The Turn of The Key

All the parents described in the book are flawed in some capacity—with many of them contributing to their children’s tragic deaths. The worst parents are fathers, but the mothers are also problematic characters who fail to protect and nurture their children. Rachel has a poor relationship with her mother, who raised her alone for many years after Bill left them. Rachel complains to Mr. Wrexham about never feeling good enough for her mother. No matter how hard she worked, she says, “to be the perfect daughter” (308), her mom would constantly criticize her. Rachel insists that all she wanted was for her mother to notice her. As she grew older, she started to rebel to get attention, but it was to no avail. She could never be the kind of daughter her mother wanted her to be. She left home at 18 and eventually told her mother that she “never wanted to hear from her again” (314). Rachel’s unsatisfying relationship with her mother drives her to seek out Bill and become a part of his family.

While Rachel’s mother is portrayed as cold and dismissive, Sandra, the mother of Rachel’s half-sisters, provides a contrast in that she clearly loves her children. However, she is similarly neglectful because she regularly chooses her husband and business over them. Although her love for her children is apparent—leaving Rachel feeling somewhat envious—the problem is that she is often absent. Rachel wonders if the binder full of detailed instructions and the extensive surveillance system are attempts by Sandra to “be there for her family, even when she couldn’t be physically present?” (103). Sandra’s determination to be with Bill, instead of at home, contributes to an environment of instability at Heatherbrae that proves fatal.

The negative portrait of the book’s matriarchs is far surpassed by the representation of the book’s patriarchs—who range from neglectful and selfish to cruel and homicidal. Bill Elincourt abandoned Rachel and her mother and was prepared to leave Sandra and the children for Holly, one of the previous nannies, before Rhiannon intervened. Rachel finds him selfish, self-centered, predatory, and abusive—a man who, she says, “walked away from his children again and again and again” (329). He is part of a legacy of bad fathers who have occupied Heatherbrae—and collectively contributed to Rachel’s sense that there’s “something sick in that house” (318). The previous owner, Kendrick Grant, nurtured a poison garden that led to the death of his daughter under mysterious circumstances. According to Mrs. Andrews, who runs the local tea shop, not everyone believes her death was an accident. The garden, which was Kendrick’s passion, also became his downfall. One of the patriarchs of the Struan family, who had owned the home before Kendrick Grant, allegedly murdered his wife and daughter in the house. Jack Grant, who lives on the property, has a wife and son but sleeps with Rowan—adding to the house’s reputation for bad fathers. The book’s parental figures fail to adequately parent, leading to dysfunction, chaos, and death.