An unpredictable, twisty tale of dark secrets.
This is the 1st book I’ve read from this author but I will be reading more.
30 years ago Jocelyn woke up to find her nanny had vanished. After being widowed and forced to return to her family home the tension between her and her mother grows.
When human remains are found she’s quick to think her mother had something to do with Hannah’s disappearance.
What secrets is Virginia keeping and why?
After Hannah makes a sudden reappearance these secrets start to reveal themselves.

A tense and well paced thriller. Thoroughly enjoyed this. I live Gilly McMillan and she never fails to disappoint. Highly recommended for mystery thriller lovers.

Enjoyed the story but took me a while to read. It Was a bit fractured and disjointed. The characters were well fleshed out.

Well, I didn't see that coming. A book told from different peoples' points of view. Jocelyn is back living with her hated/hating mother Virginia. A major part of Jocelyn's life was when her nanny Hannah 'goes missing' - she was 7. Not long after returning she and her daughter Ruby go kayaking on their lake and find a skull. Jocelyn wonders if it's Hannah's. Her mother knows that it is.

This is a book about prejudice, relationships, forgery - very much life in general. A good book.

When a favourite author brings out a new book there’s always a worry that it’s not going to live up to expectations but Gilly Macmillan is a class act and The Nanny was absolutely spot on. I do love a dysfunctional family and here we have one of my favourite families of the year so far! Three generations of the Holt women come together when a shocking discovery is made in the grounds of their home. Does this tie in with events from the past that Jocelyn thinks she remembers? And what happened to The Nanny? Once you picked up this book you won’t be able to put it down until you find out the truth.

This was a great read that really kept the tension high throughout. First impressions were quickly overturned once the secrets from the past started crawling out of the woodwork and I enjoyed working out what had happened all those years ago to have caused such a family rift! There were some unexpected twists and turns along the way and a super ending that shocked the hell out of me! But essentially I was really curious about the relationship between Jo and her mother, which was strained to say the least!

The storyline was solidly crafted and flowed perfectly with the pace being slow enough to be able to build up characters and descriptive prose but not so slow as to cause the reader to lose interest! And I did like the way in which we hear from both Jo and her mother Virginia as well as the investigating police officer who didn’t seem as impartial as he should have been-I mean a crime is a crime if committed with intent so a victims social standing shouldn’t be used as a weapon to be beat them with!

I thoroughly enjoyed every page of The Nanny as the tension increased to a denouement that made me squeal! It’s a darkly atmospheric, chilling book with some great characters. Overall one that I’m definitely recommending!

Wow, this book has more twists and turns than a rollercoaster. Just as soon as the reader gets comfortable with something, the rug is pulled out from under them! The "jumping" around between time confused me at first, but I got used to it after a while, and then enjoyed it! Recommended.

Jocelyn or Jo, as she now likes to be called, is returning to her childhood home with her daughter Ruby after recently becoming a widow. She didn't have the best relationship with her mother, Virginia but she has nowhere else to go. Jo is the daughter of Lord and Lady Holt, a very well to do family and growing up was looked after by her nanny, Hannah who she adored, then when Jo was seven Hannah disappeared without a trace. Not long after Jo returns home human remains are discovered with the grounds of the house and while the police start their investigations, Jo begins to question what really happened the night Hannah disappeared and just when she thinks she's figured it out an unexpected visitor turns up at the house and throws everything she ever believed from her past into turmoil, who is telling the truth and how can she ever trust anyone again.

This story is told over two timelines and is full of unexpected twists, I was drawn in right from the start. To begin with I disliked Virginia and felt sorry for Jo but as the story progressed my loyalties switched and I was firmly on Virginia's side and praying she would be proved right, I adored Ruby and loved the relationship she immediately struck up with her grandmother, it brought out a softer side to Virginia and gave her the love she'd missed out on when Jo was growing up. This is a well crafted book and the first I've read by this author, but it definitely won't be the last. Definitely recommend this one.

I'd like to thank Random House UK and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and on Amazon on publication day.

