“The door isn’t stuck. It’s locked.”
If you devoured the twisty, psychological suspense of The Housemaid by Freida McFadden and are hungry for more, you’re in the right place. Since its release, The Housemaid and its sequels have become must-reads in the domestic thriller genre, and its 2025 adaptation starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried has only amplified its popularity, bringing Mille’s dark, unpredictable story to life on the big screen. Whether you’ve just watched the movie or you’re still ploughing through the book that inspired it, this list of books like The Housemaid is jam-packed full of psychological thrillers, domestic suspense novels, and twisty thrill rides that will keep you guessing until the last page.
The Housemaid Summary
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden follows Millie Calloway, a woman with a troubled past who is desperate for a fresh start. When she’s offered a live-in housekeeping job for the wealthy Winchester family, it seems to almost be too good to be true. Nina Winchester is beautiful, volatile, and unpredictable, her husband Andrew is charming but distant, and their house is pristine – except for the locked door to the attic where Millie is told she must sleep.
As Mille settles into her new role, strange incidents begin to mount. Nina’s behaviour becomes more erratic, secrets seep through the walls of their perfect home, and Millie begins to suspect that nothing about the Winchesters – or her job – is what it seems. But Millie has secrets of her own, and the dynamics of the house soon begin to morph. Fast-paced, claustrophobic, and packed with shocking twists, The Housemaid is a gripping domestic thriller that plays with perception, trust, and the dangerous things people hide behind closed doors.
The Housemaid Books in Order
- The Housemaid (2022) – The Housemaid #1
- The Housemaid’s Secret (2023) – The Housemaid #2
- The Housemaid’s Wedding (2024) – The Housemaid #2.5
- The Housemaid Is Watching (2024) – The Housemaid #3
Check Out All The Housemaid Books In Order
The Turn Of The Key – Ruth Ware
We’re kicking off our list of the best books like The Housemaid with Ruth Ware’s thrilling bestseller, The Turn of the Key. When she happens across the ad, it seems like too good an opportunity to miss – a live-in nannying post with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten by the home, the Scottish Highlands, and the picture-perfect.
What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare – one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial. Writing to her lawyer from her cell, The Turn of the Key is her chronicle of events that led to her incarceration.
Check Out The Best Books Like The Turn Of The Key
The Breakdown – B.A. Paris
Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside – the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind. It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he found out she had broken her promise not to take the shortcut home.
But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby. The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt. Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…
The House Hunt – C.M. Ewan
C.M. Ewan’s The House Hunt is a psychological thriller about a young couple, Lucy and Sam, who have painstakingly designed the perfect home and are now looking to sell it. One day, Lucy receives a call from her estate agent saying that she’s running late and asking whether Lucy would be prepared to begin the latest viewing of her home without her. The man, Donovan, arrives, but it doesn’t take long for the house viewing to start feeling strange. And when Lucy finally decides she has had enough asks the stranger to leave, but he refuses to do so.
Elsewhere, Sam, a psychology professor, is running a group therapy session for people with phobias. He won’t be home for houses to help Lucy out. But are there also dangers lurking closer to Sam within his own group?
Check Out Our The House Hunt Book Review
The Perfect Stranger – Megan Miranda
Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they both move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position, and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leach is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy vanishes mere days later.
Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend’s life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? Similar to The Housemaid, everyone in this gripping thriller has something to hide – including Leah herself. How do you uncover the truth when you’re busy burying your own?
The Good Sister – Sally Hepworth
Another one of the best thriller books like The Housemaid comes from Sally Hepworth and her tale of twin sisters Fern and Rose in The Good Sister. Fern is a librarian who thrives on routine and struggles with sensory sensitivity; Rose is the responsible and protective sister who has always done what she can to look out for her.
When Rose reveals her struggles with having a baby, Fern decides to help her sister out by becoming a surrogate. However, as Fern embarks on this altruistic journey, long-buried secrets about their family are brought to light. Delivered through alternating perspectives, the novel unravels the layers of the sisters’ tricky relationship, revealing that all is not as it first appears.
The Family Game – Catherine Steadman
Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward’s eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they’ve dominated the headlines and pulled society’s strings.
Harry is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything soon changes when she meets Robert, the magnetic patriarch of the family. At their first meeting, Robert hands Harry a cassette, revealing a shocking confession and setting an inevitable game into motion. As she ramps up her quest for the truth, Harry must endure the Holbecks’ savage Christmas traditions, all while knowing losing this game could prove deadly.
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First Lie Wins – Ashley Elston
The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people within it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The final piece of the puzzle is the job.
Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s beginning to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes – especially after what happened last time. Evie Porter needs to stay one step ahead of her past whilst making sure there’s still a future in front of her.
The Teacher – Freida McFadden
If you loved The Housemaid, why not follow it up with another one of Freida McFadden’s best psychological thrillers, The Teacher? Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband, Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Except, last year, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its centre. But Eve knows there’s more to these ugly rumours than meets the eye.
Addie can’t be trusted. She lies, hurts people, and destroys lives. But nobody really knows the truth about Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet. Like The Housemaid, The Teacher is a story of twisting secrets and long-awaited revenge.
The Perfect Wife – J.P. Delaney
Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago, and that, thanks to a technological breakthrough, she has been hauled back from the abyss.
But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she starts to question her husband’s motives – and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to Abbie half a decade ago?
The Perfect Marriage – Jeneva Rose
Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defence attorney in Washington, D.C. At thirty-three years old, she is named partner at her firm, and life is going exactly as she planned. The same cannot be said, however, for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.
Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers. Then, one morning, everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home. Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress. But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?
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Don’t Let Him In – Lisa Jewell
Nina Swann is intrigued when she receives a condolence card from Nick Radcliff, an old friend of her late husband, who is looking to connect after her husband’s unexpected death. Nick is a man of substance and good taste. He has a smile that could melt the coldest heart, and a knack for putting others at ease. But to Nina’s adult daughter, Ash, Nick appears to be too slick, too polished, too good to be true. She starts to dig into Nick’s past, and what she unearths is more than unsettling…
Martha is a florist living in a neighbouring town with her infant daughter and her devoted husband, Alistair. But lately, Alistair has been travelling more and more frequently for work, disappearing for days at a time. Nina, Martha, and Ash are on a collision course with a shocking truth that is far darker than anything they imagined. Like The Housemaid, Don’t Let Him In is a story about when the past refuses to stay buried.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
