Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.
Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?
When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.
Review
Thank you Celadon Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
For people who have read The Silent Patient this one is definitely a step down from that one. It just wasn’t as engaging and interesting as his other novel. That being said I will still likely read his next one in the hopes that we meet the level The Silent Patient had. The whole premise of The Silent Patient and the mysterious characters, mind manipulating games, hidden agendas had me loving his first book. This one just didn’t reach that level. We still have the mysterious characters. We have this creepy guy who basically stocks Mariana the whole book (I hope this comes around for the third book! Fingers crossed!), we have Mariana with the tragic backstory, and we have the weird group of college students called the Maidens.
It still has this author's known for elements of weaving Greek mythology and tragedy with some form of psychologist. I personally really like having the main characters are in the psychology field. For me, it adds a lot to the book and just sets up the story really nicely.
I do have to say just like with his other novel, he is very good at fast conclusions that throw you for a loop. I thought for sure I knew who had done it. I could even see little clues that led to this person, but now I am thinking this was purposely added in to throw us off because I didn’t expect the ending at all. This ending came like a flash and was over quicker than that. The whole book was slow but then once the climax happened the book basically ended and I was left hanging. I don’t say this because there was a cliffhanger. After all, there wasn’t, but I do see how the ending could lead to his next novel. I say this because the book ended so quickly after the big reveal. I just wish the whole book was this fast-paced. The truth wasn’t as surprising as his first novel but I definitely didn’t see it coming. At some point in the novel it crossed my mind this could be the person, just like it did for basically every other character, but the why is what I didn’t expect.
Another thing that bugged me was how naive the main character was in this book. She was so stuck in her thinking that literally until the last possible moment she was blind to the truth. She could have been told the truth flat out and would have heard something different. I realized the truth way before her and continued to read as she was still stuck in the shadows.
The books had a lot of little things that took you on completely different paths throughout the book. I think this is what could definitely make a lot of people like the book because it makes it harder to pinpoint the true person, but for me, they were too little and too far apart to fill in a lot of time-wasting words. There were also a lot of plot whole and things that Mariana did and got away with in regards to the police and how they acted that seemed very unrealistic.
But I enjoyed the little added touch of having his characters from The Silent Patient show up. This was a nice touch to tie his books together. Of course, this is a stand-alone but for those who have read his other book, it is just a little nice touch that adds some behind the scene stuff.
I have hope for his next book!.