Nanny Dearest

by Flora Collins

You let her in. Now she won't let you go.

Sue Keller is lost. When her father dies suddenly, she's orphaned in her mid-twenties, her mother having died long ago. Then Sue meets Annie. It's been twenty years, but Annie could never forget that face. She was Sue's live-in nanny at their big house upstate, and she loved Sue like she was her own.

Craving comfort and connection, Sue is only too eager to welcome Annie back into her life. But as they grow close once more, Sue begins to uncover the truth about Annie's unsettling time in the Keller household all those years ago, and the dark secrets that bind these women together.

Split between upstate New York in the nineties and present-day Manhattan, Nanny Dearest is a darkly addictive psychological thriller of power, privilege, secrets and obsession, which will keep readers turning the pages right up to the shocking end.

'One to race through' Observer

'Cracking' Daily Mail

'Powerful, haunting' Miranda Smith

'A tightly woven thriller' Town & Country US

Haunting, evocative and atmospheric' Charlotte Duckworth

'You won't be able to put this book down' Emily Freud

'An accomplished thriller debut' Vogue US

• ISBN10: 1529417856
• ISBN13: 9781529417852
• Publish Date: 30 November 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 23 August 2024
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Quercus Publishing
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Slow Burn Psychological Suspense. This is one psychological suspense that features a tremendous amount of active gaslighting, so be aware of that up front. The actual conflict here is slow, told in two perspectives in two different time periods - from the nanny's perspective in the mid-late 1990s, and the child's perspective as a now-adult circa 2020. In the present, we see the child as a sort of aimless, emo-chic drifter overwhelmed by recent events (personal, not global - the real-world insanities of the era are never mentioned here, thankfully) and the nanny appears to be perfect... at first. In the past, we see how non-perfect the nanny actually is... and discover quite a bit that ratchets up the tension for the reader in the present day scenes. Solid work that fans of the genre will likely enjoy. Very much recommended.