The Maidens

Not sure what’s up with my reading habits lately, but my last three have been The Mix-Up, The Marriage and now The Maidens.  Apparently I have a type. Moving on ...

Recently widowed Mariana is a psychotherapist whose niece Zoe goes to St. Christopher’s College in Cambridge - the same college she and her beloved deceased husband Sebastian attended.  When Zoe’s friend Tara, who is part of charismatic professor Edward Fosca’s mysterious exclusive study group The Maidens is found murdered, Mariana returns there, determined to protect Zoe, expose the person she’s convinced is the murderer, and hopefully deal with the ghosts of her own past along the way.  

So what did I think of it?  It’s good, solid writing, and I liked it.  It’s an interesting plot and the Greek mythology angle was clever. I enjoyed the classical feel of the Cambridge setting, which felt like a glimpse into history. I also love that he kept this story in the same universe as The Silent Patient, with the characters Theo and Alicia making appearances in this one.  I could be wrong, but it definitely feels like a future book will do the same and revisit characters and places we’ve seen before, which is something I’ll look forward to if it happens. 

Here’s where it lost a star: I absolutely LOVED its predecessor The Silent Patient, and no matter how hard I tried to see this one on its own merits, I kept wishing for just a little bit more from it.  

As thrillers go, I found the pace to be pretty slow, at times feeling like a whole lot of nothing was going on.  It was never boring, but it could’ve been more suspenseful and compelling.  Mariana wasn’t a terribly likable main character, nor was anyone else, with the possible exception of Fred, so it was more important for the story to carry the weight that the characters weren’t.

Am I disappointed with it?  Not really.  I enjoyed the story and once I adjusted to the slower pace, it was fun to try to work out the whodunnit aspect.  Part of the final reveal didn’t surprise me all that much, but the other part of it I didn’t see coming at all, so it was a mixed bag on the ending.  

All said, Michaelides is a fantastic author, and I’ll read everything he ever writes with a smile on my face.  I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!

★★★★

Thanks to NetGalley, Celadon Books and author Alex Michaelides for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.  It's due for publication on June 15, 2021.