Ranking the Freida McFadden Books I’ve Read

If you are a reader at all, I’m sure you’ve heard of Freida McFadden by now. She has taken the reading world by storm. Her books are TIkTok famous and everyone is obsessed with her books. Well, I couldn’t resist hopping on the trend and have read a good majority of her books.

Today, I thought I would share my personal ranking of the Freida McFadden books I’ve read so far. Keep in mind that these are just my personal thoughts about the books and everyone has different opinions! Opinions are what makes the world go ’round, right?

Freida McFadden is truly a terrific writer. She delivers twisty thrillers with crazy plot twists. Her novels are quick and easy reads which I absolutely love. They are fairly clean compared to many other thriller authors out there. I think there is usually some language but nothing too steamy.

Ranking the Freida McFadden Books I’ve Read

#1 Never Lie

Plot Summary: Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate… with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end.

This was probably my third FM book I read and it is still by far my favorite. I wasn’t sure how it would be with some of the reading being transcripts of the therapy sessions but it was an easy read. For this book, I actually listened to this one on audiobook one of the few I didn’t physically read and the audio was great as well.

I ranked this one first because I truly did not see the ending coming. So many times I was convinced I had it figured out and I definitely did not! Absolutely my top slot in my FM ranking. It is a definite must-read. It jumps between timelines and POVs but it is done well.

Read if you enjoy:

• Isolated setting
• Unreliable Narrators
• Psychological thrillers
• Few main characters

#2 The Perfect Son

Plot Summary: A high school girl has vanished from Erika’s quiet suburban neighborhood. The police suspect the worst…murder. And Erika’s teenage son, Liam, was the last person to see the girl alive. Erika has always sensed something dark and disturbed in her seemingly perfect older child.

Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes for this one for some reason…but I was pleasantly surprised. I absolutely loved it; I haven’t heard many people talking about this one and I don’t understand. I kept going back and forth on what I believed happened and I can say…I was never right. It was a little reminiscent of Shari Lapena’s “Someone We Know,” but in a good way.

It really calls into question the boundaries for parents and what they will keep secret to protect their kids. I was guessing up until the plot was revealed. I will say that the very ending held a twist that I didn’t love. However, it didn’t ruin the book or story for me so I am still keeping it at #2!

Read if you enjoy:

• Domestic Thrillers
• Multiple POV’s
• Twisted Families

#3 The Locked Door

Plot Summary: The Locked Door Thriller novel is the story of a young girl, Nora, whose father is a serial killer. Nora manages to rise above her situation by becoming a respected doctor and surgeon. But the terrible evil deeds of her father continue to haunt Nora throughout her life.

FM is amazing at literary red herrings. She constantly makes you feel like you’ve got the story figured out and chances are…you don’t. “The Locked Door” was another great one that I thought I had figured out. I thought the child of a serial killer was an interesting storyline that I hadn’t seen often.

While Nora is definitely trying to be a great person and surgeon, she also has some blurred morals. Overall it was a very fast read for me so this is great for anyone who loves quick reads!

Read if you enjoy:

• Serial Killer Tropes
• Multiple Timelines
• Red Herrings

#4 The Inmate

Plot Summary: The novel is a psychological thriller about a single mother who returns to her hometown in the aftermath of her parent’s deaths. Memories of her past begin to haunt her when she takes a job at the federal prison where the father of her child, who once tried to kill her, is serving a life sentence for a triple homicide.

Now I feel like “The Inmate” gets both equal praise and hate. Many people think it was great and some people thought it was awful. I was somewhere in between until the very end. The whole book overall is fairly slow which is very unlike other Freida McFadden books I’ve read. I loved the story of the original murders and hearing that timeline interlaced with the current POV/timeline.

I felt like the whole book was slow until the mid/ending and then it went so fast it almost seemed glossed over. However, the very end made up for all that in my mind. I’m sure some won’t agree but I have to say that the final twist was epic in my opinion.

Read if you enjoy:

• moving on from tragedy
• Red Herrings
• Slow pace until ending

#5 The Housemaid

Plot Summary: “The Housemaid” (2022) is a gripping mystery novel penned by Freida McFadden, an accomplished author renowned for her bestselling psychological thrillers. The story delves into the life of Millie Calloway, a young woman with a troubled past, who finds herself employed as a housekeeper for Nina Winchester, a wealthy woman grappling with apparent mental health issues.

The book that made Freida McFadden go viral. I read this in maybe a day or two (which with a full-time job is pretty fast for me). One thing I absolutely loved about this novel was the fact that you got a big reveal in the middle of the book. I love that! I was still just as shocked and the ending was still full of twists. But it gave me even more incentive to keep reading.

