The Nanny By Gilly Macmillan

‘The Nanny’ is the latest book by Gilly Macmillan.

Seven-year-old Jocelyn loves her nanny more than her own mother. When her nanny disappears one night, Jo never gets over the loss. How could she vanish without saying goodbye? Thirty years on, Jo is forced to return to her family home and confront her troubled relationship with her mother. When human remains are discovered in the grounds of the house, Jo begins to question everything. Then an unexpected visitor knocks at the door and Jo’s world is destroyed again as, one by one, she discovers her childhood memories aren’t what they seemed. What secrets was her nanny hiding – and what was she running away from? And can Jo trust what her mother tells her?

‘The Nanny’ is a thrilling story by Gilly MacMillan which is riddled with drama and suspense.

In this story, we meet mother and daughter Virginia and Jocelyn, they have a complicated and intense relationship. Virginia is cold hearted woman who rarely showed affection or spent time with her daughter whilst Jocelyn is wary of her mother, having to return home from America after her husband died. For all the affection that Virginia lacked towards Jocelyn, she gives openly to Jocelyn’s only daughter. Things have never been the same between the mother and daughter since the nanny suddenly disappeared one night and now many years has reappeared into their lives much to the dismay of Virginia.

The story is seen through the narrative of both Virginia and Jocelyn and gives an insight into the complex relationship of the pair of them and just how differently they think. Virginia is an old-fashioned woman, married into wealth and becoming the Lady of the Manner, affection isn’t high up on her list of priorities and seeing how it turned out with her daughter, she’s actively working to redeem her relationship with Ruby, a little girl that she actively loves with her curiosity and bubbling personality. Meanwhile Jocelyn, is finding it hard to adjust to being back with her mother and finds old memories constantly popping up and finds herself delighted to have her old nanny reappear and help with her troublesome mother.

As well as the narrative from the mother and daughter, there is also an unknown voice in the story that gives the book quite an interesting twist. The story is cleverly written with unreliable and unlikable characters, scenes betweens Virginia and Jocelyn are occasionally fraught with arguments and this does make for interesting reading. With the reappearance of the nanny, Jocelyn begins to question her childhood, especially when those close to her have different sides to the story.

A tense and exciting story that will have the reader gripped from the first page, ‘The Nanny’ is a twisty tale of family secrets that will have you guessing throughout.

You can buy ‘The Nanny’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops.