in Brighton through tarot reading - one day gets a puzzling letter: it tells her that her grandmother, Mrs Hester Westaway, has just died and that she’s among the beneficiaries of a “substantial” estate.

The story is a family drama that’s also a breathtaking thriller, unfolding within the tight circle of an ancestral home. Author Ruth Ware has so far been most famous for her second novel, The Woman in Cabin 10.(Photo: Instagram/Ruthwarewriter)Īfter this novel, her fourth, the writer won’t need any further introductions, perhaps - for the book comes close to perfectly fitting the description ‘tour de force’. No wonder, the cover of The Death of Mrs Westaway introduces her as the writer of that book, which was her second. Since The Woman in Cabin 10 hit the bookshelves two years ago, author Ruth Ware has been the writer whose name on a book cover is guaranteed to have a copy at least picked up for a flip-through.

Review the death of mrs westaway