The Plot
Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own…
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house from top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of…
Review
Millie gets a job as a housemaid for the Winchesters. She does all the usual chores – cooking, cleaning, collecting the daughter from school etc. But she soon discovers that the family unit is not as idyllic as it first appears.
The wife, Nina, is very odd, whereas the handsome husband seems just perfect. So its not hard for Millie to start wondering what it would be like to take Nina’s place…..
The first half of the book tells the story from Millie’s perspective. It follows her journey from starting employment with the family right up until the time where she realises that her bedroom door only locks from the outside.
Part two of the book is Nina’s story. It tells how she found herself becoming a single mum and how she went on to become Andrew’s wife. It tells of her eight year marriage to the man who turns out to be as far from the perfect husband as possible.
The third part of the book takes the story from the time Millie finds herself locked in the attic and follows what happens to the two women from then on.
With twists and turns that you don’t see coming, the book has a magnificent ending. It ties up the story of Andrew Winchester neatly.
The epilogue leads nicely into the start of the follow up series.
Recommended.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden is available from Amazon
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