The Death of Mrs. Westaway
Harriet Westaway is 21 and is trying to make ends meet after losing her mom in a car accident. She is hard up for money and hiding from a loan shark. In her mail one day (in addition to a bunch of overdue bills) is a formal letter saying she has been named in the will of a “Mrs. Westaway” who had a significant estate. Harriet feels there must be some mistake as her grandma (who she didn’t even know) has been dead 20 years, but due to her desperate situation Harriet decides to go for it anyway!
What follows are twists and turns of a family drama as Harriet uses what she has learned as a tarot reader (how to read people and show them what they want) to attempt to collect this money. As emotions and history come into play, this task becomes both more difficult and easier than she expected.
The beginning of this book is a bit confusing as it starts out (and continues) with a couple of different perspectives: the first is a diary entry from 1994 and the other is a present day narrative. But once I got a feel for how to read the book, I was able to enjoy thoroughly enjoy it.
Besides an entertaining story, I especially appreciated this book as a throwback to the classic romantic suspense (and a favorite of mine) Rebecca
Antoher fun thing about this book is that the level of suspicion for each heir/character shuffles throughout so it keeps a reader guessing about everyone’s past and current motives and who is telling the truth. Although I’m not sure I “buy” every aspect of the final explanation, all in all, this is a solid summer read.
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Great review! I am glad you enjoyed it. I think the audio enhanced the different perspectives as the narrator switched up the voices for each character.
That would be fun to hear!!