The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Unputdownable. That is one of the most important aspects you need to know about this book, so don’t pick it up if you have limited time because you’ll suddenly find yourself staying up all night in order to keep reading.

Most murder thrillers seem to focus on trying to determine who the murderer is. In The Silent Patient, the synopsis of the book tells you the murderer is artist Alicia Berenson. So instead, this thriller focuses on the why; why did Alicia snap and kill her husband ruining her seemingly wonderful life? And why has she not said a word since?

Our narrator is a psychotherapist, Theo Faber, who has become fascinated by Alice’s plight and hopes to have her open up to him. Theo admits early on that he’s “fucked up” and he quickly finds himself connecting to Alicia. As he digs more into her life, family and past, the deeper and deeper he gets.

The novel is fast-paced and there are little threads of information and surprises constantly being uncovered. This is what made the novel so interesting and unputdownable. I hadn’t quite figured out the twist but I could see where some people did. However, even if you guess the bigger twist there is enough going on throughout that I think kept it very exciting.

Synopsis: 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....