Review: The Boy at the Keyhole

The Boy at the Keyhole by Stephen Giles
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, Hanover Square Press, and Stephen Giles for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The opinions stated are my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

Poor Samuel has been left all alone with the housekeeper, Ruth, while his mother has gone off, in the middle of the night, without saying goodbye, on a trip to America, to drum up much needed funds. Set in the 1960’s, on a dilapidated English estate, Samuel has no one. His father has died, his mother gone for months, and the staff have all been let go except for Ruth and William, the gardener. He has only one friend in the world, Jacob, who loves a conspiracy theory, as any nine year old boy with an iota of an imagination does. Ruth is strict, often cruel, and full of secrets and lies. Samuel is convinced that she murdered his mother. Mothers love their children and would never have abandoned him like this. After all, he was “her little man” and Sam knows she loved him fiercely. But how can he prove it? Ruth keeps all the rooms locked and he is forced to spy through keyholes to uncover the truth about what Ruth has done to his mother.

This did not do it for me. It wasn’t sufficiently creepy enough. I love the feeling you get when you are almost afraid to turn the page because you don’t know what is going to happen next and you are scared! The tension never reached an “on the edge of your seat” level. The suspense didn’t build. I figured out what was going on almost right from the very beginning and was disappointed when I was right. Where is the imagination? And I am not one to try and figure out what is going on, I rather just let the story wash over me and experience it as I’m reading. The characters were weak. I didn’t understand their motivation for anything they did, so I found them unbelievable. I really didn’t care what happened to Samuel, his mother, Ruth - not invested at all. The writing felt forced and contrived. It dragged for me quite a bit and all of that would have been forgiven if it had a great ending. But the ending was hardly great.

I’m sorry to say, this is a pass for me.

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