This domestic thriller is a great one for someone new to thrillers because it is fast-paced and easy to read. I highly recommend this one! And even though it is #5 it is still phenomenal most of these are still incredible books even if they are “lower” in the ranking!

Read if you enjoy:

• Domestic thrillers
• Mid-way twist reveals

#6 The Housemaid’s Secret

Plot Summary: “Don’t go in the guest bedroom.” A shadow falls on Douglas Garrick’s face as he touches the door with his fingertips. “My wife… she’s very ill.” As he continues showing me their incredible penthouse apartment, I have a terrible feeling about the woman behind closed doors. But I can’t risk losing this job—not if I want to keep my darkest secret safe…

When I first read this book, I found it a little redundant to the original. I felt like it was very similar in the storyline as far as Millie dealing with a psycho spouse and trying to get out of the situation, etc. However, I think this is because I read them back to back. I would suggest reading them with books in between. I think that is why I originally didn’t see the great aspects of the sequel.

When you read them a little apart you can see that they are great on their own. Millie is on a mission to save the woman locked in the room upstairs and what lengths will she go to to help her? You gotta read it to find out! I honestly enjoyed this one probably as much as the first.

Read if you enjoy:

• Equally exciting sequel
• Domestic mysteries

#7 The Wife Upstairs

Plot Summary: Adam is an author who is looking for someone to look after his wife Victoria who is disabled after an accident. After listening to Victoria’s slurred speech she is prompted to read Victoria’s diary discovering Adam isn’t who he’s portraying. Trust no one in this twisted psychological thriller by Freida McFadden.

I just recently finished “The Wife Upstairs” and thought it was a good read. It wasn’t my alltime favorite Freida McFadden book but it was a good one. I kept second guessing what I thought the plot was and ended up being sorta right?? It was a crazy, twisty reveal.

This was a little similar to “The Housemaid’s Secret.” I found a few similarities between the two but they were still both enjoyable and different enough.

Read if you enjoy:

• Domestic thrillers
• diary entry chapters

#8 Ward D

Plot Summary: Medical student Amy Brenner is spending the night on a locked psychiatric ward. Amy has been dreading her evening working on Ward D, the hospital’s inpatient mental health unit. There are very specific reasons why she never wanted to do this required overnight rotation. Reasons nobody can ever find out.

Sadly, I found “Ward D” incredibly predictable. I knew from fairly early on some of the aspects of the twists. Therefore I didn’t find it overly exciting or thrilling. I thought the overall use of mental health was not done well in this book. They had many of the typical “crazy” characters that are obvious for mental health stereotypes.

I personally found the weaving timelines a little dull and I kept wondering what the flashbacks had to do with anything. Overall I was just really underwhelmed with this one.

Read if you enjoy:

• Locked door mysteries
• characters with a past together

#9 One by One

Plot Summary: A night spent sleeping on dirt and leaves is not how Claire Matchett expected to spend her vacation. She thought this would be a break from the stresses of work and raising her young children. A chance to repair her damaged marriage. Then Claire’s minivan breaks down on a lonely dirt road. With no cell reception, the group has no choice but to hike the rest of the way to their hotel. Hours later, they are lost. Hopelessly lost. And as they navigate deeper into the woods, the members of their party are struck down mysteriously one by one. Has a wild animal been hunting them? Or is the hunter one of them? But as more time passes, one thing becomes clear: Only one of them will return home alive.

I had high hopes. I love a good “clue-like” mystery where one by one they die and you have to figure out who the killer is in time. However, I found this book utterly boring. Now that is just my personal opinion! But I honestly couldn’t wait for this book to be over.

The storyline was great but it fell short in execution for me. The characters weren’t likable to me. The way it unfolded just left me asking for more.

Read if you enjoy:

• locked door mysteries
• murders one by one
• Slow Burn Mysteries

#10 Do Not Disturb

Plot Summary: To avoid spending her life in prison, Quinn makes a run for it. She leaves behind her home, her job, and her family. She grabs her passport and heads for the northern border before the police can discover what she’s done. But when an unexpected snowstorm forces her off the road, Quinn must take refuge at the broken-down, isolated Baxter Motel. The handsome and kindly owner, Nick Baxter, is only too happy to offer her a cheap room for the night.

My only DNF (did not finish) novel of Freida McFadden’s. I thought this one would be exciting and very Hitchcock-esque. But the POV change in the middle of the book ruined it for me. It completely lost all momentum and really made me lose all interest.

I eventually just gave up and looked up the ending. I was sad that I didn’t want to finish but it had just gotten slow and boring in my opinion. I’m sure many liked it – it just wasn’t for me!

Read if you enjoy:

• Psycho themes
• Midway POV changes