Very enjoyable and unique read. It was full of twists and turns that kept me hooked. My only issue and why I didn’t give it 5 stars was I couldn’t relate to Jocelyn and she really irritated me in the way she acted. Otherwise a very good book.

A gréât thriller. Full of twists and definitely not the ending I thought. Would definitely read more from this authors

After the tragic death of her husband, Jocelyn and her ten-year-old daughter Ruby returns to England to Lake Hall where her mother Lady Holt lives. Jocelyn as a seven-year-old child was never close to her mother. But, to her nanny Hannah. But she was left devasted, when Hannah left without a trace, never to be seen again. The distance between them grew. But, when Ruby meets her grandmother, a relationship blossom between them.
There is nothing much to do at Lake hall and her mother warned her not got to go onto the Lake. The boat house has been locked up for quite a while. When the get Geoff the handyman to open it. They find a Kayak that is still safe to use, and they go out onto the lake. When somethipng happens and Ruby’s foot get stuck and when they pull her foot out of the water a skull is foundat. Jocelyn thinks it might be Hannah after her untimely disappearance. Also, when Jocelyn was seven her parents use to host wild parties around that area, and she was banished to the house. The police are called, and an investigation starts. When an unexpected visitor comes to visit, questions are asked between her and her mother as Hannah returns. Jocelyn wants to find out what happened that day when Hannah left.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC exchange for a honest review. Although this was a slow burner of a story, I liked the Nanny. It’s quite different to other psychological thrillers I have read. Firstly, I felt sorry for Jocelyn, her parents even with all the money they had couldn’t give the love that she needed, so they always palmed her off to the Nanny. I disliked them for that. But when the story went forward 30 years to the present, it felt quite realistic when Jocelyn thought her mother was going a bit batty in her old age when she tries to tell her about Hannah. Not every person at a certain age does that. I didn’t like the character of Hannah at all. If you like psychological thrillers, but a but different to the norm. This is the book for you.

Although domestic noir and family-based psychological thrillers are not my usual thing, I decided to give The Nanny a try as I've loved Gilly Macmillan's police procedurals featuring DI Jim Clemo. And it didn't leave me disappointed, offering a compelling and twisty tale of sociopathy and family secrets. Very much recommended if you're after a page-turner in which nothing is as it seems.

A good read, I enjoyed it. It as quite absorbing and you really had no idea exactly what was happening, so it kept me guessing. Family secrets and large houses always make for an interesting read, throw in a dysfunctional relationship and a lake and you have the recipe for a good story.
I did feel that there are one or two anomalies in the story and it had a really abrupt and not terribly satisfying end, which was a shame, however it was pretty good.

Well written but a slow burner - one which, in parts, feels too slow and did make me consider not carrying it on. I liked the family saga factor and that kept me going through - one to take your time over and savour. It’s certainly not a quick read.

This story gradually ramps up the chill factor as it progresses.
It initially comes across as a normal family drama with a neglected child from a rich family who is befriended by her loving nanny. Her nanny gives her the affection and attention she craves.
But the nanny isn’t quite what she seems and suddenly you find yourself shouting at Jo and telling her not to trust Hannah!
I thought the beginning was rather slow, and I did begin to get a little bored. The style was appropriate for the family saga storyline, which added to the authenticity of the opening chapters. Overall it was well written without mistakes in the grammar and vocabulary, but not a book that hooked me.

In UK psychological thriller The Nanny, new widow Jocelyn Holt returns to her childhood home, a mansion in the English countryside, with her young daughter Ruby. Both are heartbroken over losing Jo's husband/Ruby's father, and reeling from being uprooted from their Californian life and left broke. Her mother is also in mourning following the recent passing of her husband, Jo's father. For Jo, the place holds few happy memories. Most of the good ones relate to her nanny, Hannah, who left without saying goodbye when Jo was seven. Although she has always held her father high on a pedestal, she is distanced from her mother and fears her influence on young Ruby. Then human remains are discovered in a lake on their estate, widening the us and them gap between the Holts and the villagers, and between the Holts themselves. And a woman comes knocking at the mansion that may be a godsend or a villain. She makes Jo distrust all her memories, her mother, her daughter and herself. The twists and turns keep coming, and with them grows Jo's realisation that the truth is far worse than her imaginings. I recommend The Nanny to those readers who enjoy a slow-burning psychological thriller.

