Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

October 30, 2019

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Okay, so, how often do you find a book that deals with spontaneous human combustion?  With humor, compassion, and love?  I’d say just about never, until now.

Lillian Breaker is working a dead-end job in her home town, when she gets a frantic letter from her former roommate pleading for her help.  Lillian’s dreams of a better life for herself were cut short when her roomie Madison got caught with drugs at their exclusive high school, and Madison’s father paid off Lillian’s mother to get Lillian to take the rap for Madison.  Lillian was expelled and her mother spent the money on cigarettes, booze, and partying.

Fifteen years later, Madison Billings Roberts is married to a much older man, a U.S. senator, and they live on a palatial estate with their son Timothy.  But Senator Roberts has two children from his first marriage, Roland and Bessie, who (to say the least) have special needs:  if they get upset, they spontaneously burst into flames.  And these are two angry kids.  Madison and the senator need a nanny to look after the children in a special guest house on the estate, away from the main house since there is no predicting when these incidents might occur.  What if there were witnesses!  Imagine the negative publicity!  What if they burn the house down!  Think of what would happen to the Roberts’ perfect image!  The senator’s career would be down the tubes!

Lillian is the only person that Madison trusts enough with her secret.  The salary that Madison is offering is really good, too, so Lillian takes on the job of looking after the two near-feral children.  Their mother was paranoid, so the twins were home-schooled and rarely left the house.  Since the mother’s death, they’ve been living with their maternal grandparents who are being paid to “look after” the kids (and they have a really loose interpretation of “look after”).  The first time she meets the twins, despite coming away bleeding and half-drowned, Lillian unexpectedly connects with them and she resolves to try to make their lives better and help them learn to deal with and control their affliction. 

Lillian herself is damaged, since she had a neglected childhood without a father, and a mother who brought home boyfriend after boyfriend; after the drug incident, Lillian’s life spontaneously combusted.  She appears to be the first person who ever really takes an interest in the twins, even if she is being paid to look after them.

There are themes of friendship, forgiveness, disability, family, loss, and unexpected love.  And yet it is an uplifting feel-good book.  You can substitute any disability for “spontaneous human combustion” and the reaction of adults would be the same:  embarrassment, shame, “what will people think,” “this didn’t come from my side of the family,” focusing on the disability rather than the kids’ happiness.  The children’s propensity to burst into flames is a metaphor for all of the havoc of raising children:  the teenager who has a tantrum in public, the pre-schooler who gets mad at his parents and knocks all the booze bottles off the sideboard at a party, the adolescent who wants to be a super-hero and decides to jump off the school roof.  Spontaneous human combustion in the novel is just an exaggerated form of acting-out.

This is a very enjoyable read and is sure to appeal to anyone who likes quirky characters and unusual situations, and it has great cover art.  

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.

The Nanny by Gilly MacMillan

August 31, 2019

The Nanny by Gilly MacMillan

When Jocelyn Holt was seven years old, her beloved nanny left in the middle of the night without saying goodbye.  When she asked where Nanny Hannah had gone, her mother blamed Jocelyn for the nanny's departure, saying that she was a terrible child and the nanny couldn't stand her anymore.  With her parents spending most of their time in London, the little girl was soon shipped off to boarding school, and she never forgave her parents' for her loveless childhood.  Thirty years later, Jo is widowed and forced to return to her family's estate in rural England with her daughter, Ruby.  While Jo and Ruby are boating on the lake, they find a human skull in the water.  Jo suspects it may be Hannah, but if it is, who put it there?  And if it's not Hannah, who is it?

I enjoyed this very much.  Nannies are popular fictional characters because they are outsiders who are invited into the home to share intimate space with the family.  Fictional nannies can be wonderful (like Mary Poppins) or they can be psychopaths.  I usually don't read "nanny" books (The Perfect Nanny, Woman No. 17, The Au Pair) because the nannies all tend to be troubled women out for revenge, but this one appealed to me because it was about a missing person at an English country home that might be a cold case.  

The Nanny includes many of the themes that make psychological fiction so great:  family secrets, false identity, tense relations between the family and the locals, missing or false memories, illegal business dealings.  With interesting characters and fast pacing, this is a great reading choice for vacation or a long weekend.

Many thanks to NetGally and the publisher for an e-ARC in return for a review.

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

July 15, 2019

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

The first time that I realized that my iPhone and iPad “talk” to each other (usually when I’m not around), I was totally creeped out.  Ruth Ware takes that uneasy feeling to its highest level in her latest novel, The Turn of the Key.

When Rowan Cain comes across a job posting for a live-in nanny at an incredible salary, she thinks it must be too good to be true but applies anyway.  She gets the job and at first, it seems like a perfect situation in a beautiful house in the Scottish Highlands.  The parents are both architects, and their house is a “smart” house designed to test out various kinds of technologies, including touchpad controls, surveillance cameras in most of the rooms, and a super-stove that cooks meals by itself.

But the children that Rowan met at her interview turn out to be far different from who they actually are, and the house’s remote location and sinister history unnerve Rowan as they have the four previous nannies (there is even a poison garden on the grounds).  However, Rowan is hiding her own secrets, and when disaster strikes, finds herself accused of murder.

Gothic and creepy.  The title and the story are both a play on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, set in a “smart” house instead of a haunted house.  This would be a great spooky read for the Halloween season.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.