Title: The Death of Mrs. Westaway
Author: Ruth Ware
Published: 2018
Call #: Fic Ware
Downtrodden tarot card reader, Harriet "Hal" Westaway, is at a turning point when it comes to the lengths to which she'll go to survive. She realizes a shady loan shark she's been dodging will do anything to make her life miserable including leaving threatening letters behind in her home and hiring a thug to threaten her with bodily harm at her place of business. She isn't safe anywhere with Mr. Smith on the hunt for a loan repayment, a loan that she's paid back four times over but Mr. Smith keeps raising the interest, making it impossible for Hal to escape it.
With no one to turn to, Hal is trying to decide just how much she can live without when she notices a strange hand-written letter in her stack of bills. She finds a funeral/wake invitation sent out to the heirs of Mrs. Westaway, which is weird, because Hal's grandparents died long ago. Hal realizes the letter must have been sent in error. She decides her survival depends on pulling off a Robin Hood moment with this rich family and books a train ticket to the Trepassen estate to see what Mrs. Westaway's will has in store for her. When she arrives, she realizes the truth behind the letter is much more complicated than she could ever have bargained for.
Hal's investigative instincts gradually give the reader more truth in this house of lies. Why does the attic bedroom have bars on the window? Why does such a wealthy woman only have to select immediate family at the funeral. What happened to drive them all apart? The Death of Mrs. Westaway keeps the reader intrigued to the end.
Erin I.
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