This Stays Between Us

This Stays in our Bookclub: The Housemaid by Freida McFadden pt 1

• Riss & Chrys • Season 1 • Episode 11

Share episode

Send us a text

Chrys and Riss welcome you into their literary inner circle with the launch of "The Housemaid" discussion in their book club series. The psychological thriller follows Millie, an ex-convict desperate for employment who lands a live-in housemaid position with the wealthy Winchester family. From the very start, warning signs abound – a gardener muttering "perigo" (danger), bedroom locks on the outside, and windows painted shut.

The hosts dive into the unsettling dynamics of the Winchester household. Nina, the lady of the house, exhibits extreme mood swings, lavishing praise on Millie one moment and flying into destructive rages the next. Their daughter Cecilia appears manipulative and spoiled, while Andrew Winchester presents as the charming, kind husband who seems suspiciously normal amidst the chaos. With the book's opening revelation that someone ends up murdered, every character becomes both suspect and potential victim.

What makes this thriller particularly engaging is how it plays with readers' perceptions. As Chrys and Riss share their wildly entertaining theories – from buried previous housemaids to gaslighting husbands turning wives "crazy" – they demonstrate the book's ability to keep readers guessing at every turn. Their banter reveals how McFadden masterfully constructs each character to seem simultaneously innocent and capable of murder.

Ready to join their book club adventure? Grab your copy of "The Housemaid," read up to chapter 30 for next week's discussion, and prepare yourself for more shocking revelations, wild predictions, and the hosts' signature humor as they untangle this web of domestic suspense. Who killed whom? The answer may be hiding in plain sight.

Chrys:

Welcome to another episode of this Days Between Us. This is Crystal and I'm Marissa. I didn't start this rumor.

Riss:

I was ready. Hey, we love the tea. Welcome to our inner circle.

Chrys:

Alright, welcome to our series this Days in Our Book Club this week. Well, this month we're going to be reading the Housemaid. Um, we started this last week, so we are about five chapters in today. Um to be transparent, I listened to four to be transparent.

Riss:

I listened to 11, thinking I was listening to four catch me up.

Chrys:

This is good, but at this point, um, I don't remember her name, to be so real.

Riss:

Millie, I think.

Chrys:

Millie, that's right. Um, millie had is living in her car and she interviews to be the housemaid of this person. I also forgot her name, nona Is that what it is, nina? Nina, I was so close.

Riss:

I think Nona's like a vitamin drink.

Chrys:

I was thinking like a grandma or grandma yeah, she was old, but I don't know. We're doing the audiobook, I guess.

Riss:

I don't know Anyway, so she was just there. Crystal promises she read it. I bet we have a book.

Chrys:

This is true and it I bet. Just we have a book and um, well, I guess I'll just say it up until when I read it and then you can tell me what happens after. Okay, but yeah, she interviews to work there. It sounds like she's she's trying to come across as like professional and whatnot and like she has good references and but she's living in her car and then it sounds like they liked her but they never called her. So she hears from a different job, like a food place, and they turn her down and she's just really upset and kind of desperate for money. She finally gets a call from nina.

Riss:

Yes, job and not to forget that, like a big part of why she doesn't get the restaurant job and why she doesn't think she's going to get the job as a housemaid is because she has.

Chrys:

She spent the last 10 years in jail In jail yep.

Riss:

She's an ex-con so she is very Her hopes are very low in being able to get a job. Yeah.

Chrys:

But she hears back from Nina, who maybe or maybe didn't do a background check, or maybe she did and she's like I need an ex-con for whatever is going on in this house.

Riss:

Yes, and she gets a job.

Chrys:

And so it's a live-in housemaid situation yeah, the job, and so it's a live-in housemaid situation. She, when she arrives, I guess to actually move in the gardener, is kind of like he's saying perigou or no. What is he saying?

Riss:

which initially I was like movie. I know it took me a second.

