Trigger Warnings: Includes graphic scenes of domestic abuse, which can be triggering for readers or listeners in similar situations.

The Housemaid’s Secret was first published on February 15, 2023, and became available as an audiobook in the same month. It is also available in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle formats on Amazon or at your local library through the Libby app. Although this is the sequel to the Housemaid series, it can be read as a standalone. The book is narrated from dual points of view: Wilhelmina Calloway, “Millie,” and Wendy Garrick, both of whom are smoothly narrated by Lauryn Allman.

Millie is a housekeeper with a complicated and secretive past that makes it hard for her to find employment. When a wealthy couple offers her a cleaning job on the Upper West Side, she thanks her lucky stars. As soon as Millie starts her new job, she realizes something is not all as it seems, especially since there is one door she must never open; the guest bedroom door where the lady of the house is recuperating from an illness. The loud sounds coming from behind the closed door are unnerving, and besides, Millie’s never been good with following the rules.

The premise of McFaden’s storyline is sound. However, how many times do we have to hear about the ‘perfect boyfriend’, his perfect family, his over-white teeth, and Millie’s laments about not telling him about her past? Tell him already, or shut up about it. McFaden isn’t moving the story forward. Instead, she’s making it go in circles, repeating the same thing in different ways, thus creating a dizzying effect that disconnects the readers and listeners from the story.

Wendy is a complex antagonist. She’s a manipulative, cunning, cold, calculated bitch who takes on the role of a battered spouse to gain Millie’s confidence and help. By skillfully orchestrating a series of events, starting with a scheme to marry Douglas Garrick to achieve financial security, agreeing to sign a prenuptial agreement limiting her settlement, but when Wendy realizes she’s unable to mold Douglas into the image she wants him to be, she begins to have an affair with Russell Simonds and a new plan forms.

McFaden initially presents Wendy as a victim of domestic abuse, creating convincing scenes for Millie, readers, and listeners to believe her plight. Gaining Millie’s trust by giving her the name of a woman she’s helped out of similar situation before Wendy, deceives Millie into believing the makeup she’s carefully applied are actual bruises and a staged scene between her and lover choking her to “mock” death leads Millie to shoot him in Wendy’s defense making it easy for her to frame Millie for her husband’s murder. She’s as intelligent as she is ruthless. Greed is her ultimate motivator throughout the book, and she shows no genuine emotions.

Authors do have creative license, however, for real domestic violence victims out there and for those wonderful people like Millie who provide underground help through connections, it’s despicable to have exploited that network in such fashion. Yes, McFaden wanted to sell the twist, oh no, it’s all fake, my husband has never laid a hand on me, but I did want him dead, and most of all, I wanted his money, and it’s convenient to pin it all on the help. The entire thing leaves a sour taste in the mouth, making this a 1.5-star read or listen.