My husband and I rarely ever like the same book. We have completely different reading choices. Usually, I recommend a book to him, tell him he must read this book I just read, that I gave it a solid five stars, and he will roll his eyes at me. ‘A Man Called Ove’ by Fredrick Backman, which is one of my most favorite books, put him to sleep. He calls it the most boring book ever. (It’s a wonder I’m still married to him.) But we both absolutely adored ‘The Silent Patient’ by Alex Michaelides. It was probably the one book that we both agreed was better than most thrillers we had read. We also didn’t see the end coming. We wanted to read more by the author and were thrilled to come across ‘The Maidens’.  The Silent Patient is about a London-based psychotherapist who becomes obsessed with a painter who hasn’t spoken a word after she is convicted of murdering her husband. The Maidens also involves a London-based psychotherapist and the all-too-pervasive culture of silencing women. Mariana Andros is a 36-year-old, grieving widow. A little over a year ago, her husband, Sebastian, died on a beach in Naxos, Greece while on holiday. Mariana still lives in the yellow house she shared with her husband on Primrose Hill in Northwest London. She can’t get past the fact that she convinced Sebastian to go on a holiday and holds herself responsible for his death. Then she gets a call from her niece, Zoe, who studies in Cambridge. Zoe says her friend Tara is missing. Mariana fears this will be hard on Zoe as Tara is one of the few friends she has and so she leaves for Cambridge.

There she discovers a secret society called ‘The Maidens’ who cluster around a brilliant Greek Tragedy professor named Edward Fosca. He is handsome and charming. But Mariana suspects there is something off with him and she starts to poke around. More women end up dead. They are killed in a grisly, ritualistic fashion and Mariana becomes convinced Fosca is somehow behind them, despite having airtight alibis. Cambridge also brings back a lot of memories as this is where Mariana and Sebastian met so there’s a lot of personal demons to battle as well.

Michaelides is a great visual storyteller. The detailed descriptions of settings, with historical buildings, create an ominous atmosphere and set the right mood. But The Maidens wasn’t as good as The Silent Patient. The story feels unnecessarily dragged out at times. The Maidens isn’t as psychologically thrilling or taut as The Silent Patient either. That’s not to say it’s a bad book. It’s still a fun read—just don’t have sky-high expectations. Three and half stars Fiction The Maidens Alex Michaelides Published: 2020 Publisher: Pages: Paperback