The Key - Kathryn Hughes

Best Sunday morning, cuppa, tea bread and last few pages of my latest book

1956

It's Ellen Crosby's first day as a student nurse at Ambergate County Lunatic Asylum. When she meets a young woman committed by her father, and a pioneering physician keen to try out the various 'cures' for mental illness, little does Ellen know that a choice she will make is to change all their lives for ever...

2006

Sarah is drawn to the abandoned Ambergate Asylum. Whilst exploring the old corridors she discovers a suitcase belonging to a female patient who was admitted fifty years earlier. The shocking contents lead Sarah to unravel a forgotten story of tragedy, lost love and an old wrong that only she may have the power to put right . . .

I came across the author Kathryn Hughes purely by accident whilst thumbing through books to purchase on my kindle.   The Letter  was the first novel released by Kathryn Hughes in 2015 and I just couldn't stop reading till I got to the end.  Her second novel The Secret released in 2016 was equally as spellbinding. I have been eagerly awaiting the release of her third novel The Key, which is currently available on Kindle with a release date in paperback in September 2018.

I like the style of Kathryn Huges writing. Her stories usually move between the present in the past and The Key is no different. in 1956 Ellen Crosby is a student nurse whose first placement is at Ambergate Asylum. The patients she cares for all have their stories some have been their for many years. Amy is a young girl committed to the asylum by her father, he says she is mentally disturbed where as these days Amy would probably be classed as a troubled teen, who having lost her mother when she was young and blames herself
for her mothers death isn't happy to share her father with his new wife and compounded by the arrival of a new baby things at home escalate and Amy makes a bad decision and finds herself certified and put into the care of a young psychiatrist at Ambergate Aylum.  Ellen takes to Amy and when an event happens that will effect Amy for the rest of her life Ellen decides she has a choice to make.  In 2006 Sarah works at the library. Her father was at Ambergate for 4 years. He won't talk to her about his time there and isn't happy when she tells him she has been back to the now abandoned building and discovered a suit case belonging to a patient, there is no name only a number but he immediately knows who this patient is.  He realises that if her suitcase is still there then Amy never left or did she.

The Key will have you riveted from start to finish and I would definitely recommend you read this and  Kathryn Hughes two previous novels I don't think you will be disappointed.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my Grandmother's iced tea bread post and I hope some of you have had time to try it. 

Hope you all have a lovely week till then stay safe

Mx