Family secrets, fortune telling and intrigue set at a gothic mansion - the set up was perfect. From the beginning, Hal receives a letter telling her about the inheritance she is entitled to, confused as she has no family, but scared because she has gotten herself into debt with some shady characters, she pursues the letter. Immediately, something is off - but what exactly is it? The mystery unfolds in such an intriguing way, I was instantly hooked and curious to know what was happening here. I really enjoyed the way the story played out and this was my favorite Ruth Ware to date. I liked The Woman in Cabin 10 but didn't think it was the masterpiece some other people did and I did not finish The Lying Game so I wasn't sure how this one would be for me - and I was thoroughly impressed. 5 stars from this bookworm!

Thank you to Gallery, Threshold and Pocket Books for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own

You think you know...but you have no idea...

Harriet (Hal) Westaway is struggling to make ends meet after the death of her mother. She's taken over her mother's tarot card booth on the pier but she's plagued by debt and a nasty loan shark. So when a letter arrives stating that she's the beneficiary in her grandmother's will, Hal sees a way out. The only catch...Hal's grandparents died long before she was born.

Oh the twisty twistedness of a Ruth Ware novel! Somehow, every book is better than the last. (Yes, I even liked The Lying Game) I hate being able to predict the endings half way through and if an author can make me second guess myself every few chapters or stop and reread a sentence, well, more power to them!

From the very start, the book sets a haunting and creepy tone. Ware's atmospheric storytelling and thoughtful character building telling sucks me in every time. Hal was no exception. This little mouse-like human turns out to be a force to be reckoned with. I especially loved the thread of tarot cards throughout. The parallels helped to create a mystical, and at times foreboding, story line.

If you want a page turner that keeps you up WAY too late at night, Ruth Ware has definitely got you covered.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

This is a creepy atmospheric mystery that keeps you guessing right up to the end. Hal is down on her luck, a tarot card reader barely scraping by. Her mother was killed when she was 18 and Hal has been on her own since. With no family she finds it strange and probably a mistake when she receives a notification in the mail telling her that she was named in someones will as a beneficiary. Even though it may be a mistake inheriting a few thousand would solve her immediate issues and help her to catch up. Hal decides to give it a try and uses the last of her money to get to Penzance for the reading of the will. What she finds is a big run down house that seems familiar, and a family that is broken by secrets, anger, and mistrust.

Ware is known for her creepy atmospheric books and this one doesn't disappoint. The mystery keeps you on edge and as the book nears the end you find yourself holding your breath while you watch the final scenes play out. Well done, fast paced mystery that takes you for a ride and when you think you have it all figured out you realize you really had no idea.

Hal (Harriet Westaway) is a young woman who is struggling to make ends meet. Her mother died three months earlier, a victim or a hit and run accident. Hal has followed in her footsteps as a boardwalk, physic reading tarot cards for tourists. She's flat broke and has even borrowed money from a loan shark who is now threatening her.

One day she receives a letter in the mail stating that a relative has died and that she's in line for an inheritance. Although she is pretty certain that the letter was sent to her in error and mean for someone else, she's desperate and decides to travel to Cornwall for the funeral of the deceased, a woman who is supposedly her grandmother. A reading of the will is to follow the services.

An atmospheric, creepy, Gothic type mystery with cranky, suspicious characters. The setting, Trepassen House, a creepy old mansion was ideal for the story to play out. I enjoyed the characters and the way that the story unraveled.

Rating - 4.5/5 stars -https://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-few-quick-reviews-noise-downstairs.html

Ooh, I enjoyed this book. After "The Lying Game" which I was my least favorite by this author, I was hoping that this one would blow me away. It definitely did not disappoint. I think I had this mystery figured out pretty early on but there was a twist I didn't see coming. Ruth Ware is good at describing atmospheric settings that are creepy, unsettling, and uninviting. I do think that Hal made some choices that some would find odd, but I enjoyed this book a lot. Highly recommend.

Wow! So many ways to spoil this, I really have to be careful. I had no idea when I started reading where this was going. I totally never expected the ending, excellent suspense, great characters, and a creepy old house. I cannot wait to hand sell this title. Perfect!

Another great book by Ruth Ware!

The creepy setting in an old run down house which draws a family together after the death of the matriarch. So many lies have been told and kept in this house.
You will spend the whole book trying to figure out how the main character is related. It was like a huge train wreck that I could see coming. I just didn't know who or when. It was epic and kept me guessing until the very end!

I cannot say no to a mystery set in an big old house...okay...mansion. And this one did not disappoint - the characters keep the reader on their toes and the story had great twists and turns.

This hard-to-define book is neither a mystery, nor a thriller. It tells the story of Hal, a tarot-card reader who has lost her mother and is struggling to pay her bills when a mysterious letter hinting at a large inheritance from her late grandmother arrives. Although she believes she has been wrongly identified as an heir, out of desperation, she travels to meet her long lost "family" anyway. The suspense - although there isn't actually very much suspense, truth be told - revolves around the identity of Hal's late mother and her actual relationship to the family.

