CBTB’s Guide to Ruth Ware Thrillers
There are so many talented crime writers at work today, but there’s no one quite like Ruth Ware. Ruth Ware has been a staple of Crime by the Book since I first began my Instagram and blog—her debut novel was published just a few weeks after I launched my Instagram account, and it was one of the first I photographed for my Instagram, too! (Spot the very early CBTB-Instagram photo above!) Her books will always hold a special place in my heart, but nostalgia isn’t the only reason I’m such a die-hard Ruth Ware fan. Ruth Ware is one of those authors whose writing just consistently works for me. Picking up a new Ruth Ware book is, for me, the ultimate pleasure: it’s an instant-escape, and a return to a writing style that never fails to captivate me and sweep me up in a thrilling, page-turning mystery. Ware has been called “the Agatha Christie of our generation” (by David Baldacci, no less!), and that very high praise is so well-deserved. Ware’s books feature an irresistible blend of the old and the new, crafting clever crime stories that would make the Queen of Crime proud. In today’s blog post, I’ll be walking you through Ruth Ware’s books—including a general overview of why I love her crime stories, what kind of reader I think will best appreciate each of her books, and a little glimpse into her 2020 release, too! Ruth Ware is one of my absolute favorite authors, and I hope this blog post will encourage you to give her work a try. Read on for my guide to Ruth Ware’s thrillers!
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Why I Love Ruth Ware’s Thrillers
Ruth Ware is the queen of the classic-meets-modern. There’s a reason Ware is often called “a modern Agatha Christie”: her books’ clever plots, rich atmospheres, and immersive pacing are every bit worthy of the legacy left by the Queen of Crime, Christie. There are many authors writing excellent crime novels in the vein of crime fiction classics, but I consider Ruth Ware the best of the best in this category—and one of the best suspense writers at work today, period. Ware’s books draw on classic crime plots—”locked room” mysteries, mysterious inheritances, affluent families with secrets, and more—and put fresh, gripping spins on them for the modern reader. Every single time I pick up a Ruth Ware book, I know that I’m about to be swept up in a story that feels just reminiscent enough of classic crime to put me ease, but that’s also just twisty and surprising enough to keep me on my toes. Ware’s books have distinctive and memorable settings, rich atmospheres, and deliciously clever plots. There’s a reason Ware has become an international phenomenon, and I know I am just one of thousands upon thousands of readers around the world who will read anything and everything Ruth Ware writes. Any reader looking for psychological suspense that both pays tribute to the greats of classic crime fiction and paves its own fresh path simply must read Ruth Ware.
Read on for a rundown of Ruth Ware’s currently-available psychological thrillers, including my recommendation for what kind of reader will like each of Ware’s books best! And if you’re already obsessed with Ruth Ware, scroll to the bottom of this post for everything we know about Ruth Ware’s 2020 release ONE BY ONE so far.
IN A DARK, DARK WOOD
For readers who love:
Locked room mysteries
Mysterious and suspicious characters
Atmospheric settings
Why I Loved IN A DARK, DARK WOOD:
Ruth Ware’s debut novel was one of the first I read for Crime by the Book, and it instantly captivated me. I’ve been an Agatha Christie reader for years (long before starting this blog!), and I instantly recognized in Ruth Ware’s writing the same cleverness of plotting and rich, immersive atmosphere that I adore in Christie’s work. In IN A DARK, DARK WOOD, a reclusive woman is invited to the countryside for a weekend trip. But things take a dark turn, and what was supposed to be a celebratory getaway soon becomes a tense, claustrophobic experience that our protagonist is desperate to escape. There are so very many modern-day “locked room mysteries” available for readers as I sit here writing this in 2020, but when I first read IN A DARK, DARK WOOD in the summer of 2015, this book felt like it was opening up a whole new world to me. I’d never read a suspense novel that so perfectly blended what I loved about classic crime fiction written by authors like Agatha Christie with a plot that felt cleverly updated and relevant for a modern reader. This book opened my eyes to a whole new kind of crime fiction, and was a truly pivotal read for me personally, and for me as a blogger trying to figure out what kinds of books I wanted to cover on my fledgling website. While I have since discovered that Ware’s newer books are even stronger reads, there’s something special about IN A DARK, DARK WOOD that is sure to continue winning her fans for years to come.