Chrys:

I was like what is he saying, like, what would be the like portuguese equivalent, and which is said, yeah, which is a danger.

Riss:

I was like oh not where I was going I was like it's a movie. Why is this italian man telling me movie? Also, I thought that was kind of and fully think he's not destroyed. Why is this Italian man telling me movie?

Chrys:

Also I thought that was kind of funny too, because he's struggling with English to communicate with her and if it's really dangerous, like don't we have like body language, we do.

Riss:

No, yeah, like you're gonna die here, don't go in A hand across the neck, kind of thing, like some universal, like body language or like run, literally anything, like standing in front of the door, you know, with the knife, yeah, drawing, you know, draw it in the dirt or something, and it sounds like she has a crappy phone.

Chrys:

So, like she, couldn't even look it up right away. Really crappy warning yeah, yeah, and it didn't help yeah, and then she's put in a room in like the attic and it's sketchy, basically like closet, and well, there's like a situation. I guess the husband is there of the um, andrew andrew and he's talking to her for a second. Sounds like nina didn't like that and she was kind of like.

Chrys:

Nina is a jealous lady yeah, I'm thinking whoever worked there before is buried in the backyard because she shacked up with the husband because she shacked up with the husband, that's where my head goes um. Yeah, well, not that I know, I'm like saying that as if I know what happens. But yeah, I guess, because maybe we're right the.

Riss:

Well, yeah, I have my predictions too about, like, what happens. Yeah, um the. So, adding to everything that you just said, the room also that she's given the window is like painted closed so she can't really open it. Oh, I don't think I listened to.

Riss:

I heard that the lock is on the outside, which would have been enough for me to be like I'm gonna look at my car I know right, and nina's explanation of that is that it used to be a closet, so we have the lock on the outside and it's like okay, but can we fix that?

Chrys:

That would not be good enough for me. And then she like asked for the key. She's like what are you trying to hide from us? Ha ha, just kidding, I'd be like girl, I want to be able to get out of here. If you switch on me.

Riss:

Yes, want to be able to get out of here if you switch on me, yes, um, so do you want me to tell you, like, up until what I know, or sure I'll still listen to it, or okay? Well, as the story continues, there's one night that she wakes up in the middle of the night and she can't open the door, and she kind of freaks out and and it's really like it's like three in the morning, it's just like a crazy time at night. And she's like freaking out. She's like, oh, my gosh, I have to get out of this house. This is crazy, yada, yada, um. And then, but then she manages to open the door and she can get out and she's like, oh well, I think the door was just stuck. And then, but then she's also like kind of having this internal battle, like well I'm, she has like this gut reaction of I should probably leave this house. But then she's also like, but I really need the money.

Chrys:

So she you can't spend money when you're dead.

Riss:

Ain't that the truth? Put that on my gravestone. 100% Ain't spending that money now, those 12 bucks got buried with me. Yeah, nobody has access to that money. So she keeps working, um, and apparently Nina just switches up on her a ton. One moment she's like the best boss and she's so understanding and very appreciative of of Millie's work, and then the next minute she's just having a fit and she's throwing everything and making the house super messy and blaming Millie for it and saying, like you need to clean this up, this is your fault. And Millie is just. She just kind of takes it because she doesn't want to lose the job yeah, quick side note.

Chrys:

Does the accent bother you in the audiobook because it keeps changing?

Riss:

I was wondering if it was just me. I was like wait, where did this come from? It goes back and forth. I'm like girl, if you can't stick to it. Like we don't need the bronx accent.

Chrys:

Like she kept on doing different voices for different people and then she kept on like messing them up and I'm like who is talking about the boyfriend, yes, no, I, yeah.

Riss:

and the whole time where she's just Millie and she's just talking about, like Millie's thoughts, it's like she goes, yeah, it's, the whole Bronx thing is just not working out.