The lack of any actual suspense or shocking plot twists made for a pretty dull read. None of the characters were particularly interesting and the entire story could have been summarized in a few pages. I enjoyed Ware's "The Woman in Cabin 10," but was disappointed by this mediocre novel.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ware’s debut, In A Dark, Dark Wood was one of my favorite reads of 2015 and then The Woman in Cabin 10 was another solid read for me, although I wasn’t as obsessed with it as IADDW. When The Lying Game was released last summer I grabbed a copy but I still haven’t read it. I saw SO many mixed reviews that I just skipped it for now, but all of that to say, as soon as I read the blurb of this one I was excited! It sounded like it would have some of the same elements that I enjoyed in IADDW and it definitely did, and while Ware’s debut remains my favorite of her books, this is definitely a close second.

Ware has an amazing talent for writing in an atmospheric way that really pulls the reader into the worlds she creates. When Hal enters the world of the Westaway family there was such a dark intensity, such a strong feeling of menace and danger lurking in the family home, it was creepy and strangely intoxicating. Hal is a tarot card reader and this added a mystical tone as well that when combined with the setting created that perfect storm of scary and fascinating.

Ware is really such a talented writer, her skill is even more apparent when I realized that some parts of this dragged a little for me but I was still entirely hooked. That doesn’t happen often, if things begin to drag I’m usually forcing myself to read, and the wait was most certainly worth it this time, when all was revealed I was shocked and totally satisfied! I also really enjoyed Hal as a character which makes it even better, I’ve had issues with Ware’s previous protagonists and this time I was behind Hal one hundred percent.

The Death of Mrs Westaway in three words: Ominous, Unsettling and Creepy.

'The Death of Mrs. Westaway' is a wonderfully creepy, gothic family mystery. Set primarily in a rambling, secluded old mansion on the English coast, the story is dark and full of characters with questionable motives.

Hal receives a letter telling her grandmother has passed away and left her an inheritance. Hal is young, on her own, and barely making ends meet so the letter seems like an unexpected gift. However, she knows that she can't possibly be related to the family of the deceased woman, Mrs. Westaway. Can she get away with posing to be the granddaughter? How much harm could it really do? It turns out that Hal isn't the only one keeping secrets in this dark and twisty mystery.

Highly recommended book for anyone who enjoys an intelligent, gothic, classic-style mystery.

smart well plotted novel that takes on classic plot (orphan, inheritance, gothic sensibilities, daunting housekeeper( with an up to date sensibility

I enjoy Ruth Ware and was a big fan of The Woman in Cabin 10 but wasn't bowled over by The Lying Game. The Death of Mrs. Westaway was much more enjoyable and is Ware in good form. This reminded me of an Agatha Christie novel in some ways, and had an old fashioned feel to it that I quite enjoyed. There were some fun twists and turns, and a somewhat unbelievable background for our main character, but a little suspension of disbelief is often required in a suspense or mystery novel. Definitely recommend as an enjoyable mystery.

Such a thrilling story! Could not put it down. Missed sleep and didn't care! I must now read all of Ruth Ware's other books.

At first I liked this story of an inheritance gone wrong... or is that the case? Harriet, or Hal as she is called (pet peeve: why do authors give male names to females when there are so many beautiful female names?) is notified that she has been mentioned in her the will of her grandmother who died recently. The problem is that her grandmother died many, many moons ago, not recently, but money is money and when the Mr. Smith's of the world are after you for money, you go check on the inheritance.
After liking it for a while and wondering how it would come out, I started getting annoyed with "Hal" when she started some stupid actions. They I got more annoyed, then confused and finally finished it needing to have a think about it. After thinking, I still liked most of it, but only 3 stars worth.
Thank you Net Galley for the chance to read this in advance in exchange for an honest opinion.

This is a wonderful book for fans of gothic novels, complete with family secrets, old mansions, quirky characters and one young woman's search for her true identity. Ruth Ware has crafted a perfect web of deception that slowly unravels as we follow the heroine on her quest to trick a wealthy family out of a seemingly undeserved inheritance. Atmospheric and dark, yes. But oh so much fun. Highly recommended to mystery-lovers of all sorts!

This is the first book by Ruth Ware I have read because the others were just so hyped. It usually takes me quite a while to come around to book that everyone RAVES about because I usually read them and think "That was good but not THAT good" and then I think "maybe people liked it because they don't read as much as me" and then I think "well that's a bit snobbish, Rhiannon" and then I get on a spiral of thinking about how there are just so many mediocre thrillers being produced in the hopes of another Gone Girl (but I'm not alone here, check out Sarah's Bookshelves thoughts on the matter) that I become mentally exhausted and decide to just move on. As for The Death of Mrs. Westaway, I read the summary and thought the concept of a tarot card reader sounded fabulous (even though I didn't really love The Immortalists which everyone loved, *see above rant*). Reading, The Death of Mrs. Westaway, I was skeptical with every page. Would I figure it out right away and be dragged along on a not so surprising journey? Would it be full of cheesy clichés about magic? Would I have to give a bad review of one the most highly praised modern thriller writers? Guess what? None of the above! The storyline twists so slightly here and there that you catch a little undercurrent but you can't put your finger on the problem, let alone solve it. The main protagonist is smart and perceptive and the gothic setting is deliciously spot on. In short... I LOVED IT!

