You could not miss the book department: A cover featuring an eye that observes you through a lock, or a female silhouette frozen in a dark corridor. These intriguing visuals bear the signature of Freida McFadden, successful author whose domestic thrillers are a hit. In a few years, it has become a real best-sellers machine, fascinating an ever wider readership with its twists and turns. Decryption.
Global success
The figures are self-sufficient. His most popular work to date, The cleaning ladywas the best -selling book in France in 2024. And according to its publisher, quoted by France Info, we are now approaching the 2 million copies sold.
The phenomenon is of course global. In 2025, the novels of Freida McFadden totaled more than 6 million sales around the world. A dazzling success built on intrigues stuffed with reversals, imperfect but endearing characters, and a formidable ability to keep its readers in suspense. And it was not won in advance, however.
An atypical course
Because Freida McFadden had absolutely no planned to become a worldwide writing star. Doctor specializing in neurological disorders, she begins to write in the evening, once her children lying down, to empty her head after her long days in the hospital. Son premier roman, The Devil Wears Scrubsinspired by his boarding school, appeared in 2013 in self-publishing. She thinks of selling a few hundred copies of it … but flows several thousand.
Encouraged, the young woman continues the titles and refines her style: addictive psychological thrillers, carried by ordinary heroines confronted with extraordinary situations. In parallel, she continues to exercise medicine. Then everything accelerates in 2019 with The Exand especially in 2022 with The cleaning lady. McFadden, however, hesitated to publish it, deeming it too dark. It is this novel that propels it to the rank of phenomenonwith a film adaptation in preparation and dozens of weeks in the iconic rankings New York Times.
It is also his first novel published with an editor, namely Bookouture, who specializes in the English -speaking digital format. Last year, she signed a major contract of seven pounds with the publisher SourceBooks, thus marking its complete integration into the traditional circuit.
Welcome to Booktok
McFadden’s success cannot be dissociated from social networks, and more particularly from Tiktok. On Booktok, the literary branch of the Chinese application, readers, often young, began to recommend his works through enthusiastic videosfull of emotional reactions with multiple twists and turns of his intrigue.
These viral content, combining millions of views, propelled novels at the top of sales on Amazonbut also on the shelves of supermarkets and bookstores. This testifies to an emerging trend: the role of online platforms can today be decisive for budding authors.
More than just a promotion tool, Tiktok has upset the codes of the book market. No more traditional marketing campaigns: today, these are spontaneous videos, often filmed in a room or car, which trigger sales. Readers moved or amazed by a plottwist share their hot reaction, and in a few days, a novel can be propelled to the front of the stage.
These recommendations, perceived as authentic, create a form of digital word of mouth with unprecedented power. McFadden was perfectly inserted into this ecosystem, his community of fans having been organized, video after video, to make it a viral phenomenon. This upheaval goes hand in hand with the rise of self-publishing and the Kindle Direct Publishing, which allowed the author to win without passing, at first, by traditional edition.
Direct writing that appeals to as many people as possible
But that is, of course, not everything. Freida McFadden also has a narrative formula. His style is direct, effective, without unnecessary digressions: Each chapter pushes the reader to chain the next, fueling this famous desire ” to read one more »As evidenced by his readers. She quickly installs a tension, distills clues, blurs the tracks, and perfectly masters the art of reversal of the situation. Ideal for attracting people who do not necessarily read out of habit.
Another of its factory marks: unreliable narrators and narrators, who make our perception of truth vacillate over the pages. Likewise, his intrigues often anchor in a recognizable daily life, but which McFadden transforms into a paranoia and manipulation ground. This discrepancy between apparent normality and growing discomfort makes the identification easy and the suspense even stronger.
His doctor training provides, as a bonus, additional credibility to his descriptions of psychological disorders or medical situations. And above all, McFadden does not seek to reassure: its ends are rarely smooth or predictable. It is they, too, that mark and make people speak.
Since 2013, the author has published no less than 23 books. An extraordinary efficiency, which also earned him some criticisms of an alleged use of AI, denied several times. Likewise, some consider his writing as too simplistic, but it is perhaps, also, the key to his planetary success.
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Par: tiktok pte. Ltd.
