The Housemaid

McFadden, Freida.  The Housemaid.  Grand Central, 2022.

***This plot summary contains a spoiler. 

Pages:  325

Age Range: Adult

Genre: Mystery

Setting:Long Island, NY

Merits:

The writing immediately pulls the reader into the storyline by creating a mysterious prologue with an intriguing first sentence: “If I leave this house, it will be in handcuffs.”  The mystery does not end there, of course, but keeps a reader turning pages until all is revealed.  The author creates an obvious villain, and obvious character as an underdog who needs compassion, and an obvious hero.  However, a reader soon finds out the obvious is a facade and one must keep reading to discover the truth about the characters.  Nothing is as it seems in this house, a mansion that looks beautiful but houses misery. Moral choices are brought to the forefront as the book progresses making a reader wonder what should be done; law is not necessarily what i right in this book.

Detractors: 

Torture is a part of this book, so for those who might feel claustrophobic or sensitive to acts of pain inflicted on someone, this book may be too much.  There are sexual scenes, but none are graphic.

Main Characters: 

Wilhelmina “Millie” Callaway – an ex-convict who is trying to get beyond her past and simply survive.  She has lost her last job and has been living in her car - both violations of her parole, and she’ll do anything to not return to jail.

Nina Winchester - hires Millie to clean her home, cook, and help with Cecelia, her child; She is unstable and has spent multiple stays at a psychiatric hospital.  She is married to Andrew.  She has put on weight, has outbursts of anger, and claims to say things that she never said.  

Andrew Winchester - wealthy, handsome “perfect” husband and father, even though Cecelia is not his biological child.  He wants more children, but Nina is unable to produce more children.  He has provided Nina with a beautiful home and anything she could ever need.

Enzo - the Italian gardener who wants to protect both Nina and Millie.

Plot: This will spoil the ending.

A prologue indicates that there will be an arrest, but the reader does not know why.  

Flashback begins the novel as Nina Winchester is interviewing Millie as a potential housemaid.  Millie needs the job; she doesn't want her new employer to know that she had been in jail, and she doesn’t want her parole officer to know she’d lost her last job and was living in her car.  She’d been working in a bar, but she was fired for punching someone in the face, another fact she doesn’t want Nina Winchester to know.  Several weeks pass and other jobs pass by too, but then Millie’s phone rings to reveal that Nina is offering Millie the job.  She will move in tomorrow.  Millie admires the beautiful house but is shocked by its disarray.  Nina is a slob, and her daughter is a spoiled brat.  But Millie needs this job; she can handle anything.  Millie loves Nina's husband Andrew- he is kind, polite, and helpful and wants Millie to know he can help since Nina can be difficult.  That is an understatement.  Nina claims to have told Millie about Cecelia’s peanut allergy, but she didn’t; Cecelia is so upset when Millie makes her a peanut butter sandwich.  Oddly enough, Andrew says that Cecelia has no allergy.  Nina gives Millie clothes that she no longer fits in, all fancy white dresses, since Andrew’s favorite color is white.  Later, she accuses Millie of stealing the clothes which would violate her probation.  Nina controls Millie and provides a terrible room in a beautiful house, a room so small in the attic that locks from the outside.  Millie is eventually given a key, but the room is uncomfortable with just a cot, and the room is stuffy since the window is painted shut.  Millie puts up with all of Nina’s cruelty and begins to hear rumors from the other moms when she picks up Cecelia at school about how Nina had been in a psychiatric facility for trying to drown Cecelia as a baby.  Through all of this, Andrew becomes a haven for Millie, often helping her to prevent Nina’s rage.  The two draw closer, and Nina’s jealousy grows.  Eventually, Andrew tells Millie to acquire tickets for a Broadway show to mollify Nina who has found out that she can have no more children.  At the last minute, Nina claims that she told Mollie the date for the tickets was not an option; Millie will have to pay for the tickets and the hotel room out of her salary.  That would take weeks!  Nina leaves to take Cecelia to camp, and Andrew reveals that he couldn’t get the tickets refunded,although he had told Nina that he did, but he’d like Millie to go to the show.  She won’t go alone; he accompanies her.  They drink a lot of wine at dinner and end up staying at the hotel, where they do make love.  Now, things change.  Andrew realizes that Millie is who he loves and he demands that Nina leave.  She does.  However, that is only Millie’s viewpoint of the story.  Nina’s is quite different!

Part two of the book tells about Nina’s life, and it’s not what the reader would expect.  Nina’s story reveals that it was Andrew who drugged Nina before placing a drugged Ceclia in the tub.  He called the police in time to save the baby, but Nina was sent away to the psychiatric institute. Andrew’s mother watches Cecelia during those months; it appears that she is the reason Andrew is the person that he is.  Andrew uses that room in the attic as a torture chamber for Nina does something wrong such as not turning out a light.  For that she would be put in the dark in the attic room.  Andrew is the true monster of this story, and as the reader hears Nina’s explanations of how he torments her in that locked room, once cannot help but feel sympathy.  She had to get out of the house and get Cecelia away.  She decides that the best way to do that is for Andrew to fall in love with someone else and shift his attention and torment on her.  Thus, Millie enters the house as the housemaid.  With the help of Enzo, the gardener who knew something was wrong and wanted to help Nina, she gets away; however, he feels guilty that now another woman is being subjected to the sam torture.  He wanted to just kill Andrew, but Nina does not want him to go to jail.  When Enzo calls her as she and Cecelia are leaving the daughter’s camp and possibly going to California, Nina realizes she should come back and save Millie.  

Part Three of the book shifts back to Millie’s perspective.  She left books on the table, and Andrew takes her to the attic room for punishment.  Millie cannot believe this is happening, and the longer she is there, the more she realizes that Nine was not the one with mental issues.  She does what he demands so that she can be let out; however, she discovers a pepper spray that had been left in the closet by Nina.  When Andrew sits and apologizes for her necessary punishment, she sprays him and locks him in the room.  She manipulates him and tortures him just as he had tortured her.  It is at this part of the book where it is revealed why Millie was in jail.  She had killed a man.  He had been attacking her friend, so she hit him on the head repeatedly with a paperweight.  He died.  She went to jail.  She was fired from her bar job because she punched her boss in the face.  He kept grabbing her behind, and she’d had enough.  Now, would she go back to jail for what she’s doing to Andrew?  

Nina returns to the house and finds it empty.  She eventually makes her way to the attic room where the light is on.  Upon opening the door, she finds Andrew - dead, minus several teeth that Millie had made him yank out as torture.  Millie appears and reveals that Andrew had been in there for at least five days without any water or food.  Millie assumes she will go to jail, but Nina makes her leave.  She will say that Millie had not worked this week since Nina had been away.  Millie was innocent.  Nina calls the police.  Oddly, the officer mentions his daughter, Kathleen, who had been engaged to Andrew before Nina.  She had never wanted another relationship and would never tell about why.  This officer can plainly see that Andrew was locked in the attic by accident and since Nina was away, he simply died of dehydration.  

Weeks later, Millie interviewed with a woman for a housemaid job.  Millie notices the bruises slightly showing beneath her collar and the picture of a brutish looking husband.  Millie agrees to take the job, especially when she finds out she’d been recommended by Nina Winchester.