The Housemaid is Watching

The Housemaid Is Watching is a 2024 mystery/thriller novel by bestselling author Freida McFadden, who is also a medical doctor specializing in brain injuries. McFadden has written 25 books that have been translated into 40 languages. Besides The Housemaid series, McFadden is also the author of The Coworker (2023), Ward D (2023), Never Lie (2022), and The Teacher (2024).

The Housemaid Is Watching is the third book in McFadden’s The Housemaid series, The Housemaid (2022) and The Housemaid’s Secret (2023). The entire series follows Millie Accardi, née Calloway, who in the first two novels works as a housemaid for wealthy families but by the third novel, has become a social worker. Before finding work as a housemaid, Millie spent a decade in prison for killing a boy who had tried to rape her friend when they were teenagers.

Throughout the series, McFadden wrestles with themes of domesticity, secrecy, deception, and the impact of trauma and abuse. In The Housemaid Is Watching, McFadden specifically explores The Danger of Family Secrets, The Psychological Impact of Trauma, Appearance Versus Reality in Suburban Communities, and Trust and Deception in Relationships.

This guide refers to the 2024 Bookouture Kindle e-book edition.

Content Warning: The novel includes violence and psychological manipulation, and references domestic violence and child abuse.

Plot Summary

Millie Accardi and her husband Enzo Accardi move to Long Island with their children Ada, who is 11 years old, and Nico, who is 9 years old. The family used to live in a small apartment in the Bronx, but Millie and Enzo decided to look for a larger home in the suburbs. At first, Millie is thrilled by the house, as well as by the strong school district and good neighborhood. However, her next-door neighbor Suzette Lowell dampens Millie’s happiness by flirting voraciously with Enzo. Suzette invites them to dinner; despite her distaste, Millie accepts.

Suzette warns Millie about Janice, the neighbor across the street, who looks through people’s windows and watches the street like a busybody. Janice keeps her son Spencer on a leash before the bus arrives; she is paranoid about his safety after a child went missing a few years ago. Millie finds Janice off-putting, though Nico and Spencer quickly become friends.

At dinner with the Lowells, Millie meets Martha, their silent maid, and Suzette’s seemingly likable husband Jonathan. Suzette serves Enzo’s favorite pasta, correctly guessing his Italian accent is Sicilian. She also offers to help promote Enzo’s landscaping business to her real estate clients in exchange for help with her yard. Enzo is thrilled, but Millie is not excited by the prospect of Enzo spending more time with Suzette. Suzette also offers to have Martha clean Millie’s house since one of her other clients recently canceled.

The next day, Martha arrives to clean, but Millie finds her demeanor strange. Millie arranges a playdate for Nico and Spencer. Janice is rude to her during the playdate and insinuates that Enzo will cheat with Suzette.

When Millie hears a scraping sound at night, Enzo assures her it’s just the house settling. Millie is diagnosed with high blood pressure, and Enzo tries to encourage her to lower her stress. One night, she sees Enzo talking with Suzette in her yard late at night. She’s suspicious but doesn’t mention it to Enzo.

Nico hits a ball into one of Suzette’s windows, and Millie offers to have him do chores to work off the cost. One day, Nico and Ada are missing when Millie returns from work. She goes to Suzette’s but finds only Suzette and Enzo, not the children. Panicking, she searches the house again with Enzo and Suzette. Enzo finds a small room under the stairs and pries it open to find the children. Nico says he discovered the room and made it his clubhouse. Ada is crying. Enzo seals the room at Millie’s insistence.

Millie gets a call from the kids’ school informing her that Nico is in trouble—he punched another boy who was bothering a girl. Nico is unrepentant. Enzo agrees with Nico’s actions, as he prioritizes defending women above all else, while Millie is troubled by Nico’s violent outburst. After Nico punches another player during a Little League game, Millie researches the symptoms of psychopathy.

Millie catches Martha stealing and fires her. A plumber arrives at the house and tells Millie that the check she gave him bounced. She calls her bank and discovers Enzo withdrew $1,000 in cash. Enzo claims it was for new landscaping equipment, but Millie is suspicious.

The family takes a trip to the beach with the Lowells. Suzette nearly drowns, but Enzo saves her heroically, which irritates Millie as Suzette fawns over him. A few nights later, Millie wakes up to an empty bed. Enzo later returns in his truck. He claims to have gone for a drive to settle his mind, but Millie smells Suzette’s perfume on him and thinks he’s cheating.

One day, Millie goes next door to confront them but finds Jonathan murdered in the living room. She goes home to call the police; Enzo is there washing blood off his hands, claiming to have cut himself with his garden tools. The police arrive—Janice called them—and accuse Enzo, though he is adamant he did not do it. Benito “Benny” Ramirez, Millie’s friend from the NYPD, finds them a good public defender—Cecelia Winchester, Nina Winchester’s daughter from The Housemaid. Detective Willard tells Millie that Enzo used the money he withdrew to buy a gun and checked into a motel with Suzette a few nights before. Suzette also recently increased Jonathan’s life insurance policy, so Willard suggests that Enzo killed Jonathan on Suzette’s behalf for the payout.

After the questioning, Enzo tells Millie the truth: He bought the gun for Martha, the maid. Her husband is abusive, and Enzo helped her leave him. Martha was the woman in the motel with Enzo, not Suzette. Enzo didn’t involve Millie because he didn’t want to worsen her blood pressure.

The police search the Accardi residence. The next day, they arrest Enzo: They found Enzo’s pocketknife with Jonathan’s blood on it. When Millie comforts the kids about Enzo’s arrest, Ada confesses that she killed Jonathan. When Nico was working to pay off the window at the Lowells’, he discovered a secret room under their stairs filled with toys. When he began playing with them, he broke a truck, which Jonathan then discovered. Jonathan told him the truck was expensive, but that he wouldn’t make Nico’s parents pay if Nico played with toys in the room and let Jonathan film him. Nico agreed, but one day Jonathan didn’t let Nico out of the room when he needed to use the bathroom, and Nico wet himself. He wanted to stop playing, but Jonathan threatened to take all of Millie and Enzo’s money. When that threat didn’t work, Jonathan threatened to kill Nico’s family. When Nico finally told Ada, she went next door to confront Jonathan. She found the room beneath the stairs and saw a bed in the corner. When she lifted the quilt off the bed, she saw blood on the sheets. She realized that Jonathan had killed the missing neighborhood child. Jonathan discovered Ada and tried to attack her, but she stabbed him with the pocketknife that Enzo had given her to defend herself. She ran home and told Nico what happened, and they agreed to keep it a secret.

Millie calls Cecelia and tells her the truth to stop Enzo from confessing. Benny tells Millie that he has new evidence: Suzette’s fingerprints were in the small room beneath the stairs, and the blood on the bed matches the DNA of the missing child, meaning Suzette knew what Jonathan did. Benny and Millie visit Suzette and tell her that she can either confess to Jonathan’s murder, arguing self-defense after “discovering” that he murdered a child, or the NYPD can prosecute her as an accessory in the child’s murder. Suzette confesses, exonerating Enzo, and keeps Ada’s involvement a secret.

In the epilogue, it’s revealed that Martha was the one who slit Jonathan’s throat: After Ada stabbed Jonathan, he discovered Martha stealing and threatened her. Martha also worked as a maid for the family whose son Millie killed for trying to rape her friend, bringing the narrative full circle.