The Death of Mrs Westaway

Our Review

The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware was a slow burner but well worth reading for its thrilling climax. The Death of Mrs Westaway has many twists and turns throughout it and whilst I guessed some there were many I didn’t.

Harriet Westaway, Hal, is in dire need of some money when she receives a letter informing her of a substantial inheritance from her recently deceased grandmother. It seems like all her prayers have been answered.

The only problem is she knows her real grandparents died more than 20 years previously. She decides to take a chance and use all her skills as a con woman to convince people she was the intended recipient.

When she starts the deception, little does she realise she can't stop after all if she does she risks everything including her life.

The Death of Mrs Westaway begins with the following rhyme that those of a superstitious nature will recognise:

“One for Sorrow Two for joy

Three for a girl

Four for a boy Five for Silver

Six for Gold Seven for a secret never to be told.”

The Death of Mrs Westaway is set out in split narrative form, it is partially focused on Hal and partially in the form of a series of diary entries from an initially unknown character.

The first diary entry is on 29th November 1994 and the person writing it is watching magpies. “Seven. Seven for a secret never to be told. Well, the secret may be right, but the rest is wide of the mark. I’ll have to tell, soon enough. There’ll be no choice.”

When I read the blurb, I wasn’t expecting to like Hal, but I was pleasantly surprised when I began reading and realised Ruth Ware had created a character the reader could easily empathise with.

Hal lives alone in the attic flat of an apartment complex named Marine View Villas, a grim and depressing place to live despite its name.

“There were no windows on the stairwell, and once she was past the first flight, it was almost pitch black. But Hal knew the steps by heart, from the broken board on the landing to the loose piece of carpet that had come untacked on the last flight, and she plodded wearily upwards thinking about supper, and bed.”

When she arrives into her flat she is greeted by numerous bills each a final demand for payment. She also greeted by an ominous note from people she owes money to. She is at her wits end trying to figure out how she is going to survive and pay her bills when she has no money.

“She had to pay the rent- that was non-negotiable. And the electricity was high on the list too. Without a fridge or lights the little flat was barely habitable. The gas…well it was November. Life without heating would be uncomfortable, but she’d survive.”

Hal is at her lowest ebb when she realises there is a letter in among her recycling. The letter in question is informing her of the death of her grandmother and informing her she named as a beneficiary in the will. She is pleasantly surprised to see the words ‘substantial estate’ but she also knows there has been a mistake as her grandparents have been dead for years.

However, when he financial situation becomes direr she realises she has no real choice but to pretend to be the Harriet Westaway named in the will.

Hal has nobody to turn to as her mother was killed in a hit and run accident a few days prior to her eighteenth birthday and around the same time she lost touch with her friends as she had nothing in common with them anymore.

“The person she was now was not the girl she would have been. The girl who had given her pocket money to the homeless, frittered away pennies in the pier, whiled away Sundays eating popcorn in front of bad films as she was gone. In her place was someone hardened in order to survive.”

Hal feels like she has no other option but to use the skills she has honed in her job as a ‘psychic’, palm reader and tarot reader to fool the people who think she is their family. She is able to read things from people without even realising until after what it is that gave her a clue. The one thing she won’t do is pretend to contact the dead and profit off the grief of others. She tells people what they need to hear not what they want to hear.

Hal sets off for the funeral of her ‘grandmother’ out of desperation. On first meeting her uncles Harding, Abel and Ezra she quickly comes to the conclusion that they have a sense of entitlement and maybe what she is planning to do isn’t so bad. Once she gets to know them though she changes her mind but its to late to go back and the family are hiding secrets of their own. Like what happened to Mrs Westaway’s daughter and why is the housekeeper Mrs Warren so openly hostile towards Hal?

The Death of Mrs Westaway is eerie and suspenseful, definitely a must-read.

Our Final Rating...

Tue, 26th June 2018