The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware | Book Review

Posted on by Alyssa

Ruth Ware is one of my friend’s favourite authors. After pestering me to try one of her books, I am pleased to announce (and I’m sure she is too!) that I have read a Ruth Ware book.

Seems like I’ve been gravitating towards domestic thrillers recently, and I have no idea why. Anyway— onto the review:

The Death of Mrs. Westaway

by Ruth Ware 

Edition: Hardcover, 368 pages

Publication Date: May 29th 2018 by Scout Press

ISBN: 1501156217 (ISBN13: 9781501156212)

Goodreads Blurb:

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 centre of it.

Inheritance. Fraud. Secrets.

If you were to ask me to describe this book, those are the words I would use. ‘The Death of Mrs Westaway’ is about Hal, a girl struggling to make ends meet after the death of her mother. When she receives a letter addressed directly to her about an inheritance left for her after the death of her grandmother. Hal is baffled— her grandmother has already passed. However, she has nothing to lose. Before she knows it, Hal is on the train to Cornwell to meet her “family”.

When I tell you I was so excited to read this book, I mean it. The idea of the plot was so intriguing that I wanted to make sure that I was in a thriller book mood AND cleared the rest of my day so I could focus all my attention on reading. Unfortunately, ‘The Death of Mrs Westaway’ did not meet all my expectations. To be fair, it was a solid read overall. The writing was immersive, and Ruth Ware manages to capture the creepy gothic atmosphere so well that you could almost feel like you’re right there with Hal.

The mystery revelation itself wasn’t as climactic as I was expecting it to be. Being a avid reader of thriller and mystery books, I was able to guess some of the revelations. However, if you don’t read as much mystery novels I think this might be a great book to try out. There are a number of twists that, to be fair, even I did not see some coming. I really liked that it was not just one straight-forward plot line, but a cobweb of interconnecting storylines that tie in all the mysteries and all the characters together. It also wasn’t as “thrilling” as other thrillers that I’ve read, but that is based on personal reading experience.

I do look forward to reading more of Ruth Ware’s books, seeing as my friend is a fan of her work. Also disclaimer: a 3 star really isn’t a low rating in my star rating scale— it still means I like the book, but not as much as I thought I would.

3 stars.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Have you read ‘The Death of Mrs Westaway’ by Ruth Ware or any of her other books? Do you have any recommendations? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!

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Published by Alyssa

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