And they just so happened to also be Fosca’s alibi for Tara’s murder. Sidenote- the book is called The Maidens because all of the murdered girls were part of a secret (not-so-secret) ‘club’ of some kind that flocked around their tutor, Fosca, who had named them his maidens. Marianna and Zoe both receive one and they must decide whether to get back to the safety of London or continue their quest for justice. Over the next few days two more girls are found similarly murdered in a ritualistic way, each receiving Greek postcards with lines from Greek plays talking about death and sacrifices. When the police think Marianna is just weirdly prejudiced against him and don’t take her theories seriously- after all, Fosca has an alibi- Marianna takes it upon herself to prove that Fosca murdered her niece’s friend.īut the danger isn’t gone. Marianna rushes to her niece’s side and the two become convinced that the killer is the Greek tragedies professor, Edward Fosca. Zoe’s roommate, Tara, has been brutally murdered. She gets a phone call from her orphaned niece, Zoe, whom they had taken in as their own, and is studying at Cambridge. Marianna, still grieving her husband who drowned a year ago, is a group therapist.

I realized it’s one of those books that you enjoy but when you start talking to others or reading other reviews, you realize they make some good points and you feel like the book is a little less praiseworthy because of them. I had my suspicions about how he was going to reveal the killer but the motive behind the killings was the main twist and I didn’t have that figured out at all! It was a quick and very suspenseful read and I was engaged throughout the whole story. People either loved the thriller and his nod to Agatha Christie’s red herrings, or people felt it had too many suspects and was too unbelievable. Just as with Michaelides’ debut novel, The Silent Patient, this book has some polarizing views. But Marianna knew, sooner or later, it happens to you.” “We all secretly hope that tragedy will only ever happen to other people.

The maidens michaelides review