A Book Review
“The Death of Mrs. Westaway” by Ruth Ware
A gothic thriller showing the lengths desperation may make someone go to.
I’ve recently fallen into the terrifying and bizarre world of thrillers. I love a good horror movie, or even some suspense in a movie or book, so it should be no surprise that I started thrillers. A thriller I was seeing all over social media (especially BookTube) is The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware. One of my favorite book bloggers, BooksandLala gave the book 4.5 stars, so I had to give it a shot. She calls the novel cinematic and engaging, and the best of Ware’s books so far.
The Death of Mrs. Westaway starts off with Hal, a young fortuneteller who is in desperate need of money. When she is invited to a distant relative’s funeral, Hal spends practically all of her money traveling to the funeral in hopes of gaining a bit of inheritance.
Ware does an excellent job of setting high stakes. Reading tarot cards isn’t necessarily a moneymaker, and due to this, she is falling behind on bills and is being followed by a man who loaned her some money at a high interest rate. I genuinely felt worried about Hal, as she struggled to make ends meet while outrunning a loaner.
When Hal is contacted about a large inheritance in her name, Hal takes a chance and spends practically her last bit of money to travel to the funeral, and goes on to Mrs. Westaway’s huge, cold, gloomy, Trespassen house. I love the atmosphere of Trespassen. The suspicious and begrudging housekeeper, Mrs. Warren, immediately sets the tone for the novel, from giving commands to her no-nonsense attitude, especially toward Hal.
Something about Mrs. Warren seems to echo the classic gothic novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier; her hatred of Hal contrasted with her dedication and adoration toward the late Mrs. Westaway, the dead woman who seems to loom over every character, is not unlike the late Rebecca from the classic gothic novel.
In this instance, Mrs. Warren would be a slightly more modern version of du Maurier’s creepy, cold, overbearing housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. Unsurprisingly, The Washington Post calls Ware’s novel “a perfectly executed suspense tale very much in the mode of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.” Having just read Rebecca, I was, well, thrilled for this promising thriller.
Ware’s novel is full of twists and turns, and just the right element of mystery and creepiness, so the novel should have been perfect for me. The decrepit estate property truly sets the scene for a fantastic thriller or mystery.
I truly enjoyed following Hal’s character at the start of the novel. She is desperate to make money, yet at the start of the book, has an interesting interaction with a customer. The woman is asking about her estranged son who has “started dealing” and keeps asking “what should I do?” (34). After an unusual reading, the woman pays far too much, and Hal tries, and fails, to pay back the overpayment to the woman.
On returning to her stall, Hal, full of guilt from the reading, passes by a donation area for The Lighthouse Project, a drug and rehabilitation in Brighton. After seeing this woman falling behind on bills and trying to outrun debt, Hal shoves every bill from the woman into the donation slot:
“Her hand shook as she counted out the banknotes, and then one by one, she shoved them into the slot of the ice cream cone, trying not to think of the shoes they could have bought, the bills she could have paid, and the hot dinners she could have eaten with the money” (Ware, 38).
And yet, Hal gives every dollar away to try and help someone else.
With this key indicator of Hal’s true character, I was honestly shocked to see her turn toward scamming the Westaway’s out of their money, and yet, Hal, deep down, wants family and human connection.
She says she goes to the Westaway’s simply for their money, but I don’t think that was her only motive. Hal, this isolated woman, craves connection, and love. Hal is set up as a fascinating character, and receiving the funeral invitation, as well as actually going to the funeral, shows her desperation for not only money, but connection.
So what went wrong?
Although The Washington Post calls it “perfectly executed,” I would hesitate to describe it as such. I’m not dumb when it comes to books, but I am at a loss, not only at the oddly strung together plot, but the overwhelmingly positive reactions to the book. Let’s be clear: I liked the book, but I saw a lot of holes in the plot.
In addition, Youtuber BooksandLala, affectionately nicknamed “Lala”, says, “it all makes sense in the end…you have to take a minute and accept what the conclusion was.” I hate to disagree with my favorite Booktuber, but it really doesn’t make sense in the end.
One of my least favorite points of Ware’s novel is how a complex case of incest is one of the novel’s crucial turning points. I still don’t completely understand this dysfunctional family, let alone who’s related versus who is in love (or both, considering cousins/lovers Maggie and Ezra), which, by the way, seemed to come out of nowhere.
I spent a large portion of the novel saying “wait, what?” with regards to who is connected to whom, and having to look up what was going on. It’s almost worse that really besides Mrs. Danvers — I mean Mrs. Warren — and Hal, the honestly bland characters seemed to blend together in this odd family conglomeration that’s confusing enough already.
Someone please give me a diagram of the tangled roots of this family tree. And a diagram of who murdered whom, please. I’m still a bit confused.
I’m not going to hash out all the parts that confuse me, since that could simply be a bit of my fault with getting confused, but I did not find this instance to be that insightful of the novel as a whole, but it did seem to be a bit of a letdown from the eerie atmosphere being built around the family and the home itself.
I truly enjoyed this book, but I don’t understand the hype. Like every novel, it comes with its flaws as well as its strengths, but when I finished the book, I can’t tell if the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. Perhaps I needed to just not question it, but isn’t that the point of a thriller novel?
I am still going to continue to explore Ruth Ware and other thriller novels, but I wouldn’t fall for the hype around The Death of Mrs. Westaway. However, if you’re looking for twists and a creepy setting, Ware will give you that.
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