I am so sorry this book didn't do it for me because the premise is interesting and Hannah is manipulative and terrifying. I just didn't the story so much as some situations in the plot were left unexplained when the book came to an end. It was a bit fast and predictable but the way in which it is written made me want to discover what Hannah was willing to do to achieve his goals.

This is a mystery thriller quite unlike anything I have ever read before. It is set in England, in a quiet sleepy village, and follows a family that have recently been reunited. One of the main characters named Jo, has moved back in with her mother, bringing her daughter along too, as her husband has recently died. Her father has died relatively recently too, so we mainly follow the perspectives of these three generations of women. When Jo was growing up she had a nanny, who it's more than fair to say, Jo had and still has an unhealthy obsessive relationship with. Her relationship with her own mother has always been poor, and she is determined not to make the same mistakes with her own daughter. However, shortly after moving back in with her mother, Jo's daughter finds a skull in the lake on their mothers property. Jo automatically assumes it is the nanny, and the mystery goes on from there.

This novel takes so many breathtaking twists and turns, I consistently found myself confused on who the skull could belong to, and indeed who caused the body to end up in the lake to begin with. The multiple perspectives are tricky to follow to begin with, just because of the clever way the author has decided to weave the story together. The timeline also jumps around, which again adds to the confusion at times. It isn't confusing in a difficult to follow kind of way, more just in trying to work out what exactly has gone on.

I didn't correctly guess the various parts to the mystery until late on, which was satisfying. I enjoyed having my head thoroughly confused at every turn. I didn't like the characters in this novel though. Some are more likeable than others, but of the main characters, I didn't like half of them. This did have an impact on my enjoyment of the book, because I just couldn't take some of the actions by those characters seriously. For example, Jo being so hung up on her nanny as a grown woman grated on me. Unlikeable characters aren't always a bad thing, but when I can't believe their actions on top of that, it is a jarring reading experience for me.

If you enjoy psychological thrillers, I still highly recommend this book, it's a page turner and will keep you awake thinking about who the remains belong to, and who killed that person and put them there.

Really enjoyed this book different from what I normally read and found it a bit slow at the beginning but stick with it in the end I couldn’t put it down look forward to reading more from this author

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 lake 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 mystery thriller that has so many twists and turns and what ifs, it left me reeling at points but desperately eager to continue on to the next chapter and the next and the next. I flipped opinions about characters from the start to the finish, and I really liked how Gilly Macmillan was able to present them as one kind of person and transform them into another within a few chapters.

Towards the end things perhaps rushed a little too quickly towards a dramatic conclusion, for which there would surely be consequences further down the line. However it was a gripping read with the story touching on themes of family relationships, manipulation, and where and why our love and trust are placed or misplaced. I very much enjoyed all the characters, particularly Virginia and Ruby, and found Jo’s struggles and dilemmas very relatable.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone Century for an advance copy in return for a fair and honest review

I’d like to thank Random House UK, Cornerstone and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Nanny’ by Gilly MacMillan in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

In 1987 Nanny Hannah disappears from Lake House where she’s been employed to take care of Jocelyn, Lord and Lady Holt’s seven-year-old daughter. Thirty years later Jocelyn, now known as Jo, is forced to return to her childhood home and is accompanied by her ten-year-old daughter Ruby. Jo’s never got on with her mother Virginia who she found cold and unloving, and when she’s offered a job in London she doesn’t trust her mother to take care of Ruby. When a human skull is discovered in the grounds of Lake House the police are called in to investigate and are keen to know why Nanny Hannah disappeared. Could secrets be unearthed which could destroy everything Jo’s always believed to be true?

‘The Nanny’ is a compelling thriller, absorbing, dramatic and full of tension. The chapters move between the characters, giving background as to what happened between 1987 and the present time. It’s been well-written and has interesting characters, a clever plot, twists and turns and a huge unexpected twist at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel which I found hugely entertaining.