The Nanny
A Novel
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3.9 • 72 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“The Nanny kept me in white-knuckled suspense until the very last page. Gilly Macmillan’s breakout thriller is a dark and twisted version of Downton Abbey gone very, very wrong.” — Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author
The New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew conjures a dark and unpredictable tale of family secrets that explores the lengths people will go to hurt one another.
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
One morning in 1987, seven-year-old Jocelyn Holt, the heroine of this devastating psychological thriller from bestseller Macmillan (I Know You Know), wakes up in Lake Hall, her family's English mansion, to find her beloved nanny, Hannah Burgess, gone. Strangely, Jo's aristocratic parents find nothing sinister about Hannah's disappearance. Years later, Jo, who deeply resents her emotionally distant mother, moves to California, where she falls in love with Chris, with whom she has a daughter, Ruby. Jo never forgets Hannah, and when Chris dies suddenly, Jo returns to Lake Hall with Ruby. The girl enrolls in primary school while Jo reacclimatizes herself to the British culture. One day, the two of them are relaxing on the shore of the lake when they find a human skull. The police come to investigate. Does the skull belong to Hannah? Are the Holt parents implicated in her death? Macmillan expertly ratchets up the tension as long-held secrets come to light. Readers will have a tough time putting this one down.
Customer Reviews
The Nanny
Excellent read. So good and unexpected twists and turns make this thrilling right to the end.
Not for me
Didn’t love this. Had potential but too many loose ends left unfinished. Wouldn’t recommend, way better thrillers out there.