Author Freida McFadden's true identity may be somewhat of a mystery, considering the dual brain surgeon/author publishes under a pseudonym. But it's no mystery why her career has taken off in the past few years: Her thriller novels are real nail-biters with twists you never see coming.
Whether you already consider yourself a devout McFan or are looking for the next whodunnit or psychological thriller, there's never been a better time to get into the Boston-based author. Why? This December will see the release of her first book-to-movie adaptation of The Housemaid, with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried set to star.
Having dabbled in fiction writing since 2013, she’s gone on to churn out her eerie tales at a breakneck pace. She's sold 17 million copies of her 20+ titles to her growing mass of avid readers. Needless to say, choosing the most gripping books in McFadden’s collection was something of a Herculean task, but we managed to get the job done: Behold, the 10 best Frieda McFadden books, ranked—all of which will keep you guessing until the very end...and sometimes even after.
The Best Freida McFadden Books, Ranked
Having to work near your ex is scary enough, but Brooke’s new gig as a nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum security prison puts her in direct contact with her former fling Shane, who's behind bars because of her. Trust us: When you think you’ve got their ending figured out, McFadden throws in a curveball you'll never, ever see coming.
As McFadden’s breakout novel, The Ex, had so many twists and turns, even her own mother couldn’t keep them straight. “My mom…still doesn’t get the ending to this day,” the author told The New York Times in a 2024 interview.
McFadden’s solution? To write another finale entirely for the originally self-published book. The version that hit shelves in 2020 has a different ending for McFans who weren’t satisfied with the way everything played out for heroine Cassie after her new relationship with Joel gets upended by his chef ex-girlfriend, Francesca.
They say if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. And Abby probably should’ve heeded that warning before she agreed to let her personal assistant be her pregnancy surrogate, because Monica hasn’t exactly been truthful about her real identity. Now, she’s got all the leverage she needs to get exactly what she wants—and what she wants will ruin her boss.
To give you an idea of how good this one is, it’s sitting at No. 6 on The New York Times Best Sellers list—and it was released in 2022. It also landed McFadden her first No. 1 hit in the U.K.
It’s bad enough that Blake and his fiancée, Krista, are being forced to take on a renter after he gets fired from his job. But Whitney isn’t your average tenant, and Blake’s about to learn the hard way that your home really is your castle…and his has been infiltrated. Read it now before the Prime Video movie adaptation arrives.
In The Wife Upstairs, when a tragic accident upends a woman named Victoria's life, leaving her disabled and unable to speak, a whole slew of secrets are just waiting to surface. But will anyone be willing to listen to her and trust what she's written in her diary, which may hold a dark source of truth? Sylvia, who becomes her live-in nurse, starts to wrestle with those questions across this page-turner. While readers have noted the similarities between this book and Colleen Hoover’s Verity, published two years prior, others say it’s entertaining enough to shine on its own.
Considering McFadden’s background as a brain injury doctor, the setting for this 2023 release Ward D—a.k.a. the mental health unit of a hospital—couldn’t be more fitting. It’s about a med student named Amy who’s forced into the ward as part of her training. The problem? She has a past here that none of her colleagues know about. Beyond that, her charges and coworkers all seem to be disappearing, one by one…
When a girl at Liam’s school goes missing, his mother Erika is forced to take a long, hard look at her child, who just so happens to be the last person to see his classmate alive. And Erika is quickly realizing that she might not like what she sees—or the options she’ll be presented with as a result.
The perfect guy or a serial dater…and killer? That’s the question on Sydney Shaw’s mind as she contemplates whether her hunky new man could be mixed up with all of the deaths that have been making headlines all over N.Y.C. as of late. In true McFadden fashion, the answer to her question will blow your mind.
All houses have their secrets, but the ones kept at vanished psychiatrist Dr. Adrienne Hale’s former estate are downright terrifying. And unfortunately for Tricia and Ethan, who are stuck at the property as a result of househunting in a blizzard, they’re all about to be exposed. This one's dark, it’s sinister, and it’s a thriller slam dunk according to McFan Reddit subthreads.
