This is the second book following The Housemaid and I definitely recommend reading that one first. The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden features Millie again, our abused spouse avenger. This time, the script is flipped a bit, but the story follows a similar pattern. Plenty of surprises await the reader, although the novel doesn't pick up steam until the second part.
Similar to The Housemaid, one wonders who to trust in this thriller of a book. Millie is now living in New York City, going to school to be a social worker, and looking for work. She's also hiding her prison record from her handsome (maybe too-good-to-be-true) lawyer boyfriend. That record makes it difficult for her to get hired, so when Millie is taken on by a wealthy couple, this time living in an opulent penthouse, she jumps on it. Strange happenings begin shortly after she begins work there: laundry in the hamper is already perfectly folded; she's given almost impossible-to-find grocery list items; and most disturbingly, Millie hears sobs coming from the bedroom of the reclusive lady of the house. When she appears with bruises and blood on her clothes, it seems Millie has another person to save. Like in the first novel, Enzo plays a role in helping the victim, chiming in with what seems to be his catch phrase, "I know a guy".
In a class that Millie is taking, she learns about the "bystander effect", based on a real event in history: a woman named Kitty Genovese was attacked while multiple onlookers purportedly did nothing. Millie embodies the opposite of that idea, intervening to help those that are oppressed and abused. She's an admirable character.
Much like the first Housemaid book, this is a plot forward novel. Some of it is predictable, but that doesn't take away from its entertainment value. There are some red herrings and twists which keep the reading fun. This is a quick, easy read, and it follows the first one nicely. I give The Housemaid's Secret four stars out of five.
Comentarios