Name: The Nanny
Rating: 5.0 (1 reviews)
Author: Gilly Macmillan

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Summary

Book Summary

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.

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Media Reviews

"Macmillan expertly ratchets up the tension as long-held secrets come to light. Readers will have a tough time putting this one down." - Publishers Weekly

"Art forgery! False identities! Adultery! Murder! But in the end, sadly, it's more melodrama than true thriller." - Kirkus Reviews

"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

"With its buried secrets, shifting allegiances, and creeping sense of dread, The Nanny pulses with tension until its shocking conclusion. I absolutely loved it!" - Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door

"Exploding with secrets, The Nanny by master storyteller Gilly Macmillan has everything you dream for in a thriller...You won't be able to rest until the final, spine-tingling conclusion." - Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and Before She Was Found

This information about The Nanny was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Cloggie Downunder

Macmillan’s best yet.
The Nanny is the fifth novel by British author, Gilly Macmillan. It's with great reluctance that recently widowed Jo Black returns to Lake House, her Pewsey Vale childhood home, with her ten-year-old daughter Ruby. The last thing she wants is to be beholden to Lady Virginia Holt, the mother she remembers without any fondness. But her husband Chris's death has left her homeless and temporarily without funds.

The person who featured most fondly in Jocelyn Holt’s childhood was Hannah, the nanny who cared daily for her until she suddenly disappeared without trace from Lake House when Jo was seven. Jo’s memory of the time is a little fuzzy. When skeletal remains are found in the lake, Jo can’t help but wonder if her nanny met a violent end. Virginia’s insistence that the bones are very old only increases Jo’s suspicion.

Detective Constable Andy Wilton is fairly certain that Lady Holt, with her cut-glass accent, knows a lot more than she’s saying about the remains. He’s firmly of the opinion that these upper-class types think they’re above the law, and he’s determined to get to bottom of this case.

The present day narrative is from three perspectives: Virginia, whose apparently genuine anxiety over the welfare of her daughter and granddaughter is at odds with Jo’s recollection of her; Jo, whose overriding concern is getting a job so she can get Ruby away from the influence of the (possibly demented) mother she still loathes; and DC Andy Wilton, who is intent on identifying the (probable) murder victim. The eponymous nanny’s narrative covers events leading to, and during, her time as Jocelyn Holt’s nanny.

Once again, Macmillan gives the reader a brilliant mystery with several red herrings, a couple of twists, a good dose of irony and a thrilling climax. There’s art fraud and assumed identities, and even the most astute reader is unlikely to guess exactly what happened before all is revealed, and after that, Macmillan has one more surprise up her sleeve. This might just be Macmillan’s best yet.

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Author Information

Biography
Books by this Author

Gilly Macmillan Author Biography

http://www.gillymacmillan.com/

Gilly Macmillan is the internationally bestselling author of five novels including What She Knew, The Perfect Girl, Odd Child Out, I Know You Know and The Nanny.

A former art historian and photographer, Gilly studied at Bristol University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She lives in Bristol, UK, with her husband and three children.

Her first novel, What She Knew, was a Target pick, a LibraryReads pick, an Indie Next pick, an Edgar award nominee, and an International Thriller Writers award finalist.

Gilly's novels have appeared on the New York Times, Globe & Mail and Der Spiegel bestseller lists, been translated into over 20 languages and sold over one million copies worldwide. She's been described as 'one heck of a good writer' (Wall Street Journal) and her novels ...