Chrys:

We suddenly have like Hispanic accents and then like it's back to like it's Southern, it's just all like yeah, she's trying really hard out there. I mean I would have done worse, so I applied.

Riss:

I think you would do better.

Chrys:

You have not seen my impressions.

Riss:

I think you just wouldn't try an impression which I think would be the way to go Anyway.

Chrys:

So she tried. She's switching up on her yeah.

Riss:

Nina's just kind of a nutcase is what we're finding out. Yeah, and their daughter, cecilia, is also kind of a brat, just a spoiled brat, very manipulative and, um, it kind of seems like she wants to get Millie in trouble, you know, um, but maybe she's also just a kid kind of up in the air a little bit, but more leaning towards like she is bratty and that kind of thing. And then we have the dad of the family, andrew, who is a very handsome man, very polished, uh, makes a lot of money and very kind towards Millie. He seems like the only one with his head on straight in that family and it's clear that she's building some sort of affection towards him, where she does see like she recognizes that he's so kind, he's handsome, he's out of his wife's league, he all these things, and she kind of trusts him. But she's also very afraid of having any kind of relationship with him because she is afraid of Nina and she's afraid of Nina's overreaction to anything.

Chrys:

Yeah, but also if you get with my man, that's not overreaction.

Riss:

I think that one is valid. She got so pissed I slept with her husband. I was like what Crazy, that's not valid. Um, so the the book starts with that little like. It's like we see a little bit in the future, right where she's being interviewed. Millie is being interviewed by the police.

Chrys:

I think my audiobook skipped. That, that's like, that's like the premise yeah, okay, I don't think I played that. I think I played chapter one, so I missed that. Okay, well, let me fill you in the preface.

Riss:

Yeah, okay, I don't think I played that. I think I played chapter one, so I missed that. Okay, well, let me fill you in the preface. She's being interviewed by the police officer and they found a dead body. So you were kind of right about a dead body being found, yeah, but I think it's found upstairs, like in her bedroom. I can't remember exactly where it's found, but they found a dead body and they're interviewing her and had it been dead for a while or Um, it didn't say.

Riss:

I don't remember if it. I actually don't remember if it said anything about how long it had been. But, yeah, so they're interviewing her and and then it like goes into the story, okay, and then it like goes into the story okay, so like knowing that a murder happens towards like more into the book. I think the way the author is building it up is for you to be questioning, like who is the murder here? You know, and so far we have, we have millie, we have nina, we have andrew, we have enzo the groundskeeper, oh, okay, and I mean technically, we also have the little girl.

Chrys:

He's like danger, it's me danger.

Riss:

I just killed somebody, um. And the other question is like who is dead? Yeah, is it like one of them? Or maybe it's somebody who hasn't been introduced?

Riss:

right now it's either the husband or the wife see, my prediction is that it's the husband, and this is why first we have the whole like millie is an ex-con thing, and I think that that is trying to make it. So we question, like what did she do? You know why was she in prison? Um, no, it hasn't said. It says that she was. She went to prison when she was like 17, so maybe it was like more juvenile, uh, detention center or whatever.

Riss:

But depends on what she did, because she could have been tried as an adult true, we don't have all the details yet about it, yeah, um, but it does make you wonder, like, has she killed somebody before? Is this like a pattern, like how?

Chrys:

long is she now?

Riss:

oh gosh, I don't remember, I don't remember, um, but it also mentions her having some like a bad relationship with her mom.

Chrys:

Yeah, yeah, both her parents. Right, they disowned her years prior Because you mentioned like being like struggling financially and not having anyone to turn to, and her parents have like wrote her off like years ago.

Riss:

Yeah, yeah, I yeah. I know that there's like bad blood with the mom and I can't remember if mom died or not, but there's something going on there, so she killed her mom, obviously. But yeah, anyway, so we have, we have like these, these it's. I kind of like the way that it's styled, because it is a little bit like we're the detectives right and right now we're finding out the story. I love those books. Yeah.

