When it comes to thrillers about nannies and the families they work for, readers can be sure of a few things: The nanny is hiding a secret. The family has got a secret as well. There may be ghosts, a creepy village, scary relatives. Proceed at your own risk.
Irish author Rachel Ryan’s sophomore release, Someone You Trust, takes these tropes and makes them her own. While the result is a little uneven, she brings everything together in a spectacular conclusion that makes the read well worth it.
When Amy takes a job as a live-in house cleaner and nanny to the wealthy Carroll family, she sees the isolation of the modern West Cork home as a bonus. The kids are adorable and their mother, June, makes few demands on her. But there’s a brooding teenage stepson that June never told her about. And why did the previous nannies leave so suddenly? No one in the village seems to like the Carroll family, but maybe the problem is the villagers, not the Carrolls. But who is leaving threatening graffiti all over town?
Someone You Trust moves along at a quick pace, clocking in at about two hours for the entire book. Ryan starts off with a bang—Amy wakes up bloody, with a body near her on the floor—moves into the present, then goes back and forth between the creeping dread in the Carroll home and the secrets in Amy’s past. While the plot points in the present were a little disjointed and sometimes repetitive, Ryan does a masterful job exploring Amy’s back story. At multiple times, Ryan sets up reader expectations, only to deliver a knock-out blow in the form of a fabulous twist. Her spectacular climax ties past and present together, and her denouement answers all the unsettled questions.
Thrillers about nannies may be a dime a dozen these days, but as long as authors as strong as Ryan keep writing them, I’ll keep reading them.
Thanks to Gallery for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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