The 15 Best Books by Freida McFadden, From 'The Housemaid' to 'The Tenant'

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.

Her 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 how everything played out for heroine Cassie after her new relationship with Joel gets upended by his chef ex-girlfriend, Francesca.

April Masterson seemingly shares her life online for the world to see via her YouTube channel—but there are a few things she’s keeping to herself. Like, for instance, the contents that are buried out in her backyard. Entertaining? Highly. The least predictable of McFadden’s roster? Not quite.

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 landed McFadden her first No. 1 hit in the U.K.

Think 50 First Dates, but make it a thriller. Thanks to a recent car accident, Tess wakes up each day unable to remember who she is, let alone anyone else. The man claiming to be her husband seems nice enough—but what if he’s not? Someone is warning her to keep her distance, and she can't remember why. It's not the most satisfying ending McFadden's ever put to paper, but it will keep you engaged.

The premise of this one is quite gripping. It’s about a surgeon named Nora who also happens to be the daughter of a serial killer. He’s in prison, but a copycat’s on the loose, and they’re taking aim at Nora’s patients. Which leads police to wonder: Do murderous genes run in the family? It’s not quite as action-packed as some of McFadden’s other works, but its twisty plot will still getcha in the end.

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, a tragic accident upends a woman named Victoria's life, leaving her disabled and unable to speak. 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, wrestles 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 hospital's mental health unit—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…

It’s almost impossible for a sequel to beat its predecessor, and McFadden’s follow-up to her 2022 The Housemaid doesn’t escape the trope. Still, it’s a decent effort, with its main character, Millie, returning with a brand new family to offer her in-home services to. But something’s not quite right here, either…and if these people had any sense, they’d never let Millie find out what it is.

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.

Debbie is not the kind of woman you want to cross. Mess with her garden, her child, or her husband, and you might end up with dead flowers, a dead-end career, or even just…dead. The worst part? You’ll never even see it coming. While it starts stronger than it ends (the twist is so wild, it borders on huh?), it’s still up there on our McFadden mountain.

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 the deaths making headlines in 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 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.