but books are better: Book Review: THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides

Author: Alex Michaelides
Read: March 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

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....

My musings:

The hype finally got the better of me! I know I’m late to the party, but I admit that I really enjoyed this twisty thriller just like the rest of you.

You’ve all read the blurb and to be honest, the less you know of the story the better. I instantly found the premise of a woman locked up in a mental institution for the criminally insane for brutally murdering her husband very intriguing. There is something about the term “institution” that brings up black and white images of horrendous Victorian asylums with bars in front of dark windows dripping with rain and mirroring the open-mouthed gapes of inmates locked away for eternity. On that note, I loved that the author did not buy into those type of stereotypes when portraying the psychiatric facility where Alicia is being held but gave us a much more modern, realistic version. Facing the imminent threat of being closed down due to a lack of funding, its team of staff are desperate to do the best for their patients despite budget cuts and constant restraints by management, who focus on the business side of things rather than the patients. Working in a hospital myself, I found this aspect to be true to real life, even though there is some journalistic licence used for the sake of entertainment and making the story work. Overall, I was happy with the author’s portrayal of the facility and its therapists, which added an unusual angle to the book I really enjoyed.

I also really like the idea of delving into the human psyche, so an MC who is a psychologist or psychotherapist always draws me in, especially if they are emotionally damaged themselves. THE SILENT PATIENT really delivered on that front, as psychotherapist Theo Faber is trying to delve into the mind of the “silent patient”, Alicia Berenson, in an effort to help her remember the events of the night of her husband’s murder. Or so he says. I assume that, as for any detective revisiting an old unsolved case, there is a certain professional arrogance at play here, to prove that you can succeed where others have failed. But you will have to read for yourself to see whether that is the case here or not. Let me just say that over the course of the book we get as much of an insight into Theo’s psyche than that of Alicia, which added depth and set this mystery apart from many others in the genre.

I really enjoyed the clue-by-clue chapters as Theo tries to find out what happened the night of Alicia’s husband’s brutal death, partly through his sessions with her and partly from his own private investigations into her life (which probably break every rule in the book about his scope of practice, but never mind that). Alicia is a complex and fascinating character, made all the more intriguing because she refuses to talk and defend herself. Which is the main element that drives the story – since Alicia remains a silent presence, we, the readers, are just as much in the dark about her past as Theo. Until ... ok, again I won’t give anything away. Just read it!

I was so engrossed in the audiobook that the ending snuck up on me all too quickly. To be honest, I did have an inkling of what was to happen, but thought I must be wrong, because surely the book couldn’t be ending yet, I was having way too much fun. And I’m normally not the best armchair Sherlock, so it took me by surprise when I was right. I must be reading way too many thrillers to see that one coming! However, even if you are the type of reader who favours a “killer twist”, most reviewers have admitted to being gobsmacked by the final reveal, so this was obviously just a fluke rather than real detective skill on my part (I won’t give up my day job quite yet). I loved the way the author wrapped up the ending, which was just right and very satisfying.

Summary:

All in all, the whole psychotherapy angle is what drove this story for me and which made it a page-turner, as I was eager to see where Alicia’s therapy would lead to. The problem with a well-announced “killer twist” is that you start to expect the unexpected, which was the case here for me. That said, there probably isn’t a twist that hasn’t been done before in some book, some other time, so I’m not one to hold a grudge. Overall, THE SILENT PATIENT was an extremely entertaining, fast-paced story for me, and I don’t hesitate to recommend it to readers who love psychological thrillers that delve into the human psyche and don’t mind slightly unorthodox MCs.