16 Mar 2020

Book Review / The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him...



Published:     5th February 2019
Publisher:  Celadon Books
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned



MY REVIEW

This book was amazing!  I just could not put this down and read it in one sitting, simply because I could not bear not knowing what had happened!

We follow two characters in this book. The first is Alicia who seemed to have the perfect life but all goes wrong when her husband is shot dead.   She has never spoken after that moment.  The second is Theo who is a criminal psychotherapist who has heard of Alicia and wants to help treat her.  He manages to get a job in the facility that she is being kept and looked after and soon after manages to persuade his boss that he can give it a shot - to try and get her to talk and both help her and find out the truth.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this story - some that were predicatable and some, in particular the twist nearer the end, I really had not expected and completely floored me!

You need to read this book!









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