I finally picked up The Housemaid because it’s one of those books that’s been everywhere for a while now and also because there’s a cinema release out and I very much wanted to read it first. I like going in with the book firmly in my head before film images start taking over. Once that happens there’s no getting them back out again.

The Housemaid is a psychological thriller with a very clean hook. A woman with a past takes a live-in job working for a wealthy family. The house is beautiful. The wife is unsettling. The rules are oddly strict. You can see the scaffolding straight away and have feelings about it, anticipating how the character might feel as you read the harsh or peculiar words of the wife. It’s here to grip you and it does that efficiently.

The pacing is great and the story progresses consistently, there aren’t boring passages with info drops, McFadden understands momentum and she uses it well. There are reveals that feel designed to land hard rather than a slow dawning and I found myself enjoying that even when I could sense the turn coming. It leans into the genre effortlessly in the second half, having primed the reader all through the first half.

What interested me most was the way power operates in the house. There’s a touch of domestic noir discomfort and the story in general is relatively timeless, it could have taken place in 1920, the 1500’s or in the future.

The voice is simple and direct and the clarity suits the story. It’s the kind of book you could devour in a couple of sittings and then immediately want to talk about with someone else. Or recommend with a warning that you’ll lose a weekend to it.

Knowing there’s now a film version adds an extra layer of curiosity. I can absolutely see how this will translate to the screen. It’s visual. The house itself seems cinematic. I’m glad I read it first though. I wanted the characters to belong to me for a bit before they’re fixed by casting and camera angles.

Overall this is a sharp accessible thriller that knows exactly what it’s doing. If you like domestic noir with teeth, pace and a sense of unease that creeps slowly before it explodes before you.

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