Secret History lite. Dan Brown meets Donna Tartt. If you like psychological thrillers with a dark academia vibe and don't care about literary merit, you'll probably enjoy "The Maidens".

Here are the basic ingredients: Murder at the prestigious Cambridge University in England, ancient Greek rituals, forensic psychology, classical literature, a handsome, darkly charismatic professor who privately tutors a glamorous set of ambitious, privileged female students known as "The Maidens". It soon becomes apparent that these "Maidens" are being targeted by a serial killer.

The narrator/protagonist is a brilliant, widowed psychotherapist who tries to use her empathy and deep insight into others to help solve the crime. However her narration is made unreliable by her own childhood trauma/intense grief.

I would call this a very serviceable thriller, but diehard fans of the genre might find this one a little too predictable. Very easy to get into though, a painless read.

Potential Irritant: The way men tried to romantically interact with the MC was sadly believable (men basically harass her the whole book and fall in love with her), but what wasn't believable was that our hero occasionally thought to herself "Gee maybe I do love this virtual stranger after all, even though he asked me to marry him every time I see him."I have to think the author was shoehorning that insufferable love interest in, because he is going to be an important character in Michaelides's 3rd book.

2.75 stars.