by Ruth Ware
This is another mystery book that has been getting a lot of acclaim and I have to say it is well deserved. Unlike McLaughlin's book which was plodding and uninteresting this one is an interesting, well written story with a well developed character we care about.
The story is about a young woman, around 18, whose mother was killed by a hit and run driver, leaving her destitute. She is deeply in debt, eaking out a living as a tarot card reader at an English seafront. She is threatened by a thug from a loan shark and is terrified about what will happen to her.
She receives a letter from a lawyer telling her that her grandmother has died and named her in her will. The girl only really knew her mother, nothing of any other family, so she is shocked to hear this news. When she looks at the details of the name of the beneficiary she thinks the lawyer has found the wrong person but she decides to go to the funeral and pretend to be the granddaughter to get some money, hopefully enough to get her out of debt.
She is totally shocked to find that she is the major beneficiary of the estate including the family home. The woman's son's are shocked at this news but as they had not had a good relationship with their mother they seem quite accepting of the will. The girl learns that there were two women with the same name living at the house in the past, the woman's daughter and a niece.
The girl evenutally confesses that she is not the woman's granddaughter, but it later turns out that her mother was not who she said she was. As the story develops the girls life is threatened and she finds out that it was one of her family (her own father) who killed her mother to hide the truth.
This was a well written story, it kept my interest throughout. This was a refreshing read after the McLaughlin book. This author knows how to write good description, dialogue and build suspense.
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