‘The Housemaid’ book review: An addictive psychological thriller

‘The Housemaid’ by Frieda McFadden follows a struggling young woman who makes a fresh start by working as a housemaid to a wealthy, upscale couple. But little does she know that the family isn’t as perfect as it seems. But Millie too has secrets of her own. The premise of the book is simple but gripping. Pristine and prim Nina Winchester hires Millie to cook and clean for them. Millie couldn’t be more grateful. She has been living in her car and would like nothing more than to ‘stretch her legs’ while sleeping. Even though she is given a tiny room on the top floor of the sprawling house, it’s a lot better than sleeping curled up in the backseat. So, she is determined to keep the job, which is basically cooking and cleaning for the Winchesters. But no matter how hard she works, Nina finds a way to create problems for her. Millie is also given a lot more chores than she was told she would have to do when she was being hired. Also, Nina makes a mess just so she can watch Millie clean it. She claims her daughter is allergic to peanut butter when she’s not. She tells Millie to make an appointment for a certain day and then claims she got the time wrong. Her husband Andrew is supportive of Nina and lets her do as she pleases but Millie can sense that he’s increasingly becoming weary of his wife. Worse, the couple’s young daughter seems to hate Millie and is hostile towards her.

I couldn’t put the book down and finished it the day I started. I was desperate to know what happens next as well as how it ends. Though I did guess the twist, I didn’t expect it to unravel the way it did. The Housemaid was so good that I immediately bought another book by the same author (The Locked Door) and started reading it. My husband who, in our eight years of marriage, has never seen me read the same author back-to-back was shocked. The Housemaid is on his reading list now, and that’s saying a lot because he prefers non-fiction to fiction.

McFadden is #1 Amazon, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author who works as a physician specializing in brain surgery. Her novels have been translated into more than 30 languages. Two-time Emmy nominee Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys) is set to make a feature adaptation of The Housemaid for Lionsgate. I’m so excited about that. The book felt like it was written for the screen. I can’t wait to watch it come to life. Four stars https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60556912-the-housemaid Fiction The Housemaid Frieda McFadden Published: 2022 Publisher: Penguin Books Pages: 306, Paperback