We are pleased to invite all alumni to participate in the upcoming meeting of the Alumni Book Club!
On Wednesday, October 23rd, we will gather at Kellenberg Memorial at 7 PM to discuss our “Halloween” selection, The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. Please RSVP below.
For those who are unable to attend the meeting in person, we will be live-streaming fully interactive coverage of the event. Please register using the link below by Tuesday, October 22nd. Any questions may be directed towards the Alumni Office at (516) 292-0200 x396 or alumni@kellenberg.org.
Mrs. Cathy vonSchoenermarck, moderator of the Alumni Book Club, provides a synopsis below:
Ruth Ware, author of The Lying Game, In a Dark, Dark Wood, and The Woman in Cabin 10, has given her readers yet another page-turner with this story involving a distressed nanny, vengeful children, and a luxurious but seemingly haunted house in the Scottish Highlands.
Written in the spirit of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, Ware’s novel takes shape in the form of letters written by Rowan Caine (the nanny) who now finds herself in jail as a murder suspect in the death of one of the children left in her care. The book has all of the elements of a good suspense tale: a disapproving housekeeper, a suspicious handyman, uncanny occurrences, and inexplicable visitations. Ware is able to take those classic details and envelop them with the creepy repercussions of 21st-century technology. For Heatherbrae House is a “smart” home, equipped with all modern conveniences, but those conveniences often malfunction at the most inopportune times. Couple that with the constant camera surveillance that is present throughout the home, and you’ve got a situation that is thoroughly unnerving for Rowan and for ourselves.
Lest the reader becomes too preoccupied with Heatherbrae and its inhabitants–both living and dead–Ware spreads suspicion around evenly, as even Rowan herself has demons and ghosts of her own from the past. Therefore, one is not quite sure if Rowan is reliable enough to be believed, especially when she says she may not be completely innocent, but she is certainly not guilty of murder. Or is she…?