However, the prose is sharper. The dialogue is snappier. And the ending is infinitely more satisfying. Without giving away the final chapter, McFadden sets up a third book ( The Housemaid Is Watching , due out in 2024) that promises to bring Millie full circle. Rating: 4.5/5

The Housemaid had a slow-burn tension that felt organic. The Housemaid’s Secret is more of a thriller rollercoaster. It sacrifices some realism for sheer entertainment value. You have to suspend your disbelief about how easily Millie gets away with breaking and entering, and how incompetent the NYPD apparently is.

Millie believes she is saving Wendy. But McFadden cleverly inverts the damsel-in-distress trope. Wendy is not a bird with a broken wing; she is a spider who has woven a web of manipulation so complex that she has trapped both her husband and her rescuer. The novel asks a chilling question: What if the person crying for help is actually the most dangerous one in the room?