Admittedly, I am a big fan of Ruth Ware; she writes very quintessential British mysteries, full of interesting characters, always uses a female lead, and is darn good with the ending 'twist.' I loved In a Dark, Dark Wood, really liked Woman in Cabin 10, and thought The Lying Game was okay. In Mrs. Westaway, Ware has her mojo back. Hal, a lonely young woman, deals tarot cards on the Brighton pier, has some serious money issues and a nasty loan shark, and has recently received a letter telling her that as Mrs. Westaway's granddaughter, she has an inheritance coming. All good, right? Yeah, nope. All of Hal's paperwork shows her grandparents' names and none of them are Westaway, she's never heard of this family, and it would literally take her last dime to get a train out to Penzance. Yet...how can she not go? Who better to pull off a con than a fortune teller? As Ware spools out the threads (three uncles she's never met, a forbidding and creepy housekeeper, a diary from a teenage girl, a creaky cold Cornwall mansion, and some prophetic magpies), I followed quite a few hints down wrong roads. This book kept me turning pages long past when I should have - great vacation read, or for a rainy day, or just for anyone that loves a solid mystery.

NEVER BELIEVE YOUR OWN LIES.

The Death of Mrs. Westaway is a cleverly crafted atmospheric mystery fueled by deceit. Since I was not a fan of The Lying Game, I was hesitant to read this, but I am so glad I did!

Struggling tarot card reader, Hal, aka Harriet Westaway, finds herself in a moral quandary when she receives a letter naming her as a beneficiary in her grandmother’s will. She believes a mistake has been made as her grandparents died long before she was born. Even though she knows that what she is doing is wrong, she is so desperate for money that she decides to travel to the funeral and play the role of the rightful heir.

Hal travels to eerie Trepassen House, her “late grandmother’s” crumbling estate. She thinks that she is only going to inherit some money, but she soon learns that she has been left much more. At the estate, she meets her “uncles” and uses her keen observation skills to learn more about the creepy family that inhabited Trepassen. When Hal realizes that she has a legit family connection to these Westaways, she begins to dig for more information which leads her into grave danger.

The mystery surrounding Hal’s past kept me intrigued, but it was really Hal’s character that kept me turning pages. Her character is what I loved most about this book. Hal has spent most of her life observing vs. being the center of attention, which has enabled her to master reading people. She can use this skill to deceive, but she has a generous nature. At the same time, she is also fighting to survive and must take what she can. She is often referred to be as being mousy or weak, but her character exemplifies the notion that those who watch are more powerful than those who speak.

Trepassen House also plays a large role. The thickly woven atmosphere surrounding the house transported me. Even though the events take place in the current moment, I felt like I had gone back in time while reading this as it is reminiscent of classic mysteries.The tarot card readings and the constant presence of magpies also contributed to this feeling.

This is not a book focused on fast-paced action, but rather on slowly unveiling the nuances surrounding the mystery. Subtle clues are planted throughout, but all does not come together until the end. This is a mystery with many layers; I found it to be intriguing, intelligent, and entertaining. I was satisfied with how things played out. The Death of Mrs. Westaway is one of my favorite reads of 2018! I recommend for those who enjoy slow-burn classic mysteries.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review.

First line: The magpies are back.

Summary: When Harriet Westaway receives a letter from a lawyer she is confused by its contents. It is informing her that her grandmother has died and that her presence is needed at the reading of the will. Harriet has never met her grandmother. She never even knew she had one. Maybe they got the wrong person. Nevertheless, with a loan shark hounding her for money and bills piling up she decides to see what is behind this letter. Upon arriving at Trepassen she meets the rest of her “family”. Can she deceive these people and take their money? On the other hand, is there more here than she thought?

Highlights: This is by far Ruth Ware’s best novel. It took me a while to read but not from lack of interest. I liked Harriet. She is a young girl in an impossible situation. She does the best she can to take care of herself in an uncertain world. I really enjoyed the diary entries that give the reader a peak into the past and snippets of facts pertaining to the mystery. I kept coming up with new scenarios and answers. Ware did a great job setting up each little twist and turn. In addition, I was truly a little frightened by Mrs. Warren. She was always there with some dark comment or ominous look.

I didn’t mean you—I just meant—well, look, Mrs. Warren’s always had a touch of the Mrs. Danvers about her.

Lowlights: The loan sharks were the driving force to get the story started but then the threat disappeared as the plot progressed. I understand that they were just a starting point for why Hal decided to impersonate the Westaway heir but if it was a big part of the beginning maybe it should make an appearance at the end?

FYI: Ruth Ware is also the author of The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Lying Game.