The Maidens: A Novel

Alex Michaelides

Jun 2021 · Sold by Celadon Books

About this ebook

**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**

"Alex Michaelides’s long-awaited next novel, 'The Maidens,' is finally here...the premise is enticing and the elements irresistible."
—The New York Times

"A deliciously dark, elegant, utterly compulsive read—with a twist that blew my mind. I loved this even more than I loved The Silent Patient and that's saying something!"
—Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient comes a spellbinding tale of psychological suspense, weaving together Greek mythology, murder, and obsession, that further cements “Michaelides as a major player in the field” (Publishers Weekly).

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.

Ratings and reviews

I really wanted to like this book but it turned out predictably in spite of multiple red herrings that could have lead to more interesting outcomes. The protagonist is wholly unlikeable in her blind, smug obsessinveness and bullheaded insistence that she's right. Other characters are flatly one-dimensional. Sadly, cannot recommend this one.

'The Maidens' is the newest release from Alex Michaelides, bestselling author of the debut sensation 'The Silent Patient.' A psychological thriller housed within St. Christopher's College, Cambridge, the author binds mystery and murder to themes of classic Greek mythology. Told primarily through the narrative of Mariana, a group psychotherapist who's a year into mourning for her late husband, the woman is drawn back to the place where their love story began by what is quite likely the only thing that could motivate her to set foot there. A call for help from her niece, Zoe, regarding her best friend's murder. Drifting between the memories of their courtship haunting her still and the secrets stacking up around her that seem to be held tightly by both the students and faculty members, Mariana struggles to put the pieces together. Strangeness is afoot amongst a select group of students referred to as The Maidens and their darkly charismatic professor, Edward Fosca. From the opening pages, Michaelides captures grief exquisitely, affixing it to the page with the expertise of a collector.. as if it's a butterfly pinned neatly under glass for the rest of us to study. Above all else, it's the ability to convey those emotions.. so richly textured, that inextricably bound me to this story through its end. It certainly doesn't hurt that the author himself seems to be well-read. More than once, though I was loathe to put the book down, I found myself pausing in search of referenced writings that I'd never cared enough to read prior. His romantic description behind Tennyson's grief drove me to read the 3,000 line masterpiece, 'In Memoriam.' I researched theses for Antigone, dissertations on Euripides, and though Aristotle is one of my favorites.. this book had me viewing 'The Poetics' through a different lens entirely. Periodically, snippets of another narrative appear throughout the book. Snippets of what could be diary entries from an individual who has known great suffering and may in fact be inflicting the same on others. Interestingly enough, there are so many choices presented by the author, that it's difficult to even stick with a guess as to who it might be. Eloquently penned, the story moves at a steady pace, weaving.. labyrinthine through the lives affected by the murder. Those ripples reaching in some cases much farther than we might anticipate, creating more difficult situations on top of the first. Though Michaelides did keep me guessing to the end, my only complaint is that I felt almost cheated. I felt robbed of the moment where I might look back and say to myself, "I should have seen that," because it wasn't there. It wasn't just subterfuge and misdirection, it was a blank canvas. I like to call it the 'Saw' treatment.. and never have I been so infuriated by a film. Don't get me wrong, I loved the book. In a lesser writer's hands that feeling would have won out, but it's just so beautifully crafted and so emotionally driven.. that I forgive him for taking a path that just personally displeases me. I'm truly grateful for having read this story, I haven't been so immersed in a long time. If you like tense thrillers with a psychological bent and an elegant, artistic approach.. this is the book for you. (I received this title as an ARC. All opinions are mine and freely given.)

Thank you to the publisher and BookishFirst for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! I was so excited to receive this ARC in the mail! Although I haven't read The Silent Patient, I have heard the hype. And, I know that literally everyone wants to read The Maidens. In fact, The Maidens might be the most hyped-about book of 2021. In my book communities, almost every single wishlist includes The Maidens. So when I got approved to review this ARC ahead of its release date, it was a dream come true. I couldn't believe it. Thank you again to the publisher and BookishFirst for this opportunity! The Maidens is a twisty psychological mystery that blends serial killer fiction with dark academia. The protagonist is Mariana, a therapist getting over the death of her husband. She gets caught up in a series of murders at a local college when her niece Zoe's best friend is murdered. Using her experience as a therapist and her intuition, Mariana realizes that the murderer is Edward Fosca, a popular professor of Greek tragedies. Suspiciously, he has a harem of college girls who follow him around, who he calls The Maidens. Here is an excerpt from the first page of the book: (This is not a spoiler, because it's on the first page.) "Edward Fosca was a murderer. This was a fact. This wasn’t something Mariana knew just on an intellectual level, as an idea. Her body knew it. She felt it in her bones, along her blood, and deep within every cell. Edward Fosca was guilty. And yet—she couldn’t prove it, and might never prove it. This man, this monster, who had killed at least two people, might, in all likelihood, walk free. He was so smug, so sure of himself. He thinks he’s got away with it, she thought. He thought he had won. But he hadn’t. Not yet. Mariana was determined to outsmart him. She had to." After I read this prologue, I couldn't wait to continue reading and see how the story progresses. I love books that are set in colleges, and I am also a fan of thrillers with twists, so I thought that this would become one of my favorite books. For a while, the plot was engrossing. I was voraciously reading every single detail and looking for deeper meanings. I was very interested and could not put this book down. I even finished it in one sitting. Unfortunately, the ending was a letdown. Without spoiling anything, I would just like to say that it didn't really make sense for me. Even though it was explained, I totally did not understand the motivations of the murderer for committing these murders. In addition, a lot of the themes and threads in the plot ended up leading to nothing. I had been drawn into every detail of the story, because I thought that the references to Greek tragedies were the author's way of communicating a deeper message. I was expecting a work of literature. It turns out that those references were just "window dressing," and this book is just a typical thriller. There's nothing wrong with thrillers, and I did enjoy reading this book. I do think it is being over-hyped though. Overall, if you enjoyed The Silent Patient or if you're a fan of thrillers and/or dark academia, then I highly recommend that you check out The Maidens when it comes out in June! Don't go in expecting a masterpiece of literature. If you go in with the mindset that this is a thriller, you won't be disappointed!

About the author

Alex Michaelides was born and raised in Cyprus. He has an M.A. in English Literature from Trinity College, Cambridge University, and an M.A. in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. The Silent Patient was his first novel and debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. It spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list and is sold in a record-breaking 50 countries. His second novel, The Maidens, was an instant New York Times bestseller and garnered rave reviews from The Guardian, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, and more. After living in London for many years, Alex has recently moved back to his birthplace, Cyprus.