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English cover:
Mariana firmly believes Edward Fosca is a murderer. However, he is a handsome professor loved by his students, particularly a group of beautiful girls called The Maidens, and no one considers him a suspect. The thing is, one of the group’s members has been killed. Who else could have done it if not him?
Mariana becomes obsessed with proving his guilt and in the process risks not only her reputation as a group therapist, but her very life as well.
The book has very short chapters, I flew through it.
The writing style is simple, but it fits the story. It captures the beauty and elegance of Cambridge perfectly.
The themes were interesting as well.
One of them is grief. The main character mourns the loss of her husband and we can clearly see how it effects her. She mentions how bizarre it is that someone’s possessions can outlive them and how those items no longer have the same meaning. Her reactions are presented in a way anyone can relate to.
We are reminded that people easily jump to conclusions, even the police. Thus, it is important to let go of any preconceived notions and pay attention to what things are really like.
The author also discusses mental illness and the fact many of them are caused by a childhood trauma.
There were some surprising elements in this book, too.
First, a few chapters seemingly written from the perspective of the killer in which he talks about his problematic past. Than, several characters mentioning things related to Mariana that they couldn’t have known, which was pretty creepy, I’m not gonna lie and, finally, couple of references to the author’s previous novel The Silent Patient.
The twist wasn’t totally unexpected, but I liked it anyway.
Having said that, something about the ending felt a little underwhelming. I haven’t read many thrillers before so I somehow expected the book to be more intense or, maybe, my expectations were simply too high as I was really looking forward to it. Also, people seemed to either love or hate the ending and I just thought it was OK.
This book was very entertaining and I couldn’t wait to continue reading it. So, despite minor criticisms, I still liked it a lot.