On December 18th, Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel The Housemaid will open on the silver screen, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried.
Millie (Sweeney) sees a chance at starting a new life when she gets a job as a housemaid for Nina (Seyfried) and her family. Cooking, cleaning, and taking care of Nina’s daughter isn’t easy, but it’s part of the job.
Dealing with the dark secrets and lies were not what Millie expected.
While this job may be a chance at a new life, she’s worried it might actually cost her life. But Millie isn’t quite what they expect, and that’s her advantage.
If you've finished all the books in the series (so far) and can’t wait to see the film adaptation, here are 6 books like The Housemaid, which focus on thrillers and mysteries including domestic staff.
In these stories, maids, nannies, and personal assistants find themselves in precarious situations, where they’ve seen too much—or harbor their own secrets.
Nanny Wanted
When Lilly takes a job as a nanny for Laurie and Charles Rowe at the Kewney Manor in Cornwall, it’s a chance to restart after a terrible relationship in London.
She loves her charges, Bess and William, and the new life she’s leading. But all that glitters is not gold; there’s something weird going on in Kewney Manor.
No one will tell her about the prior nanny, and Laurie disappears every night.
Maybe Lilly isn’t safe after all in her new life in this riveting thriller, often described like a modern retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
The Maid
Molly Gray loves her job. She works as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, where she takes deep pride in keeping the rooms pristine.
It’s quiet and peaceful, and she doesn’t have to deal with much social interaction, something that often eludes her. But she’s also dealing with the loss of her Gran, who she lived with, who passed only a few months ago.
Now Molly is alone. But the chaos and confusion of the outside world enter Molly’s life when she finds the dead body of a wealthy hotel patron in his room.
The police suspect her of the murder and other crimes, thanks to her social awkwardness.
Will she end up in jail for crimes she didn’t commit? Or will she find she has allies in unexpected places?
It’s the first in the three-book, one-novella Molly the Maid series.
You Must Be New Here
Sloan Thompson is managing as a single mom to Daisy, who has a heart condition, in the small town of Sycamore Glen.
She’s grateful for Margaret, Daisy’s dependable babysitter, who makes life just a bit easier for her. And new neighbors offer a chance for Sloan to find adult friends.
But this fragile world of Sloan’s falls apart when Margaret goes missing.
Told from multiple points of view, it’s clear that the idyllic Sycamore Glen harbors some dark secrets. No one is quite what they pretend.
The Maid's Diary
It’s unfortunately not uncommon for people to treat domestic staff as if they were invisible. For Kit Darling, that’s an unexpected perk in her job as a maid.
Not only does she deal with the literal dirty laundry of her clients, but she sees the other dirty laundry. Until she witnesses a dangerous secret she can’t unsee.
Now Kit and her clients have gone missing, with only a large amount of blood left behind. Homicide cop Mallory Van Alst has to figure out what exactly happened.
The only clue is an elderly woman who hears a scream in the middle of the night.
What happened to Kit? What did she see that might have cost her life?
The Personal Assistant
What do you do when the person who holds all your secrets goes missing?
That’s where Alex finds herself. She had hired a personal assistant, AC, to help her manage her new and unexpected career as an influencer.
Then one day, things go wrong, first online, and then AC is missing. Now the police suspect that Alex may be responsible.
It's up to Alex to figure out what happened to AC—and who her assistant really is.
Count My Lies
While she may be working in her mother’s salon, Sloane Caraway wants more. She’s a pathological liar and will do practically anything to live a better life.
When she sees a young girl suffering from a bee sting at the local park, she passes herself off as a nurse. Then she manages to get hired by a very wealthy family as a nanny.
These are just little white lies, right?
But when Sloane’s lies get bigger and bigger, she soon realizes that maybe she’s not the only liar around…
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