The Housemaid is a novel by Freida McFadden published in 2022. A year later it was followed by a sequel, The Housemaid’s Secret. A third entry in the series, The Housemaid is Watching, was published in 2024. The book is a thriller with many plot twists in which a woman named Millie accepts a live-in housekeeper job for an upscale couple named Winchester.
The job is actually a step up for the young woman with a criminal past who is trying to escape that world and find legitimacy. The problem for Millie is that she unknowingly is moving into a house where the wife may possibly be crazy and the husband may be person responsible for making her so. Before learning of this family’s twisted secrets, Millie makes several mistakes in judgment that only serve to intensify the likelihood that this will be her last job and not in a good way.
Social media viral marketing helped turn the novel into a New York Times Bestseller. In fact, thanks to an aggressive Instagram fan base, the novel eventually sold more than a million copies. The success is due in part to the novel’s relatively short length and fast-paced storytelling. The story also engages readers with perspectives of what is going on from both the perspective of working-class Millie and privileged Nina Winchester.
While The Housemaid is an unqualified commercial success and found critical acclaim on blogs and amateur review sites, it has remained unreviewed by most major publications. Critical reaction from those brand name periodicals has been much more mixed and low-key than the social media influencers who helped transform the author from a Amazon self-publisher with her first novel into a global success.
In 2023, it was announced that Rebecca Sonnenshine would be writing a screenplay for a film adaptation to be produced by Lionsgate.