About IN A DARK, DARK WOOD:
What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller.
Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself.
When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.
THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10
For readers who love:
Locked room mysteries
Armchair traveling
Opulent, glitzy settings with dark secrets
Why I Loved THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10:
If IN A DARK, DARK WOOD piqued my interest in Ruth Ware’s work, THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 made me a Ruth Ware fan for life. In this gripping psychological thriller, Ware puts another fresh spin on the “locked room mystery,” this time taking her clever and sinister plotting to the high seas. In THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10, a travel journalist gets the assignment of a lifetime: a trip on a luxury cruise through the stunning North Sea. The cruise is very exclusive, with only a handful of cabins on board and a guest list the likes of which our protagonist has never seen. It’s a dream opportunity… but that dream is about to be shattered. When our protagonist witnesses a terrible crime in the middle of the night, she sounds the alarm—and quickly discovers that no one on the cruise believes her. But she knows what she has seen… doesn’t she? THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 blends the tension of a “locked room mystery” with the drama of a seriously unreliable narrator, a woman who thinks she knows what she saw, but can’t be quite sure. The only problem? If what she saw is true, she is stuck on a cruise ship with a murderer. THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 is deliciously sinister “popcorn reading,” the kind of book you’ll want to devour in one or two sittings. I adored this book’s blend of classic crime structure (I am a huge sucker for a locked room mystery!) and the delicious drama that plays out between the cruise ship’s over-the-top cast of characters. This book is sinister, clever fun to read, and it was my favorite Ruth Ware book for a couple of years! (More on which book unseated it as my Ruth Ware favorite later in this post…)
About THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10:
In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…
With surprising twists, spine-tingling turns, and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another taut and intense read in The Woman in Cabin 10—one that will leave even the most sure-footed reader restlessly uneasy long after the last page is turned.
THE LYING GAME
For readers who love:
Pretty Little Liars
Stories of long-kept secrets between friends
Stories with academic settings
Why I Loved THE LYING GAME:
Of all of Ruth Ware’s books, THE LYING GAME feels to me like the outlier. That’s not a negative by any means, but it does mean that readers will want to adjust their expectations slightly when considering digging into this book. Where Ruth Ware’s previous two novels are very strongly influenced by classic crime fiction, THE LYING GAME is another kind of novel entirely. THE LYING GAME is modern psychological suspense through and through—a story delving into the long-kept secrets that exist between childhood friends, and examining what happens when those long-kept secrets can’t stay buried anymore. THE LYING GAME centers around four friends who met in boarding school. During their school days, our protagonists played a game they called “The Lying Game.” The game was meant to be fun, but it had dark consequences. Now, all grown up and living their own independent lives, our protagonists have tried to put the past behind them. But one day, a body washes up on the shore of a sleepy coastal village… and one of their own calls upon the other three for help. I’m a huge fan of Pretty Little Liars, and this book felt like an adult version of a story worthy of the PLL girls to me. THE LYING GAME is all about secrets that friends have been keeping for one another, and from one another, for years. There’s a fantastic boarding school element to this story that I absolutely loved (anyone else love suspense novels that have an academic setting?!), and Ruth Ware’s writing is page-turning and propulsive no matter what kind of story she is telling. The most important thing to be aware of when determining if this book is for you is that this is not another Agatha Christie-style tale; this is very much modern psychological suspense.
About THE LYING GAME:
On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister...
The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”
The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father).
THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY
For readers who love:
Gothic suspense-inspired stories
Strong female protagonists
Stories of mysterious inheritances
Why I Loved THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY:
This book is one of my top two favorite Ruth Ware stories. THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY is an utterly irresistible blend of Gothic-inspired suspense and Agatha Christie-worthy plot. In this superb suspense story, a young woman receives a letter informing her that she is the recipient of a vast inheritance—and that to claim the inheritance, she’ll have to travel to the estate of the wealthy woman who has just passed away. Our protagonist quickly realizes that she has received this letter in error, but it just so happens to come at a pivotal moment in her life when this kind of money would save her from a world of trouble. She decides that, using the skills she has learned through her job reading tourists’ fortunes at a local boardwalk, she can trick this family into giving her the inheritance anyway. So off our protagonist goes to claim this inheritance for herself… but little does she know that she is about to enter the world of a family that is as laden with secrets as it is with money. THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY is, in all honesty, one of my favorite suspense books I’ve ever read. From this book’s cinematic setting (an estate that has fallen into a bit of disrepair, with shadows and gloom lurking in its corners) to its vibrant cast of characters (an affluent family whose characters are as deliciously over-the-top and suspicious as can be, plus a protagonist whose spunk and willpower will have you rooting for her every step of the way, even as she is essentially scamming a family out of their rightful inheritance…) to its utterly irresistible plot (one that blends the best of Gothic suspense with the best of Agatha Christie), THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY is top-notch psychological suspense. I can’t sing this book’s praises enough!
About THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY:
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 center of it.
THE TURN OF THE KEY
For readers who love:
Gothic suspense-inspired stories
Cinematic settings
Unusual plot structures
Why I Loved THE TURN OF THE KEY:
I’ll be honest, I never thought that Ruth Ware could top THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY. But then I read THE TURN OF THE KEY. Ware’s latest release ups the ante, delivering a story that once again leans into the Gothic suspense angle, this time telling a story in a way we’ve never seen before in a Ruth Ware thriller: through a series of letters written by our protagonist, recounting the series of events that led her to her current predicament. From the outset of THE TURN OF THE KEY, readers know a couple of essential facts: that our protagonist was previously employed as a live-in nanny at a luxurious home, that something went terribly wrong during her time in this job, and that that “something” was bad enough that it has landed our protagonist in jail, where she currently sits writing the letters through which readers will unravel her story. From the outset, THE TURN OF THE KEY establishes itself as Ware’s most ambitious book yet. This modern-day homage to Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw is equal parts ode to the classics and distinctly current suspense—that very same irresistible blend of old and new that captivated me in Ware’s debut, and has continued to impress me with each of her new releases. THE TURN OF THE KEY is my new favorite Ruth Ware novel. Set in a luxurious “smart home” in the Scottish highlands, this story ratchets up the paranoia bit by bit, drawing readers ever closer to the sinister truth at the heart of the seemingly idyllic world into which our unsuspecting protagonist entered. Blending the scariest parts of the old (an estate with a dark history + potential supernatural activity going on) and the new (a “smart home” that begins to feel a bit too much like Big Brother, where someone is always watching your every move), THE TURN OF THE KEY is a major accomplishment, and a truly unputdownable work of psychological suspense and paranoia.
About THE TURN OF THE KEY:
When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.
What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.
Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.
It was everything.
She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.
ONE BY ONE
Coming September 2020!
About ONE BY ONE:
Getting snowed in at a beautiful, rustic mountain chalet doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world, especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a cozy fire, and company to keep you warm. But what happens when that company is eight of your coworkers…and you can’t trust any of them?
When an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, the corporate food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?
And that’s a wrap on my guide to Ruth Ware’s thrillers! I absolutely cannot wait to read Ware’s 2020 release ONE BY ONE later this year. While we wait for the release of ONE BY ONE, now is the perfect moment to dig into Ware’s fantastic backlist and enjoy all the incredible stories she has in store for us crime readers! Happy reading! xx A
Home ownership feel like a distant dream? Zillow listings have you convinced you’ll be renting for the rest of your life? The woman at the heart of Carissa Orlando’s debut The September House feels your pain—and she’s prepared to put up with a lot if it means she and her husband can finally have a place to call their own. In this case, that might just mean living in a house that’s haunted. Playful and irreverent, spine-tingling and spooky, The September House puts a fresh spin on the classic haunted house story, delivering an immersive tale about the secrets lurking within one building’s walls, and within the lives of its inhabitants.