Review: THE NANNY, Gilly Macmillan

• this edition published by Century 2019
• ISBN 978-1-780-89984-8
• 423 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author)

When her beloved nanny, Hannah, left without a trace in the summer of 1988, seven-year-old Jocelyn Holt was devastated. Haunted by the loss, Jo grew up bitter and distant, and eventually left her parents and Lake Hall, their faded aristocratic home, behind.

Thirty years later, Jo returns to the house and is forced to confront her troubled relationship with her mother. But when human remains are accidentally uncovered in a lake on the estate, Jo begins to question everything she thought she knew.

Then an unexpected visitor knocks on the door and Jo’s world is destroyed again. Desperate to piece together the gaping holes in her memory, Jo must uncover who her nanny really was, why she left, and if she can trust her own mother…

In this compulsively readable tale of secrets, lies, and deception, Gilly Macmillan explores the darkest impulses and desires of the human heart. Diabolically clever, The Nanny reminds us that sometimes the truth hurts so much you’d rather hear the lie.

My Take

A very cleverly written novel with a number of narrators: Virginia, the matriarch of the family; Jo, the daughter; and then a third person who gives us the background to Hannah becoming a nanny.

The setting jumps back and forth over a period of more than three decades. There are plenty of clues about where we are in time.  The result is a complicated intertwining of plot threads. There is an almost Gothic feel to the plot.

In the long run I found the ending a bit unsatisfactory, but I will let you read it so that you can decide for yourself. It probably should have affected my rating.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
4.5, ODD CHILD OUT