Chrys:

I just read another one of hers called the Boyfriend. That's kind of the same vibe.

Riss:

And.

Chrys:

I, yeah, I love the whodunit. Yeah, because I accuse everybody, yeah.

Riss:

And then at the end you're like I knew it, it was theory number 15. I knew it. I could see this coming from a mile away. 100% yeah, but so, yeah, it's fun. Um, yeah, but so yeah, it's fun. You're getting introduced to these characters and Millie has she's got like the, the profile, you know, of somebody who'd be like capable of it so far as far as we know, like, so she probably didn't do it. So she probably didn't do it. Yeah, because it's never who you think it is right, yeah. But then they start like maybe explaining her story a little bit, and then you get a little more empathy and then maybe she did do it. You know, I don't know. It's to me it's always like a mind game and I don't know which side to be like. Are you trying to make me not believe what it is? Anyway, I don't know. And then the other suspect that seems a little too obvious is Nina, because you know she's a nutcase, the little girl killed her dad.

Chrys:

Whoa, it's going to be the little girl. She's creepy, she is creepy.

Riss:

It could be.

Chrys:

It could be, it could be her, but like, maybe it is.

Riss:

Maybe she's just like whoa. Well, maybe the little girl is millie. It's like a psychological thriller this is actually.

Chrys:

There was never a little girl, maybe there was never a millie, um.

Riss:

So I think this is the reason. I think it's the dad. He seems like he's the one that has like his head on straight For now, for now, because he's going to die. You think he's the one that dies. I think he's the killer.

Chrys:

Oh, yes, I was just making a little joke, because he's like he has his head on straight. Oh Well, I'm going to take it off.

Riss:

That was gross, sorry off.

Chrys:

That was gross. Sorry, he, I'm just like.

Riss:

I'm like on the edge of my seat. The wife has gone crazy because he's made her crazy, oh yeah he's a man in a second, he, because, imagine, I feel like this is what's gonna happen.

Riss:

we find out that she's kind of like she's just been gaslit for so long about things you know, and maybe the last housemaid or nanny or whatever did have an affair with him or he has a pattern of having affairs, yeah, in some sort of capacity, because he is handsome and he is so well-spoken and he's kind and he's rich, but he's really manipulative. But he's really manipulative. That's what I think the twist is going to be.

Chrys:

I actually love that because I feel like whenever someone says like that girl, like that ex was crazy, I'm like what did you do?

Riss:

100%. What did you do to her? Yeah, how are you responsible? How could you drive her over the edge? Yeah, no 100. If you're ever on a date with a man and he says he has a crazy ex-girlfriend, you run and you're like I'm gonna be next. What did you do?

Chrys:

you're at fault um, interesting, okay, I can get on board that's my theory okay, and so the housemate is being interviewed, so she doesn't die yeah, she's alive so he kills his wife. Maybe I think that, because they were having a fair, just sleeping with everyone.

Riss:

He gets jealous of enzo because enzo is also very handsome. Maybe the point that I could buy that. I think that there's probably gonna be more characters introduced, yeah.

Chrys:

And we'll find out who we can blame more people.

Riss:

Yeah, we can blame more people. We can find the victim. Um, it could also be like a body that was found who was murdered previously, you know maybe it was like the previous maid or something I don't know.

Chrys:

I'm excited.

Riss:

Investigative journalism at its finest.

Chrys:

No facts, no sources that are reliable, just us, just thoughts.

Riss:

Thoughts and TikToks. That's what our brain is made of. Tiktok thoughts all right, um, but yeah so I'm excited.

Chrys:

Um, yeah, we'll see what happens. I guess, yeah, I, I have this. What happens? I guess, yeah, I, I have this. I don't know. I either read like three or four books a week or like one book every six months. There's no in between that's me.

Riss:

I go through phases where I'm like I love reading, and then phases of just like I don't know how to read, like what do?

