The Housemaid is Watching - Book Review

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Millie Accardi adores her new house in Long Island. She and her husband, Enzo, can barely afford the mortgage, but the move offers the new start she has been hoping for for their little family, safe and quiet with a good school nearby for the children. However, not everything is sunshine and roses in their new neighbourhood. Years after working as a maid herself, Millie is uncomfortable having a woman named Martha come and clean for her, especially when Martha seems to be constantly staring at her. Then there are the new neighbours, including a nosy parker across the street who watches the comings and goings of her neighbours through the curtains, and Mrs Lowell, the trim, tanned real estate agent who keeps flirting with Enzo. When a murder is committed out of the blue, Millie and Enzo's pasts may come back to haunt them.

The Housemaid Is Watching is a domestic thriller by the New York Times bestselling author, Freida McFadden. It's the third book in the Housemaid series. I had read The Housemaid a couple of years ago and really liked it, so I eagerly picked up this book without realising that there was a second book, The Housemaid's Secret in between the two. It's probably best if you read the series in order, but this book made sense even though I'd skipped the middle one since Millie and Enzo meet in book one and otherwise this novel seems to be fairly self-contained.

Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to the first novel, which was tense and exciting with a twist I didn't see coming. The villain in The Housemaid was truly sinister, but the antagonist in this book never really brings the same sense of menace. They do some terrible things, but the reader mostly only hears about them secondhand. I didn't really buy the actions of the characters at times, with one person in particular behaving in an unrealistic way for the sake of a red herring. I can't say too much more about the plot without giving spoilers, but I was a little disappointed in the character of Millie this time around.

All that being said, I still definitely wanted to finish the book to find out what happened. There was enough of a mystery there to keep me turning the pages, and I enjoy McFadden's writing style.The Housemaid may not be quite the conclusion to the trilogy readers were hoping for, but it does make for a good holiday read.

Content warning: Domestic violence, child abuse.

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More articles by Jennifer Muirhead:
The Lake House - Book Review
The Housemaid - Book Review
Games For Dead Girls - Book Review
The Last Word - Book Review
You Let Me In - Book Review
Dear Child - TV Series Review