THE MAIDENS

Warning: There are instances of explicit language, instances of domestic abuse, mentions of affairs, mentions of a famous gay couple (Tennyson and Hallam), and an anecdote of the killer’s father killing the family sheepdog (an innocent creature who showed nothing but unconditional love) just because he was starting to get old and the father didn’t want to pay to feed both him and the younger dog that his wife inquired about.

BACKGROUND

Mariana grew up as a shy outsider surrounded by tragedy. First her mother dies, and then her older sister dies, and soon thereafter her father dies. But because her father was a powerful and successful businessman, his will named Mariana as the sole recipient to a large inheritance, so at least she didn’t have financial concerns. Mariana and her husband (Sebastian, who she met at college) take in her niece (Zoe) and care for her.

One day, after Zoe started attending college, Mariana convinces Sebastian that they deserve a vacation. As planned, they first visit Athens. Then Mariana persuades Sebastian to swing by Naxos. The next morning, Sebastian goes for a run while Mariana sleeps in. As he sometimes does, he cools off in the ocean, but bad weather sweeps him away and he drowns. Mariana is left in a frustrating situation: She blames herself for choosing to go to Naxos in the first place, and she blames Sebastian for recklessly swimming in bad weather (without taking into consideration his physical well-being or her emotional well-being).

Mariana tries to go on with life as usual until one day (when she’s 36-years old), she gets a frantic phone call from Zoe. Zoe alerts Mariana that Tara (her closest/ only friend from college) got murdered. Mariana travels to Zoe’s college to comfort Zoe and look for answers. Even though Mariana is a psychotherapist and not a detective, she tried to figure out who the killer is:

Is it Conrad (Tara’s drug-dealer/ “boyfriend”)? After all, he has a criminal history.

Is it Professor Edward Fosca? Zoe claims that Tara had an affair with him, got into some kind of argument, and had threatened to kill Tara just hours before her body was found.

Soon, two more bodies are found: Veronica and Serena. Both were in the same elite group as Tara (known as “the Maidens”). This group of female students regularly meets with Professor Edward Fosca to have debates about Greek Mythology. To Mariana, this second and third death seem to point the evidence more strongly towards Edward, but Mariana has a couple theories about who may be his accomplice:

Is Morris involved? He is the college’s porter. As an employee in uniform (with a gentlemanly reputation, especially since his reputable grandfather also used to be a porter there), he could sneak around without suspicion. And Mariana caught him in the act, having an affair with Serena in an abandoned cemetery hours before Serena was killed.

Is Henry involved? Henry is one of Mariana’s mentally ill clients who had developed an unhealthy dependence on her. He’s been known to stalk her before, and he even followed her all the way to Zoe’s college since he couldn’t cope being away from her.

Is Fred involved? Mariana met Fred on the train on her way to Zoe’s college. Fred believes that he can have premonitions about the future (one of which is that he will marry her one day). He seems sweet and clumsy (making him an unlikely suspect), but when Zoe and Mariana punt over to a section of the woods where Zoe believes that Edward’s murder weapon may be, Mariana spots Fred hiding behind a tree, which seems suspicious…

Turns out that the journal entries that were periodically littered throughout were not from Edward, but from Sebastian (which I totally did not see and was disappointed by since this taints Mariana’s good memories of him and her trust with others moving forward). Sebastian and Zoe were secretly romantically involved (gross!), and Sebastian only married Mariana for her inheritance. He devised a plan to get Mariana out of the picture so that he could end up with her money and then publicly be with Zoe, but he didn’t plan on drowning in Naxos.

To honor Sebastian, Zoe carried out the plan anyway. (Because I knew that mystery authors tend to think of out-of-the-box endings, I had a feeling from the beginning that the killer might be Zoe, which I later dismissed when there seemed to be more likely suspects. So I guess I was half-right at one point?):

1. Kill Tara (which was a hard but “necessary” sacrifice to lure Mariana to come visit).

2. Kill a couple more maidens to convince Mariana more that Edward was guilty.

3. Kill Mariana and plant more evidence that points to Edward (so that it seemed like he killed Mariana since she was on to him).

While Zoe was attempting this last stage of the plan, Fred (who had a “premonition” that Mariana was in danger), saved Mariana’s life (even though he was left critically wounded).

Zoe got deemed “insane” and became one of Theo’s patients (who is the central psychotherapist in “The Silent Patient”). It’s hinted that Mariana may be open to marrying Fred one day (so she may have some sort of a happy ending after all). Edward and Morris both got fired for having affairs with students, but at least neither of them got convicted for murders that they didn’t commit.

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QUOTES

Dealing with grief over the loss of a loved one (and parting with their items, like the shoes that they were wearing right before they drowned) can be hard.

It’s fitting that this book takes place during an Indian summer in late autumn (when the dying trees are unwilling to leave even though it’s their time to go) since Marianna is also learning to let go and accept Sebastian’s death.

“Mariana was still in love with him -- that was the problem. Even though she knew she’d never see Sebastian again -- even though he was gone for good -- she was still in love and didn’t know what to do with all this love of hers. There was so much of it, and it was so messy: leaking, spilling, tumbling out of her, like stuffing falling out of an old rag doll that was coming apart at the seams. // If only she could box up her love, as she was attempting to do with his possessions. What a pitiful sight it was -- a man’s life reduced to a collection of unwanted items for a jumble sale” (5).

“They weren’t Sebastian -- they were just a pair of old shoes. Even so, parting with them would be an act of self-harm, like pressing a knife to her arm and slicing off a sliver of skin. // Instead Mariana brought the shoes close to her chest. She cradled them tight, as she might a child. And she wept. // …Clutching a dead man’s shoes as if they were holy relics -- which in a way, they were. // Something beautiful, something holy, had died” (6).

“Since Sebastian died, Mariana no longer saw the world in color. Life was muted and grey and far away, behind a veil -- behind a mist of sadness” (7).

………………

As a group therapist, Marianna believes in the healing power of groups (and circles in general).

“She believed in the group, in these eight individuals sitting in a circle -- she believed in the circle, and its power to heal. In her more fanciful moments, Mariana could be quite mystical about the power of circles: the circle in the sun, the moon, or the earth; the planets spinning through the heavens; the circle in a wheel; the dome of a church -- or a wedding ring. Plato said the soul was a circle -- which made sense to Mariana. Life was a circle too, wasn’t it? -- from birth to death” (14).

………………..

Do we view ourselves from our own direct opinions of who we are? Or do we view ourselves from other people’s opinions (such as our parent’s opinions or the opinions of others in authority)?

“Sebastian was wrong; she wasn’t clever or beautiful -- that wasn’t how she saw herself. // Why not? // Whose eyes was she seeing herself with? Her own eyes? // Or her father’s? // Sebastian didn’t see with her father’s eyes, or anyone else’s; he saw with his own eyes. What if Mariana did too? What is, like the Lady of Shalott, she stopped looking at life through a mirror -- and turned, and stared directly?” (244).