“The Housemaid”, a fictional psychological thriller written by Freida McFadden, follows the story of an ex-convict living on fast food and in her car who desperately needs a job. She soon finds a wealthy family in need of a housekeeper, but the job seems too good to be true. The family, the Winchesters, have deep secrets of their own that are soon unraveled when Millie accepts the job. Freida McFadden is a practicing physician, specializing in brain injury. She’s most skilled at producing bestselling psychological thrillers and medical humor novels. Some of her bestsellers include: “Do Not Disturb,” The Locked Door,” and “Do You Remember?”
Nina Winchester, the wife of Andrew Winchester, hires Millie and seems to have mental health problems. As Millie continues to work for Nina, she realizes Nina is sort of bipolar and tells her things that aren’t true. Nina makes messes in the house and when Millie cleans them, the house is a mess the next day. She also realizes that her room in the attic locks from the outside rather than the inside. The appearance of Millie is slowly driving a wedge between the seemingly happy couple. However, Millie soon realizes that the couple was never happy to begin with. With Nina’s mental health issues and the couple’s failed attempts at having a baby, tension begins to rise. This tension between the couple creates an opening for attraction to stir between Millie and Andrew. Nina, sensing the attraction between them begins to make things difficult for Millie.

The book overall is well-written, as far as the plot and the structure of the story. It begins by starting with the murder, and an interrogation with no hint of who was killed. You can’t tell who’s dead in the attic and whether or not Millie or Nina was the murderer. It then tells the story of Mille working for the Winchesters, and later on goes into Nina’s point of view. It starts off slow with revealing Millie’s past, but very quick to point evidence towards Nina as being the antagonist. Nina makes up lies about her daughter and the things she says. Little does the reader know, with the descriptions and actions of the characters, you’d never think the seemingly sweet person in the book would be the real antagonist, and the dead one. The theme of this book would be “things aren’t always what they seem” because what happens at the beginning of the book isn’t true to the end. McFadden also switches between the point of view of Millie and Nina, so the reader can truly see the reasoning behind the actions of both characters. Even though seeing Nina’s reasoning and thought process was insightful for the story, it would have been interesting to see Andrew’s thought process.
Freida McFadden beautifully paints the picture of a semi-perfect marriage with the exception of an unstable woman who happens to have a strange daughter. When I read the book, I believed I knew how it would end. That it would be standard, a mentally unstable rich woman hiring a maid who then has an affair with her husband and she kills them both. I was not prepared for the ending, and even when the roles changed I truly believed I knew who was going to end up dead. At first, I wasn’t very interested in the book because of the slow start. But as I kept reading, I couldn’t stop. I was intrigued by the plot and the characters, especially Enzo. A true Italian man, faking a language barrier and with secrets of his own, that works as a landscaper for this rich family. The daughter, Cecelia, acts very strange and seems attached to Andrew who isn’t her real father. Andrew, the perfect husband, handsome and loving. Every character in some way is connected to the family’s secrets, whether they play a major role or not, especially Andrew’s mother. A woman who cares only about appearance and rules. This was a book where I was happy with the ending, and I will definitely be reading the sequel when it releases this month.