I read this bit by bit each night before going to sleep this past week. I don't recommend this practice with a book by Ruth Ware! She quickly builds suspense that will have you awake half the night. This book in particular, where our protagonist, Rowan Caine, is awakened each night from deep sleep by dreadful creaking sounds over her head, as though someone were pacing. Your sleep will likely be disrupted as well!

I will strive to keep the spoilers minimal here, since the fun of this book is trying to figure out who is up to what mischief. Rowan Caine, a competent but conflicted childcare worker in London, tends to babies at a daycare but sees an opportunity to improve her situation when she comes upon an advertisement for a live-in nanny in a remote home in Scotland. Rowan is the fifth nanny in not to many years--it seems something is scaring these young women away. Bill and Sandra Elincourt, parents of 14 year old Rhiannon (away in boarding school), eight year old Maddie, five year old Ellie, and baby Petra live in a remodeled, rebuilt home in Carn Bridge, Heatherbrae House. The home was redesigned by the couple, a team of architects specializing in very high end design that imbeds high end tech-- smart home design. The home is part Victorian, part Big Brother, with all lights and appliances app-controlled, cameras and listening devices everywhere. In a word, creepy. As the couple often is away due to work, Rowan must take responsibility for the children's day to day lives, for which she will be paid very well. We also have a housekeeper who lives in the village, Jean McKenzie; and the studly handyman Jack Grant, who has a flat over the old horse barn. The stage is set-- what keeps driving away the young care givers?

Important to note-- the book takes the form of a long confessional letter to an attorney's office, who Rowan is begging to defend her for her life. She writes this plea from jail, detained for the murder of a girl. We assume one of the children will die before this story ends, but as with everything else, we don't know who, how, or why. No one is as they appear to be, and between lack of sleep, tech intrusions, and bewildering circumstances and behavior, Rowan spins out of control in her efforts to maintain normalcy and determine what is going on.

The house itself holds a mystery, as the owner of long ago, Dr. Kenwick Grant, suffered the loss of his daughter Elspeth, due to accidental poisoning. He had an interest in poisonous plants, and maintained a garden collection of many specimens. The child ingested jam mistakenly made from poisonous berries. The father was driven mad by the loss, and his role in it. Might there be ghosts of the child and her father playing a role in the bizarre happenings?

Ruth Ware is a master of creating and sustaining suspense, and she has you right to the last page in this thriller. She is one of the best at the game, and this is a must-read for all who love chilling suspense,without too much blood.