A review by happi_mess
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

3.0

"Well, they're Professor Fosca's favourites... His fan club.... He called them the Maidens."

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Marianna helps with the investigation in Cambridge when one of her niece's friends was murdered. There she tries to track down the murderer, but the first person on her suspect list was the charismatic Greek Tragedy professor, Edward Fosca.

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Rating: ★★★

When I finished reading this book, I honestly don't know how I am supposed to rate this book. At some point I was impressed and on the other side this book lacked the right spices that would make it pop.

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The things that I LIKE:

☽ Easy to read. This is one of the first things that I have noticed in this novel. At first I did not agree with how this was written but in the long run, I found that the simplicity of the narration made it easier to read compared to other mystery novels.

☽ The chapters are really short. I think in a way one of the reason on how I flew by this book was because the chapters were concise. I really appreciated this and it contributed to my overall enjoyment of the book. I did not even notice that time was passing and I keep on wanting to get to the next chapter.

☽ The mystery was (for the lack of better term) nice. It could have been great if I had not figured out the two major plot twists of this book. The journey into uncovering the answers were enjoyable especially with references to Greek tragedies.

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The things that I DID NOT like

☾ The investigation. How was it possible that Marianna was a better investigator than all those people there combined? She did not even know the basics for it so how was she the one that was able to unearth all these mysteries? As her first suspect on the list, how was it that Fosca was not the first suspect in another person's book? It was just mind blowing (in a bad way).

☾ Undercook. While I think this story was kinda good, I think its maximum potential has not been reached especially during the last few chapters. This book for the most part of it was trying to lead as astray with who was the real murderer when it should have been obvious from the start. I hoped that the answer had been more surprising.

☾ The plot twist. The murderer and how they were inserted in this story. I have to say that I had this inkling on the second plot twist almost right from the get go. You could sense that there was something wrong and by heavens, was it fun when I found out I was right. But it could've been better if I was actually wrong.

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In sum:
I have tried reading The Silent Patient before and could not survive it. But now that I have given this author a chance maybe I'll check out his other work (which was supposed to be better than this one so I have high hopes).

If you are looking for an easy-read mystery, this may be the book for you. I will also recommend this to people who are new to the genre. While not that impressive in the grand scheme of things, this still was a gripping and an enjoyable read for me.