zoe suspects one of the professors of killing tara, and, encouraged by her former mentor, mariana decides to stick around and do some amateur sleuthing, during which time more girls are murdered. she reluctantly returns to the memory-saturated college campus where their love story began to console her niece/adopted daughter-figure zoe after her best friend tara is found murdered. QUICKPLOT: mariana is a psychotherapist specializing in group therapy who is still hard-grieving the drowning-death of her beloved husband the previous year. i'm pretty reasonable about managing my expectations when it comes to summertime psych-suspense thrillery books they don't gotta be art, they just need to hold my interest and maybe throw a surprise or two my way.Įscapist entertainment is fine, but i don't like being insulted, and that's what this felt like. It's just.look, i hate being that guy, but it's just not very good. I didn't get around to reading The Silent Patient until The Great Lockdown of 2020, and it was just the twistyfun distraction i needed from the world, so when i heard that his follow-up was going to be a campus thriller involving seeeeecret societies, classical mythology, and a sinister professor, my The Secret History-loving self was SO EXCITED, and the marketing campaign leading up to its release kindled alla my dark delicious anticipation.

I have put off writing this review since reading the ARC back in MARCH because i didn't want to poop on anyone else's pre-release anticipation with my less-than-glowing reaction, but now that it's been out for a bit, i'm gonna let my poop out, too.

Oooh, goodreads choice awards finalist for best mystery & thriller 2021! WHAT WILL HAPPEN LET’S FIND OUT!

But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything-including her own life. 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 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? And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. 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. 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. 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.

The maidens by alex michaelides