Freida McFadden 4 Books Set: Never Lie, The Housemaids Secret, The Locked Door & The House maid

by Freida McFadden

Never Lie Sometimes the truth kills… Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. They think they've found it when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace years ago. But when a violent winter storm traps them at the estate, the house begins to lose its appeal. 

The day I clean the Winchesters' beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. The Housemaid's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want. It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying.

The Locked door eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement. Until the day the police arrived at their front door. Decades later, Nora's father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows about her past, and she'll do anything to keep it that way.

Genres: Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Book Club, Horror, Fiction

1361 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

#1 New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher's Weekly, and Amazon Charts bestselling author Freida McFadden is a practicing physician specializing in brain injury who has penned multiple Kindle bestselling psychological thrillers and medical humor novels. She lives with her family and possessed cat in a centuries-old three-story home overlooking the ocean, with staircases that creak and moan with each step, and nobody could hear you if you scream. Unless you scream really loudly, maybe.

Note that I am maxed out on friends, so I apologize in advance that I can't friend anyone back!

Reviews

[Emily Duarte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it in one day it was so good

[Sergio Melendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is crazy and it has a crazier ending.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entertaining, easy read.

[Jayann Magistrado · Rating 5 out of 5]

You wouldn’t have guessed how things will turn around and how it will end! Wonderful!

[Adam Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read the housemaid, it was thrilling and captivating, the progression was intense l.

[MaryLou W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good books! Keeps your head spinning!

[Melissa Shot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me on my toes the whole read. Love this book!! Can't wait to read the rest in the series.

[London Hairston · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the exposition of this book, we are introduced to our main Character, Millie. She has a criminal record and spent time incarcerated. She can't seem to find a job due to this criminal record. And finally she is hired by a wealthy family as a maid, but this family has a cruel and twisted back story. When Millie begins to work here as a live in maid, the lady of the house is very mean to her and gives her a very very hard time, but Millie endures the suffering, because the pay is great, and she has a roof over her head. Eventually an affair begins between Millie and her bosses husband. The lady of the house pretends to be crazy and unwell to justify her actions, but in reality Her husband beats and abuses her and her daughter. So she hired Millie because of her criminal recorded, she verbally abused her to get Millie to hate her, so when Millie started the affair she didn't feel bad. The lady of the house takes this an an opportunity to escape, leaving Millie with her abuser. Life is going good for Millie, but soon the abuse starts for her. Millie's hair was messy and so her now boyfriend locks her in the attic with nothing to eat or drink for 2 weeks, when Millie escapes she comes up with a plan to trap her husband in the attic, she lures him up there and locks him in the closet, no water and no food. "Rip your teeth out with pliers and send them under the door if you wish to come out. Millie packs her things and leaves, a week or so later The prior lady of the house uses her key to see if her plan had went to a success. She calls the cops after finding the house empty and her ex-husband dead. She calls the cops but doesn't snitch on Millie. She gets in contact with Millie and thanks her for what she did, and explains the situation to her, and then refers her to a wealthy friend, so Millie can have a source of income. This gives us an ending to the on going Man vs Man conflict!

If I had to connect this book to anything, I would connect it to the word "Strategist" I feel like the dogma around abused people is that they are weak and easily manipulated, but The lady of the house proved this to be wrong. Just by the way our "Antagonist" was able to realize the situation she was in was abusive. I love how she was able to find a small support system and go from there. The way she set up the entire plan was very smart, but had some room for error, the plan could have not gone as he wanted it too, but it did! She would have done anything to make sure her and her daughter were safe. I feel like the way she escaped wasn't the most apropos, she didn't have to plan for him to be killed, but its what she had to do to ensure her and her child's safety.

In this book I loved the suspense that the tone and diction set, I was on the edge of my chair while reading the book! I loved the turn of events and how the author used antagonism to get the reader to feel a sense of hatred towards the lady of the house. I loved the progression of the book and attention to detail. Everything was amazing and overall very enjoyable to read. The only thing I didn't like was not being able to see a small glimpse of Millie's life after the second incident!

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIVE STAR FUCKING READ OH MY GOD. This book was so good and one of the books that I thought was entirely worth their hype. As a true crime/thriller person, I didn't read too much into this book before I started reading it. It caught my eye back in December of 2023 (Or maybe it was November) when I bought The Silent Patient and started reading it. The second I started the book it had me hooked. Frieda McFadden ended every single chapter with such a good cliffhanger and I always find that the best authors are the ones to do that, LIKE MISS HOLLY!!! I did, if I'm honest, have one criticism. And that would be that at one point of the novel, I found all signs pointing to Andrew to be kind of predictable. Though, I still kept reading the book even after that because I wanted to know what was going on with Nina, when other times I think I may have DNFed, just kidding I almost never do that to a book lol. This might have been a stylistic choice though, it just isn't always the kind of "plot twist" that I go for. I like to be jaw on the floor gagged.

