20-Question Quiz: The Housemaid Is Watching by Freida McFadden

Think you’ve untangled every secret in The Housemaid Is Watching? This quiz covers the whole story—from the moving truck at 14 Locust Street to the epilogue’s final shock. 20 questions mix multiple‑choice and short‑answer, including plot sequence, character motives, themes, and synthesis. Use the main book page for context, or check the Q&A and ending explained for deeper analysis.

Questions

Plot and Sequence (Questions 1–8)

1. (Multiple Choice)
What is Millie’s immediate reaction when she arrives at 14 Locust Street in Chapter 1?
A) She calls the police because a neighbor is watching.
B) She worries about the moving truck blocking the street.
C) She feels the house is her dream home despite a silent neighbor.
D) She argues with Enzo about the IKEA sofa.

2. (Multiple Choice)
Which event happens FIRST in the story?
A) The family discovers the hidden room under the stairs.
B) Millie meets Suzette Lowell at the dinner party.
C) Enzo rescues Suzette from drowning at the beach.
D) Millie finds Jonathan Lowell’s dead body in his house.

3. (Short Answer)
In what order does Millie encounter these three women: Janice, Martha, and Suzette? (Name them in sequence.)

4. (Multiple Choice)
Why does Enzo confess to killing Jonathan Lowell in Chapter 59?
A) He believes he will get a lighter sentence.
B) He wants to protect his daughter Ada.
C) Suzette blackmails him into confessing.
D) The police have video evidence of the murder.

5. (Short Answer)
What does Martha steal from Millie’s dresser in Chapter 29, and how does she prevent Millie from reporting her?

6. (Multiple Choice)
Where does Millie finally find her missing children in Chapter 22?
A) At Suzette’s house watching television.
B) Playing in a small, windowless room under the stairs.
C) Hiding in the backyard shed.
D) Walking to the bus stop without permission.

7. (Multiple Choice)
What object does Detective Willard find that becomes the “slam dunk” evidence against Enzo?
A) A blood‑stained shirt hidden in the garage.
B) A pocketknife with Jonathan Lowell’s blood on it.
C) Enzo’s motel receipt with Suzette’s signature.
D) A gun Enzo bought from a pawn shop.

8. (Short Answer)
Who actually killed Jonathan Lowell, and what was the weapon?

Character Motivation (Questions 9–13)

9. (Multiple Choice)
Why does Suzette insist on a private demonstration of Enzo’s landscaping work in her backyard?
A) She genuinely needs help with her garden.
B) She hopes to spend time alone with Enzo and flirt with him.
C) She wants to spy on Millie’s family from her window.
D) She is planning to create a secret entrance for Martha.

10. (Short Answer)
What drove Enzo to work for mobster Dario Fontana as a teenager?

11. (Multiple Choice)
Why does Millie fire Martha in Chapter 30, even though Enzo thinks Martha has done good work?
A) Martha threatened to reveal Millie’s prison past.
B) Martha broke a vase and refused to pay for it.
C) Millie caught Martha wearing her clothes.
D) Martha was rude to Millie’s children.

12. (Short Answer)
What motivates Ada to stab Mr. Lowell? Give two reasons from the story.

13. (Multiple Choice)
Why does Janice Archer spy on her neighbors and report Enzo’s visits to Suzette?
A) She is a private investigator hired by Jonathan.
B) She is jealous of Millie’s new house.
C) She believes she is protecting the neighborhood from criminals.
D) She has a crush on Detective Willard.

Theme and Symbol (Questions 14–17)

14. (Multiple Choice)
The praying mantis that Nico keeps as a pet – what does it MOST clearly symbolize in the novel?
A) The fragility of family life in a new home.
B) The hidden violence that can erupt under a peaceful surface.
C) Millie’s desire to control every detail of her household.
D) The children’s need for independence.

15. (Short Answer)
The hidden room under the staircase appears in both the Accardi and Lowell houses. What broader theme does this repeated space represent?