2022 was a big year for McFadden: It was the year The Housemaid made its debut on the literary circuit to a whole lotta fanfare, marking the author’s biggest novel to date.
It's centered on two women who aren’t quite what they seem: There’s Millie, only recently released from prison, who has somehow landed a job as a maid in a swanky pad that’s a major upgrade from the Nissan she’s been living in. And then there’s Nina, the woman who just unwittingly hired a criminal, but has plenty of secrets of her own. Needless to say, they’re about to figure each other out, and plenty of drama will ensue.
What Is Freida McFadden's most popular book?
The Housemaid was McFadden’s runaway hit long before Sweeney and Seyfried ever signed on for the film adaptation. As of June 2024, it had spent a whopping 60 weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers list. According to the outlet, it’s also the book that turned many a normal thriller reader into a McFan, acting like a gateway drug to her complete literary catalog.
Also worth checking out? The 2023 and 2024 follow-ups, The Housemaid’s Secret and The Housemaid Is Watching, the latter of which casually debuted at No. 1 and sold a chill 240,000 copies in its first week, per The New York Times.
How to read Freida McFadden's thriller books in order:
The order in which you read McFadden’s novels will depend on your preferences. If you want to read them in the order in which she wrote them, you can go down the list as follows:
- The Devil Wears Scrubs (2013)
- Baby City (2015)
- Brain Damage (2016)
- The Devil You Know (2017)
- The Surrogate Mother (2018)
- The Ex (2019)
- The Perfect Son (2019)
- The Wife Upstairs (2020)
- One by One (2020)
- Want to Know a Secret (2021)
- The Locked Door (2021)
- Do Not Disturb (2021)
- Do You Remember? (2022)
- The Housemaid (2022)
- The Inmate (2022)
- Never Lie (2022)
- The Housemaid’s Secret (2023)
- Ward D (2023)
- The Coworker (2023)
- The Teacher (2024)
- The Housemaid Is Watching (2024)
- Dead Med (2024)
- The Boyfriend (2024)
- The Crash (2025)
- The Tenant (2025)
- The Intruder (2025)
- Dear Debbie (2026)
If, however, you choose to read them as part of a series, we’d still recommend starting with the Dr. Jane McGill books of The Devil Wears Scrubs and The Devil You Know, followed by the Prescription: Murder series (Dead Med, originally published as Suicide Med) and Brain Damage.
Finally, there's The Housemaid trilogy, which consists of The Housemaid, The Housemaid’s Secret, and The Housemaid Is Watching, to dive into before cracking into McFadden’s standalone novels.
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried in The Housemaid.
Which Freida McFadden books are being adapted?
Three of McFadden’s novels will serve as the basis for upcoming film projects.
The Housemaid is coming first. Announced in 2022, the highly anticipated film, directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor, Bridesmaids) and written by Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys), has some major star power behind it: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, and It Ends With Us’s Brandon Sklenar.) The film will debut in theaters on December 19, and the trailer is already available.
Next, there’s The Tenant. Amazon MGM Studios and producer Scott Stuber secured the rights to the project in June 2025. Few details are known, but McFadden will executive produce.
There is also a TV series in the works: Prime Video optioned an adaptation of McFadden's upcoming novel Dear Debbie, which won't hit shelves until January 27. 2026. According to McFadden, it’s about a housewife who has “the mother of all crash outs” after being fired from her job. She described the titular character and the plot to USA Today, saying, “Debbie is the cool housewife slash advice columnist who has reached the end of her rope and finally starts taking back everything that was stolen from her—piece by piece, name by name."
A cast and release date have yet to be announced, but Gina Girolamo (You, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) will executive produce.
Why Trust Us
From #Booktok favorites to acclaimed best-selling authors, we regularly rank just about any book you can imagine. Beach reads? We’ve done our homework. Smutty STEM novels? We've got them covered, too. We’re methodical in our methods: combing through real-life reviews, seeing what fans are saying on Reddit, TikTok, and GoodReads, and, of course, actually reading the books. We simply love to read and keep up with what's trending in the book world—so you can focus on more important things, like devouring every single precious word.