[Maryam · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think this series should have just stopped after the first book. from the beginning, millie was a character that was never explored or even made appealing to the readers enough to read four books about her.
as the series progressed, freida had the chance to make her a likeable character, but i don't think she even tried. millie was portrayed as a rather annoying character, single minded and a really bad girlfriend.
the first book was wonderful, i'll give you that. it just seems so pointless to milk it anymore, because millie's story was practically begging to end by the beginning of the second book.

[Rachel Norton · Rating 2 out of 5]

full disclosure. didn't read it all. got half way through and had no desire to finish. I did go read a synopsis to see if I had guessed the plot twist correctly. I had. I'm glad I didn't finish. sounds like it gets gritty. the pace was too slow for me. Maybe thats an attention span problem. The writing wasn't interesting. Repeated phrases over and over. Andrew is "devastatingly handsome," we get it. I get that Millie needed a job but holy hell I still found it hard to believe that she would stick around after all Nina puts her through. Just didn't enjoy it.

[A J Nel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true page-turner, psychological thriller, which is set in an affluent household and the apparently ever-increasing demented action of the wife toward the recently paroled maid. The husband to the contrary appears to be the perfect man, smart, rich, good-looking and filled with human understanding and empathy. The author developed the story in three parts, each part demonstrating a number of reveals. It's the type of novel which will keep the reader at the edge of his or her seat.

[MK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved these book. I couldn’t put any of these books down. Finished them in a day and 1/2.
Out of all the books I think Never Lie was second of my favorites.
But the Housemaids were Amazing!
I love Mc.Faddens books. You never know what’s going to happen.
You won’t be able to put them down.
I highly recommend all of these books.

I will say this
The Inmate is amazing, Ward D another winner. I could go on.
I’m sorry to say I did not care for the third book in the Housemaid Series.

[Chelsea CLARKE · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was amazing. The house maid was the first frieda book I’ve read.
The housemaid was by far my favourite, it was so gripping and I read it so quickly. I loved the other 2
I loved the ending of the second one, it started of slow but the end was such a plot twist I was not expecting!
The third one was good because it was Millie’s life when she grew up and had children, the ending was not what I expected but it was a good ending to finish the series!

[Nala Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never Lie: Enjoyed this. Easy read, but was hard to put down. This story took us on a journey that was not at all predictable.

The Housemaid's Secret and The Housemaid were fantastic. Unexpected storyline. Loved it.

And the Locked Door amazed me because I could not figure out where the story was headed. Freida McFadden is a brilliant athor.

[Jazmin Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never lie was a great book definitely thrown for loops easy read must read all her books. I also read the. housemaid book and that one was page Turner, thriller, suspenseful, and definitely a great book. I look forward to more of her writing.

[Griselda Molina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read the housemaid so far and I’m starting the house maid’s secret today. I loved the twist at the end. I truly thought Nina was the issue. Once everything changed completely , I was hooked and couldn’t put the book down!

[Carol Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read all of these, and the thing I can say about Freida McFadden is she is always a good read. I've never finished one of her books and thought, "meh." She starts strong, takes you on a bit of a ride, and then finishes strong. Highly recommend if you like this genre.

[Stacey Elgin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy Freida McFadden’s books. My favorite was The Housemaid series, and the first book in the series was the best. Her books follow a similar pattern, but most have a twist that I didn’t see coming. These books are a quick read.

[Paul Bytheway · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read just ‘ The House Maid’ gripping from the start, a twist that was not expected but the story kept you wholly engaged throughout - read it in a day on holiday as so excited to understand what was going on with this crazy family set up

[Brooklyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so good! It had an amazing twist that I didn't expect. I was totally hooked the entire time and probably could have read it in less than a day. It made me want to keep reading even after I was done. I love the twist that it shows and how it all unfolds!

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because the storyline was gripping and I wasn’t able to book this book down. But the writing style could use a lot of work. Lots of repetition, in terms of words and phrases. Seems like the author is only able to describe someone’s facial expression by somehow mentioning their eyebrows.

[Toni Gonzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read The House Maid and the House Maid Secret! The house maid was really good and had twists I didn’t see coming. The house maid secret was also good but this one was more predictable than the first one. With the way the 2nd book ended I don’t think I care to read the other 2 books. This storyline had lots of shocking parts and kept me interested.

[MJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only read the first one. Too predictable and too creepy for my taste but a page turner and a fast read.

[Cindy Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read The House Maid.

[Lizzie Grunwald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard someone explain these books as popcorn thrillers and it's exactly right. Quick read.

[Donna N. Worley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything by this author is a must read.

[Sarah Avelar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow

[Kabeaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent beach books

[Carson Devitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read all but the last. Gripping series but the second one could’ve been left out.