Chrys:

the words on this page say that's me with like a fantasy book. I can't I, and maybe I'm just not evolved enough to get there. You know fantasy, I'm just not very creative.

Riss:

And then, like you're reading the book and it's like the names don't make sense, the names of the places are weird and I'm like that's how I feel a lot of the time with like really dense, like history books, you know, not like textbooks sort of things, but even just like the conspiracy books and stuff, where I'm like I can't follow all these names, like there's too many timelines. Yeah, like I need audible to like have pictures pop up every now and then.

Chrys:

I need a TikTok under a minute explaining this to me, maybe like a three-part series I can settle for that.

Riss:

That's it. Oh so true, it's wild, but yeah did you?

Chrys:

okay, this is such a tangent, but did you ever see the um who the f did I marry series that was like 50 something parts long on tikt. This was popular. I don't even know concept of time anymore. I think it was two years ago, but I.

Riss:

I yes, I didn't watch too much of it.

Chrys:

but tell me, Am I listening to the whole thing? I don't remember a lot of it. I almost want to go back. It's one of those things where you listen as you're cleaning the house because you're like tea, okay, cool. But it was this lady who started dating and eventually married this guy, who was a total psycho and like lying about everything, lying about his job. He would like say all these things that they were gonna buy a house together. He would make her like go look at a bunch of houses with him, but like there was no money and then he's supposed to get I know, he just like kept on like going back and forth on her. I don't remember all the details, but it was an insane story and she was really good at storytelling and it kind of started a little bit of a movement because other people started being like who the f?

Chrys:

did I date or whatever and just people exposing other people online, which is like so fun. Yeah, not for them, but um love to watch it. I'll need to listen to it and get more deeds. Um, so I can tell the story better, but it was insane like he basically had lied about every aspect of his life, including, like his family and all these different things. Like I'm pretty sure he like killed a parent off the story not like killed, oh, but like killed them off the story.

Chrys:

Like this person died and it's like just kidding, they're alive, like just yeah all over the place.

Riss:

Yeah, um, sounds like the tender swindler oh, I haven't seen that, oh, it's like. I think it's on net, I think it's on Netflix. Yeah, it's pretty interesting. It's one of those scams, like a woman was, several women were love bombed by this guy and he took tens of thousands of dollars from each one. You know? Yeah, just your classic modern day love affair.

Chrys:

My bank accounts are frozen frozen.

Riss:

You need to send me some money, yeah, whatever yeah, but like very elaborate, you know, like yeah, so there's a whole like documentary.

Chrys:

It's pretty interesting I mean, you always think that people that fall for it are pathetic, until it's you he emailed me okay he emailed me okay, something like that recently, where, like there were like very obviously photoshop pictures. Did you see that? Uh, no, but like so many stories are coming to mind I can't remember who they did it with and my my head is coming to like matthew mcconaughey, but it was probably not him, but it was some famous person brad pitt.

Riss:

It was brad pitt. Okay, that's the one I'm thinking terrible photoshop.

Chrys:

Hi baby, I'm at the hospital. I need more money for my bills in the age of ai, like you can be, I'm married, like we're. We're off the market, but like yeah if I'm ever. If I ever find myself in the dating world again, I just will not date if I'm ever in that world, I will not participate in that world.

Riss:

Oh my gosh in that world, but not of it. Disgusting, yes. So funny, um, yeah, but so for our new book club, join us reading the housemaid, we will cover. Um how far should we read for next week?

Chrys:

Oh, you're already at 11. So should we do like 20 or something?

Riss:

Yeah, we could do 20, up to 20. Or there's like 60, 70-ish chapters.

Chrys:

We want to do it for like three weeks. Should we do more, like 30?

Riss:

Yeah, should we do 30?.

Chrys:

Yeah, let's do that.

Riss:

All right, we will be reading up until chapter 30 of the House made by frida mcfadden. Join us next time.