It’s June 1905 and plans are underway for a ball at the grandest house on London’s Park Lane. Miss de Vries, who has recently inherited the house from her millionaire father, has decided to throw the party of the season to launch herself into society and find a suitable husband. However, someone else also sees the night of the ball as a great opportunity – an opportunity for revenge. She is Mrs King, the former housekeeper, who was dismissed from her job just a few weeks earlier and is now planning a daring heist. On the night of the Park Lane ball, she and a group of other carefully recruited servants will strip the house of its treasures – its artworks, books, furniture, silverware, even the carpets – and Miss de Vries and her guests won’t notice a thing until it’s too late. But will this plan work or will the housekeepers be caught in the act?
The Housekeepers is Alex Hay’s debut novel and I found it an entertaining read. It was fascinating to see how carefully Mrs King and her accomplices plan the heist – preparing inventories of each room, taking measurements, identifying escape routes and making sure nothing is left to chance! Despite their detailed planning, there are still some factors outside their control and a lot of things that could go wrong, so there’s plenty of suspense as we wait to see whether or not they will succeed. As the novel progresses and we learn more about what has been going on behind the doors of the Park Lane house, I found I didn’t have much sympathy for Miss de Vries and was definitely rooting for the servants!
The heist is Mrs King’s idea, but I thought some of the other women she enlists were more interesting characters. These include Mrs Bone, who runs a criminal network but seems to have a moral code of her own, the actress Hephzibah and the two trapeze artist sisters referred to as Jane-one and Jane-two. There’s also Winnie, who held the position of housekeeper before Mrs King, and Alice the sewing maid who is befriended by Miss de Vries and faces a battle with her conscience. I felt that too many characters were introduced too quickly at the beginning of the book, which made things confusing for a while, but I eventually managed to keep them all straight in my mind.
The novel is also an interesting exploration of the class system and the injustice of some people being born into a life of privilege while others are not. In his author’s note, Alex Hay describes the satisfaction of imagining the servants trying to claim some of that privilege for themselves! However, Miss de Vries herself is looked down upon by the people she most wants to impress because she had a father who made his fortune through diamond mining rather than inheriting wealth passed down through the generations.
I thought The Housekeepers was fun to read and with its period setting, portrayal of life above and below stairs, and vividly described heist sequences, I could easily imagine a BBC adaptation. As a first novel it’s quite impressive and I’ll certainly be looking out for more from Alex Hay!
Thanks to Headline Review for providing a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.
This is book 26/50 read for the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.
She Reads Novels 
Definitely worth looking out for. It’s on the list.
I hope you’re able to get hold of a copy!
Ordered from another ranch in the library. It’s not even arrived in stock yet!
A daring heist with servants! This does look like a very fun read. 😀
Yes, I found it very original and entertaining!
That’s an interesting twist.
Yes, it’s an unusual idea.
The premise of The Housekeepers sounded like so much fun when I first saw it on the library’s ‘On Order’ list, it immediately went on my wishlist. Good to know you enjoyed it!
I hope you’re able to read it soon. It’s as much fun as it sounds!
It’s rare for lawbreakers to be portrayed as characters we want to succeed; films occasionally have an antihero protagonist we want to root for, but I think it’s harder in fiction to carry that particular trick off. At least, I can’t think of any examples of the latter off the top of my head!
Yes, it’s a clever twist – and as you say, not one that tends to be used very often. In this case it helps that the ‘good’ characters are so unsympathetic!
I am #57 at the library but it’s not as if I don’t have plenty to occupy me in the meantime! Glad you enjoyed it.
Constance
I think it will be worth the wait!
On my list next to read. Glad to hear it looks like I will enjoy this one.
Yes, I think you might enjoy it!
I’m thinking on reading this book. It’s helpful to know you found it a fun caper that may lend itself well for a TV adaptation.
I hope you enjoy it if you do decide to read it. I think it would make an excellent adaptation.
This book is on my wishlist. Glad to see that you enjoyed it.
Yes, it’s great. I hope you can read it soon.
I just finished reading this book and was not impressed. None of the characters was
likable. The idea of the heist was ridiculous
and unbelievable.
I think it’s the sort of book where you need to be able to suspend disbelief and just accept the plot for what it is. We can’t all like the same books, though, and I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it!