Strong Start, but Didn't Quite Live up to My Expectations
This is the sophomore thriller of Alex Michaelides, author of The Silent Patient. Let me start by saying I absolutely LOVED The Silent Patient so I had high expectations for The Maidens.
We follow the main character Mariana, a group therapist, who while still grappling with the death of her husband receives a call from her niece Zoe about a possible murder at Mariana's Alma Mater. Mariana then treks up to Cambridge University where she stumbles about trying to pin the murder on one of Zoe's professors: Edward Fosca, after Zoe claims the victim had ties to him. He also runs an all female study group called "The Maidens", which all the murder victims are a part of, and this only deepens Mariana's suspicions of him. Mariana is then met with obvious red herring after obvious red herring as the murders continue.
This story is told in alternating chapters, switching off from the view of Mariana to an unknown (for the majority of the book), but disturbed character. I thought the character development was well done for most of our characters, but a few felt thin, specifically Zoe. I didn't find that this was written with the same grace as The Silent Patient and while parts of the twist were shocking, overall I felt the wrap up of The Maidens fell flat. This was a quick and compelling read, but I most likely won't suggest this book to other people.
Thank you to Bookish First and Celadon Books for gifting me with this ARC.
We follow the main character Mariana, a group therapist, who while still grappling with the death of her husband receives a call from her niece Zoe about a possible murder at Mariana's Alma Mater. Mariana then treks up to Cambridge University where she stumbles about trying to pin the murder on one of Zoe's professors: Edward Fosca, after Zoe claims the victim had ties to him. He also runs an all female study group called "The Maidens", which all the murder victims are a part of, and this only deepens Mariana's suspicions of him. Mariana is then met with obvious red herring after obvious red herring as the murders continue.
This story is told in alternating chapters, switching off from the view of Mariana to an unknown (for the majority of the book), but disturbed character. I thought the character development was well done for most of our characters, but a few felt thin, specifically Zoe. I didn't find that this was written with the same grace as The Silent Patient and while parts of the twist were shocking, overall I felt the wrap up of The Maidens fell flat. This was a quick and compelling read, but I most likely won't suggest this book to other people.
Thank you to Bookish First and Celadon Books for gifting me with this ARC.