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Book review: The Death of Mrs Westaway

On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance.

Book: The Death of Mrs Westaway

Author: Ruth Ware

Reviewed by: Samantha Keogh

Review made possible by: Random House Penguin South Africa

On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance.

She quickly realises there has been a mistake.

The letter informs her that she has come into an inheritance but it was sent to the wrong person.

However, believing the skills she has gained as a tarot reader may help her, Hal decides to claim the money anyway.

In her quest to get her hands on the money, she soon finds herself at the deceased’s funeral and so the game begins.

While standing at the funeral it dawns on her that something very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the centre of it.

Based on classic themes and suspense narratives, there really isn’t much that is original about this tome but somehow Ware manages to pull off a great read.

The novel opens on, you guessed it, a dark and stormy night as a lone young woman scurries her way homeward along a deserted seaside promenade.

Harriet “Hal” Westaway is 21 years old.

She never knew her father’s identity and, since her mother’s death three years previously, has been scraping by reading tarot cards in a seedy resort town on the English Channel.

Now she is summons to go to Cornwell for the reading of her maternal grandmother’s will.

The only problem is, Hal knows that her mother’s mother died decades ago. The lawyer must have her confused with another Harriet Westaway.

However, the letter includes the phrase “substantial size of the estate” which catches Hal’s eye and sets her on a journey she may not return from.

If she’s exposed as a fraud, she’ll be packed off to prison, so Hal steels herself to pull off the ultimate con game.

Among the usual Gothic delights, there’s a crumbling old mansion, a disputed inheritance, an orphaned heroine and a grim housekeeper whose signature supper dish is gristle stew.

This is the perfectly executed suspense tale which takes the best elements from a variety of books that came before, brushed them up, gives them a little twist and breaths new life into the Gothic horror genre.

It’s a fine balance – merging the old with the new – but Ware succeeds at every turn to give a read which is captivating and masterful.

Don’t read it alone in an old and creeky house, but you must certainly read it if you’re a fan of this genre.

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