It’s finally my stop on the blog tour for Alex Michaelides’ brilliant sleep stealer, The Silent Patient.
Here’s the blurb …
Orion (5 Feb. 2019)
ALICIA
Alicia Berenson writes a diary as a release, an outlet – and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine. She can’t bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain.
Until, late one evening, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.
THEO
Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia’s silence goes far deeper than he first thought.
And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth?
THE SILENT PATIENT is the gripping must-read debut thriller of 2019 – perfect for fans of THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A.J. Finn and THE GIRL BEFORE by JP Delaney.
My thoughts …
Oh. My. F*ing. Days!
The Silent Patient is bloody brilliant!
A main character who doesn’t talk? Well, that was enough to get me hooked on the premise and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in.
We start off in Alicia’s diary which gives us an instant insight into the woman who no longer speaks. She’s a happily married artist who is struggling to finish her latest work for an upcoming exhibition.
We then jump to the present, Alicia is now in a secure hospital following the murder of her husband. She hasn’t said a word since the police found her with the gun in her hand and her husband’s dead body in the chair next to her.
Then we meet Theo, the forensic psychotherapist who has followed her story in the papers and is fascinated about the so-called silent patient.
He convinces himself that the experts who have been working with her so far are missing something and manages to get himself a job at the facility she’s been kept in and then convinces them to let him be her therapist.
Theo is convinced there’s more to the story and is determined to get to the bottom of it. He starts taking it beyond therapist and patient and starts looking into her past, finding family members, and ruffling feathers everywhere he goes.
Theo starts to build up a very different picture of Alicia’s life than the one told in the papers.
Told in now and then chapters that build up to the present, Michaelides has brought us a deliciously wicked and completely absorbing psychological thriller that will get under your skin and have you hooked from the first word to the last.
I adored this one. It’s a total mind-f*ck. Excuse the language but it is!
One minute it’s clear as day, then it’s not, then bam – something else happens to make your jaw drop; it’s one heck of a rollercoaster and one you do not want to get off!
Michaelides is a wonderful writer and has the ability to suck you into the pages and keep you hooked the whole way through. This is a slick and completely compelling thriller which you will not want to put down.
I seriously recommend this to everyone!
Hugest thanks to the team at Orion for my review copy and to Tracy Fenton for my spot on the tour.
Go and grab your copy NOW!
Emma The Little Bookworm 