The Maidens

The Maidens is a psychological thriller by the writer Alex Michaelides, published in 2021. It is set in Cambridge and in the mind of a group therapist whose confidence in her own reading of other people is the thing the plot tests.

Mariana Andros is brilliant and troubled. She becomes certain that Edward Fosca is a murderer, but Fosca is untouchable: he teaches Greek tragedy at the university, is admired by the staff and adored by the students, and is closely attached to a secret society of young women who call themselves the Maidens.

Because Fosca has everyone's good opinion, Mariana's certainty counts for almost nothing with the people who could act on it. When one of the Maidens is found murdered, the group becomes the centre of her attention, and her inquiries take her into the college's private rituals as well as into the evidence. Mariana is a patient observer of other people and a poor judge of herself, and the novel keeps the reader beside her while leaving the question of her reliability open.