The Maidens

Yesterday I finished reading “The Maidens,” by Alex Michaelides. It is a murder mystery that takes place at England’s Cambridge University. Mariana Andros is a therapist that is certain that Professor Edward Fosca at Cambridge University is a murderer after her niece, Zoe’s best friend and Fosca’s student, Tanya was murdered. Shortly after another student of his was murdered. What makes this book a great mystery is it makes it seem obvious that this professor is a murderer and a cult leader of The Maidens which practices an ancient ritual of Persephone’s, but obviously that would make the story way too easy. When you find out who the actual murderer is and the motive it’s a shocker I shall say that.

Pros & Cons

I like the setting is mainly in England, but Mariana also has flashbacks of her own childhood in Greece and how she lost her husband Sebastian. The Greek mythology themes and the English college make for a great story. The story moves along a little slowly and if you’re more of a fan of fast paced type mystery thrillers this isn’t for you. I enjoyed that it was a who done it mystery and that it wasn’t too fast paced to where you didn’t know what was going on. While I predicted who the murderer could be, I didn’t know the motive as to why did the murderer murdered those two students. The ending I felt needed more unless Alex Michaelides plans on writing a follow up to “The Maidens.”

Overall

While I predicted early on as to who the murderer could have been, I give the book credit, I couldn’t figure out the motive. I definitely see myself reading more from Alex Michaelides in the future. I can’t wait to see the tv series based on this novel. I saw a picture on Alex Michaelides instagram account of chair that had Uma Thurman’s name on it along with her copy of  “The Maidens.” This begs the question, is Uma helping produce the t.v. series? Let the speculating begin.