"The Maidens" by Alex Michaelides

Seb died a year ago (drowned, probably money-worry-related suicide), leaving Mariana (36, brought up near Athens by very rich, now dead, parents) a widow in London. They met as students in Cambridge. Zoe, her orphan niece (now a Cambridge University student) who Seb and Mariana unofficially adopted) phones her saying the body of her friend Tara might have been found on Paradise (a nature reserve by the Cam). Zoe, like Mariana, found school difficult and making friends a struggle (though I can't believe that nobody asked Mariana out in her first two terms as a student). Mariana runs therapy groups. A patient, Henry, is getting a bit creepy.

Another PoV appears, a male murderer who grew up on a farm, disliking the everyday deaths there. He had a violent father. His mother left him when he was 12.

Mariana goes to Cambridge to support Zoe. On the train a boy (actually Freddy,a 28 year old science pgrad) chats her up. He's insistent. He had premonitions that he takes seriously. She doesn't get rid of him because he might be a useful local contact. She consoles Zoe and decides to help solve the crime. Julien is the police psychologist. She knows him from college days. There's a young porter, Morris, who's very kind, a grandson of a porter she knew. Another student is killed. Both students were girls belonging to Prof Fosca's special group (known as "Witches", "Bitches" or "Maidens"), both were knifed, and both had a pine cone with them - a symbol he lectures about. Each was delivered a postcard before the died with an ominous Greek quotation. Mariana attends one of Fosca's lectures, and sees why people think he's charismatic. He has a meal with him in his room, drinks too much wine (why?), stays for a coffee after (why?). During the meal he tells her he was brought up on a farm. She's convinced he's the murderer. He has alibis, but the only witnesses are Maidens. Maybe he had an accomplice?

She sees Tennyson reminders, and how he dealt with bereavement - "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all".

She follows Morris to Mill Road cemetary (described as "abandoned") where he has sex with one of the maidens. He sees Mariana and threatens her.

She returns briefly to London to talk to 2 people when a phone call or 2 would have done the job. A friend suggests to her that she has unresolved issues relating to her father which she's projecting onto Fosca. She organises a group meeting of the Maidens which Fosca attends.

Henry appears, threatening her with a knife. She escapes and he goes into a mental hospital.

Another girl dies. Mariana gets a postcard with a Greek quote.

She attacks Fosca. Interviewed by the police she tells them what she knows. They're unconvinced. They arrest Morris. Zoe thinks she knows where Fosca hid the knife because he used it in her initiation rite. She punts Mariana to the Folly (near Paradise) and attacks her. Luckily Freddie has followed them and saves Mariana. He's seriously injured but recovers.

Morris was blackmailing Fosca, who's sacked because was sleeping with the girls. Zoe had loved Seb and had never forgiven Mariana. The elaborate murders were so she could kill Mariana safely.

He uses phrases which many authors use. I guess they're ok -

• breathed a sigh of relief rather than "sighed with relief"
• Tears welled up in her eyes - Fair enough, though where else could they well?
• Outside, the wind was rapping on the window panes - Fair enough, though we know the wind isn't inside.
• She had a fiercely stubborn look on her face - I suppose you could have a look else where than on the face.
• He nodded to himself - The person in question was talking to someone and had just come to a conclusion about something - i.e, The nod wasn't a communication.

Other reviews

• Samantha Kilford (up until about the last few chapters, it was a hit. ... And then it wasn’t. As we approached the climax, The Maidens veered off course, quickly deteriorated and never recovered.)
• Maureen Corrigan (Michaelides’s plot begins to go off the rails when a graduate student in mathematics falls instantly in love with Mariana and proposes soon thereafter. Credibility is further strained by Chief Inspector Sangha, who’s in charge of the investigation, a man with “a lean and hungry look” who treats Mariana with instant (and unexplained) disdain. The novel’s credibility fully disintegrates at a memorial service held in the college chapel for the first victim.)
• Claire Fullerton
• goodreads