A book review after ages!!
July has been a good month reading wise. I took The Death of Mrs Westaway from the library few months back but did not read. When it was time to go for my annual vacation to India, initially I decided to return all the library books. But then I thought, why not renew at least 2 of the books and take them with me. That’s how this book came with me to India.
Ruth Ware is known for her thrillers. I have read a couple of her books. Loved some of them and the others were ok. This book is somewhere in between.
Hal lost her mother couple of years back. Since then she has taken over her mother’s shop at the Brighton pier and became a tarot reader. One morning, she receives a letter saying her grandmother has passed away and that Hal has an inheritance mentioned in the will. But Hal’s grandparents had passed away many years back. Was this some mistaken identity? Regardless, Hal decides to go ahead for the funeral and pretend to be whoever they were looking for. Her whole world goes upside down once she meets the family and sees her mother’s face in one of the family photographs. Was her mother lying about who she was? Who is Hal’s father? Why would Mrs Westaway leave everything to Hal, someone she has never met in her entire life?
What I loved in the book is the tarot reading. Even though Hal keeps saying she doesn’t believe in it, she keeps reading the cards frequently and some of her decisions are based on them. The book had a great start and the plot was good.
But halfway through I felt the book was dragging. I was just waiting for something to happen. I even rightly guessed Hal’s father. But then there were some misleading events and I felt as if the author was deliberately trying to steer us away from making the right guess. When I say this, I mean these incidents did not even make sense to me. They were in the plot just with the purpose of misleading us. There were many other loopholes which I found difficult to digest.
The ending almost saved the plot but by then it was too late. 75% into the book, I was just waiting for it to finish. Nevertheless, it is good for a one time quick read.
My Rating 3 ⭐
