The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
I am thankful for my advanced copy of The Death of Mrs.Westaway from the publisher via NetGalley.
Hal is a young woman who seems to always be down on her luck. The story starts off with Hal, going through her current mail, and seeing all of her bills are pretty much all final notices. Invoice after invoice, Hal realizes that she’s running financially on empty. While she is going through her mail, she finds a hand written letter informing Hal that she is the heir to a somewhat large fortune. This doesn’t seem to make sense to Hal as she lost her mother in a tragic hit and run accident before Hal could finish high school. Her loss put her in emotional turmoil, and swept the only thing that was secure right out from under her feet. The loss of Hal’s mother forced her to have to change, and grow up fast. She takes up her mother’s business to attempt to make ends meet. Provides tarot card readings, and palm readings as she has witnessed her mother do many times over.
Hal finds herself in a tight spot when she first took over her mother’s pier side kiosk. She was having a slow month, and couldn’t find a way to make ends meet. She ends up taking a loan out through a shady individual Mr. Smith. Hal does her best to repay the debt, but she has a couple more slow months, and is unable to make her repayments. Mr. Smith becomes tired of waiting for a payment from Hal, so Hal has a visitor come to her kiosk close to closing time.
This book has been enjoyable since the day I cracked it open. I honestly appreciated how Ruth Ware introduced Hal into the story. I honestly don’t think I would have appreciated Hal’s story if the author started with the career path that poor Hal was forced into. Making the reader come to appreciate the common struggles that Hal faces, and while staying true to thecharacter and her life style. I appreciated how the author kept the book coming back to her set of cards, while maintaining a sceptical view on what the cards are ‘revealing’.
This story has managed to keep me entertained while reading it. This book is by far a solid (*)(*)(*)(*)/5. The story is interesting enough to keep the reader wondering and the pages turning.
I found that this book has been a subtle side step for Ruth Ware, and perhaps some literary growth for the author. She manages to maintain the mystery while managing to present another story dynamic at the same time. With that said, by no means is this book what I expected to read, I think for some strange reason I was hoping this book might have been a little faster paced. There were plot twists, and emerging questions that kept me reading on. This book was enthralling enough that I found myself in grocery stores picking up unsold copies, finding where was, and reading it while I waited for my turn in line. So at the end of it all.. Ruth Ware fails to disappoint, once again this book is amazing. With its many ‘what ifs’, and plot twists. If you haven’t read, or started reading this book… you should run out, and pick up your copy now.
