Sunday, March 31, 2019

The Silent Patient

Book: The Silent Patient
Author: 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....-Goodreads

Review: Alicia murders her husband and stops speaking. She does not speak in her defense, does not speak when she is sentenced-she literally never says a word after the police find her over her husband's dead with a gun in her hands. Did she actually kill him? Why don't she speak? Years later, Theo Faber, a psychotherapist is convinced he can help Alicia. He gets a job at the facility she's being held at and they begin their sessions. 

I will refrain from spoilers but this book kept me turning the pages to see what happened. The story is told in alternating narratives between Theo and a diary of Alicia leading up the crime. I was never bored-even though I didn't 'like' any of the characters this was great read!

Grade: 4.5/5

No comments: