The Maidens - Alex Michaelides

Thriller

Rating: 6.5/10

While I didn’t love this book as much as his first, I will say this about Mr. Michaelides, he has a way with the shocking twist.  Seriously, you can be just be naively turning pages, thinking you have a notion of what’s to come and then BAM! A knockout punch you never saw coming.  But the ultimate question is, did the plotting to that point earn that ending?  In this case not so much…

Marianna is grieving over the death of her husband when she finds herself tugged into the mystery surrounding the death of a student at her nieces’ school. An almost welcome reprieve from trying to determine if her memories of their life together are real or myth made from her longing to have him back.

After a slow start due to plodding backstory, the bodies start to pile up and threads begin to tangle, and readers begin to question everyone’s motives.

A gothic school backdrop with plot ties to Greek Mythology woven throughout make for an atmospheric book, but sadly a rather heavy handed one.  A reader never wants to feel like they are being schooled, certainly not in a thriller.

While I am probably a hard grader, students the world over should be glad I didn’t pursue teaching as a career, I don’t expect high art from the thrillers and mysteries I pick up.  But I do expect high entertainment.  I only got glimpses of that in this book.

P.S. The author dispenses some neat cross references to his earlier book, The Silent Patient, which are sure to thrill the attentive fan!

Book Pairing(s): Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy, His & Hers by Alice Feeney