Book review: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Title: The Maidens

Author: Alex Michaelides

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Publication date: 10th June 2021

My rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Summary:

“Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A 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.

Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated when one of The Maidens, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. 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?

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 Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything – including her own life.”

My review:

The Maidens was one of my most anticipated books of 2021, driven by the success of The Silent Patient which spread like wildfire in the book community and quickly became one of my favourite Thrillers I have read to date. Needless to say I was extremely curious to see how Alex Michaelides would develop his writing and if he would stick to some of the themes and techniques that were so prominent in The Silent Patient.

Edward Fosca is a professor at Cambridge university specialising in Greek tragedy and becomes a key person of interest in the murder of a young girl which stunned the community. I found Edward to be an intriguing character with a similar mystery and darkness to that of Theo in The Silent Patient. This type of character development of a male antagonist is something that the author excels at with seemingly effortless ease. The other characters include Mariana, a psychologist who comes to the rescue of her niece Zoe who is Fosca’s student, and the Maidens who each seem to hide their own secrets. Unfortunately none of these characters were particularly refined and I felt like the author tried to make them too weak and soft in comparison to Fosca.

The Greek mythology theme was central to the plot and character development in The Maidens. It was clear that Alex Michaelides had researched this area well, both in language and culture. Ultimately this was the glue that held together Mariana to the maidens and Edward Fosca. I particularly liked how the author developed this point with the use of postcards written in ancient Greek.

The plot in The Maidens was ambitious but didn’t deliver compared to the high expectations. The pace was even and the storyline interesting enough to capture my attention but at no point did I feel engrossed enough to keep reading in the same way as The Silent Patient. I also believe that there were too many minor characters which took the attention away from the potential of developing the three main characters further to make the book even more captivating.

Overall, I enjoyed The Maidens and it promised to be an exceptional thriller. The Greek mythology theme was thoroughly researched and well implemented but more work is needed on the characters and smoothing out the plot. Nevertheless I am interested to see how this author progresses in his career and will certainly read his next books.