The Housemaid Is Watching

What a shame. I really enjoyed the first two books, and this one was a bust for me. It took over two hundred pages of what felt like literally nothing happening (I know she was setting the scene but this was excessive) to then throw some answers into the end that weren't really that surprising.

The main character and her husband's inability to have a straightforward conversation was really frustrating to read through, especially when their relationship was founded in trust and authenticity in the first two books. As the story starts to unravel around page 260, elements are, strangely enough, very thoroughly explained without actually being straightforward answers and never gets confirmed by the end. I'm left making assumptions for the story line to make more sense in my head.

To some degree this book also felt like a second book repeat of the police being involved and needing to do whatever necessary to not get caught even when all of the evidence is quite incriminating. It looses realism here for me, I just can't see this playing out in real life.

Finally, with 60% of the book focussed on setting the scene, the last 40% of getting answers just felt thrown on top of each other. There are a few missing pieces so we get another perspective, then another missing piece so throw in another perspective to tie it in and none in a surprising, never saw this coming way.

In all fairness I didn't have high hopes for this book, I think it's really challenging to write multiple sequels and have them maintain the same level of shock factor, I was just hoping the author would prove me wrong.

Maybe worth the read if you're invested in the original two books just to see the characters years later but certainly wouldn't recommend it as a first read to anyone.