Alex Michaelidis - The Maidens

Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek Tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike—particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens.
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.
Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?
When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.

Comment: I was given this book for my birthday last year. I've read and liked the author first book, which was quite a success, but somehow reading this one kept being postponed, until now. Well, I wasn't a fan after all.

In this story we meet Mariana Andros, a therapist specialized in groups, whose niece Zoe contacts when one of her college friends is found murdered. Mariana rushes to Zoe in Cambridge, even though an element of one of her groups has been erratic lately, to help her. She is told that the murdered girl, Tara, was part of a group called The Maidens, who kept following professor Edward Fosca, who is not only a brilliant teacher but a charismatic leader. Zoe believes Tara was afraid of the teacher and that he might have killed her, but no evidence of why or how. Mariana decides to stay for a while to help and to also investigate, since she also had studied in Cambridge, but there seems to be something happening that is strange and the killing continues. Mariana also starts feeling someone might be watching or following her, but will she discover who before it's too late?

The author's first book was more than successful, it created such hype that it was on the lists of many readers, whether the genre was their preference or not. I've read that book only last year and liked it but it wasn't such a stunning work for me, mostly because of the writing. Again, I've liked the book but the execution was as flawless as it was made to seem by so many positive reviews. Thus, before starting this one, my expectations weren't as high, but I was still hopeful... sadly, the execution of this book was, to me, a lot worse than it had been for the author's other book.

My issue is that the plot of The Maidens simply makes no sense whatsoever, and I just could not focus in what was happening without thinking "why?", and this happened long enough for me to feel there wasn't much logic to most events described. The little issues I didn't like much in the first book now seemed to be times two or three, and the more I read the more t felt the author wanted to use this detail and that and so on, that it was more a sequence of facts/scenes, rather than an actual plot.

The most glaring element for me was Mariana's role in the whole thing. I was extremely contrived how she came to be in Cambridge and why she stayed. Any reader has experienced some level of suspend disbelief while reading, even in relation to contemporary settings, but this time I was just not able to let go that Mariana is a therapist and she had no business to investigate Edward nor anything else. I see that the author really wanted her to be a group therapist because of the girls's group, but the way this happened so that at some point Mariana could pretend to play therapist to them was just... ridiculous.

I mean, I imagine this is why she was a group therapist and why she had to have a connection to the university somehow, but the execution was very poorly done. There are other reasons, namely Zoe, for her to stay there but this was never organically done that anyone would feel it's the most natural thing to do. Then, Mariana stays and investigates but why, and why her and how would she do this? What ability or skill would she possess to be able to ask questions, for authority she had not... this was obviously done so that Mariana could remain at the center of the story but this was also ridiculous.

The author really wanted to convey drama and a sense of doom with the way things progressed, especially so that a connection to the traditional Greek tragedy style could be established. I did like the references to a college environment, to the Greek tragedies used, to the most academic content and the way all this could be played out in a psychological way. What wasn't done well was the mix up of all these elements with the characters, which in my opinion weren't well developed.

I suppose some secondary ones couldn't, so that the sense of mystery could be maintained throughout, but Mariana wasn't, to be fair, such a great heroine, and I was easily able to stay out of the drama, the emotional distance was always there for me to just negatively nod my head at the absurdity of certain scenes. Even the character of Edward Fosca, the one that could have been better used to highlight the drama, ended up feeling incomplete. I was especially disappointed at the maidens of the title, the group of girls who supposedly followed the professor, in specific clothes and mannerisms. I mean... this was barely used in the story and they were more forgettable characters instead of secondary... 

The plot made no sense but I knew that the author's trademark is a twist so I kept reading for it. I never considered that explanation for in my defense it was more for lack of proper attention, for it's not that hard to guess if one does pay attention. The thought had crossed my mind often, but I never invested much time in real debate on why... when this is shared, it's... well, predictable. Of course this means some things used as red herrings make even less sense! I really feel the plot was misused. 

There are one or two references to the author's first book, which seems to be an intentional way to connect the world of both stories but I failed to think "aha" as when one finds the so called "easter eggs" in author's work. Reading this was really a let down... The author has been lucky I'd say, in the sense that his work caught many people's attention, and on one had this is great, but on the other I now feel even less eager to read his third novel. Perhaps if I find it at the library one day...

Grade: 4/10