16. (Multiple Choice)
Millie is obsessed with cleaning and removing blood stains. How does this obsession connect to her past?
A) She was a maid for a wealthy family and learned to spot stains.
B) She once killed a rapist and panicked over cleaning the scene.
C) She worked as a hospital cleaner in the prison ward.
D) Her mother was a compulsive cleaner and taught her the habit.

17. (Short Answer)
In the epilogue, Martha says, “nobody ever suspects the housemaid.” What theme about social class does this line reinforce?

Synthesis (Questions 18–20)

18. (Multiple Choice)
How do Millie’s and Enzo’s pasts mirror each other in terms of violence?
A) Both killed a family member in self‑defense.
B) Both committed violent acts as teenagers and hid their records.
C) Both worked as hired enforcers for different crime bosses.
D) Both were wrongfully convicted of a murder they did not commit.

19. (Short Answer)
Compare Millie’s decision not to call the police after finding Jonathan’s body with Ada’s decision to hide the blood‑stained shirt. What does this similarity suggest about the family’s coping mechanism?

20. (Multiple Choice)
Which character from the The Housemaid series makes a reappearance in The Housemaid Is Watching as a lawyer?
A) Nina Winchester
B) Andrew Winchester
C) Cecelia Winchester
D) A new character created for this book

Answer Key

1. C – She feels the house is her dream home despite the silent, non‑waving neighbor at 13 Locust.

2. B – The dinner party at Suzette’s (Chapters 7‑8) occurs before the hidden room discovery (Chapter 21), the beach drowning (Chapter 37), and finding Jonathan’s body (Chapter 41).

3. Suzette (Chapter 2), then Janice (Chapter 5), then Martha (Chapter 10).

4. B – He wants to protect his daughter Ada, who actually killed Jonathan in self‑defense. He takes the blame even though he is innocent of the murder.

5. She steals a cubic zirconia necklace. To prevent Millie from reporting, Martha threatens to expose Millie’s ex‑convict past.

6. B – Playing in a small, windowless room under the stairs (the hidden clubhouse).

7. B – A pocketknife with Jonathan Lowell’s blood on it, matched by DNA.

8. Ada stabbed Jonathan Lowell with the pocketknife her father Enzo had given her. She first stabbed him in the belly and later slit his throat.

9. B – She hopes to spend time alone with Enzo and flirt with him, which makes Millie jealous.

10. Enzo needed to support his family after his sister Antonia married Dario, and he started running “errands” (breaking fingers of debtors) because leaving the criminal circle was impossible.

11. A – Martha threatened to reveal Millie’s prison past if Millie reported the theft.

12. Ada stabbed Mr. Lowell to escape from the hidden room where he had trapped her. She also wanted to protect her brother Nico, whom Mr. Lowell had been blackmailing and threatening.

13. C – She believes she is protecting the neighborhood from criminals, as she tells Millie in Chapter 28.

14. B – The mantis represents hidden violence: Nico’s aggression, the family’s secrets, and the brutal deaths in the neighborhood. The mantis eats its own kind, mirroring the betrayals among neighbors.

15. Secrecy and hidden trauma. Both homes have spaces that conceal danger (the Lowells’ room held evidence of a missing child; the Accardis’ room became a children’s hiding place but also frightened Ada).

16. B – She once killed a rapist as a teenager and panicked over cleaning the scene (Chapter 15). Her urge to scrub blood is a trauma response.

17. It reinforces the theme that domestic workers are overlooked and underestimated, allowing them to commit crimes or escape detection because society assumes they are invisible.

18. B – Millie was convicted of manslaughter for killing a rapist; Enzo beat his brother‑in‑law nearly to death. Both hid their criminal records from each other.

19. Both Millie and Ada instinctively conceal evidence of a violent death rather than reporting it. This shows that the family’s coping mechanism is secrecy and self‑protection, partly rooted in distrust of the police and fear of legal consequences.

20. C – Cecelia Winchester (the lawyer who defends Enzo) is the daughter of Nina and Andrew Winchester from the first The Housemaid book.

Want to revisit the twists? Check the ending explained page for a full breakdown of the epilogue and hidden clues.