The Death of Mrs. Westaway

The Death of Mrs. Westaway
by Ruth Ware


Blurb:

On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.

Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the centre of it.

My Reaction:
I found this quite an enjoyable (fairly light) read! This may have been my first experience with what I'd call a "modern gothic thriller", but I liked it and will probably seek out more.  (Is that a genre?  Are there even more to find?)

I liked seeing how the author took the classic gothic tropes (creepy, decaying house, suspicious people, mysterious pasts, unsettled atmosphere, etc.) and translated them to a modern setting (complete with the Internet, smartphones, cars, and other modern conveniences). I thought it was pretty well done!

One "modern" thing that I found a bit jarring was the occasional cursing. I mean, of course I've read modern books with swearing, but you get fairly deep into this novel before the cursing starts, so it took me by surprise and felt... "wrong". Out of place, really. (I'm well aware that most readers won't think twice about this, but it's something I noticed and didn't really like.)

There are also times when Hal does things I feel skeptical of (as in "Why wouldn't you just do X after what happened earlier?!" or "Why didn't you do that before?!"), but that always seems to happen in books, movies, and TV, so I cut a little slack. There's also some fairly cliched dialogue during the "confrontation scene"-- but again, it's so common, I'm not exactly surprised by it. (Not angry; just disappointed.)

On the positive side, there were enough twists and conflicting possibilities to keep me second-guessing myself-- a desirable quality in a mystery.

The tarot cards thread woven through the story is unusual and feels like a natural fit for this novel. I am about as far as you can get from a "tarot person", so I knew nearly nothing about tarot.  It was interesting to see the subject approached from the unique perspective of someone who knows it intimately but is still a skeptic.

I'd ideally give this 3.5 stars, but will round up to four. Just don't take it too seriously. It's a highly improbable tale-- like so many thrillers-- which is part of the reason why it's so entertaining.