The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

I have heard so much about this book over the last few months that I could barely wait to get started, I was even a little naughty and brought it forward in my tightly packed reading schedule, just so that I could finally know what everyone was talking about!

Primarily told in the first person narrative by forensic psychotherapist, Theo Faber, it is also interspersed with diary entries from The Silent Patient herself, Alicia. These tantalisingly lead the reader steadily closer to the events of that fateful night.

It’s so hard to go into much more detail than the synopsis offers for fear of giving anything away, however I will say that this was one hell of a read! Before I even opened the book, I was utterly intrigued by the concept. The prologue grabbed me immediately, and from then on the suspense is slowly turned up to the max. I was lured in and held captive, once I got to the halfway point I had to stay awake and finish – no matter how long it took I just had to know how it ended!

As for that ending. Did I see it coming…..kind of. I think with all the hype about the ending I did read with a suspicious mind and I made it my mission to come up with all kinds of weird and wonderful endings so as not to be too wrongfooted, and the actual ending was one (of about ten, I was never sure!) that I had in mind.

There is no doubt that The Silent Patient is a cracking read. Incredibly clever, well written, well paced and just bloody brilliant! With a film in the works, this is going to be everywhere!! Alex Michaelides is quite obviously talented, and I cannot wait to read what he comes up with next.

The Silent Patient is due to be published on 7th February 2019.

Synopsis

Alicia lives a life most dream of. She lives in a house in one of the most desirable areas of London. She is a famous painter, and her husband, Gabriel, is an in-demand fashion photographer. Her life is perfect.

That is, until one evening when Gabriel returns late from a fashion shoot and Alicia shoots him five times and then never speaks another word.

Theo Faber, a forensic psychotherapist, has been consumed with the case for five years, and is the only person able to unravel the mystery of why.

The Silent Patient is a heart-stopping debut thriller about a woman’s brutal and random act of violence against her husband – and the obsessed with discovering why.

About the Author

Alex Michaelides was born in Cyprus in 1977. He wrote the film The Devil You Know starring Rosamund Pike and co-wrote The Brits are Coming, starring Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Stephen Fry, Parker Posey and Sofia Vergara. The Silent Patient is his first novel. He was inspired to write it while doing a post graduate course in psychotherapy and working part-time at a secure psychiatric unit for two years. Brad Pitt’s Plan B are developing the film of The Silent Patient: they have won Best Film Oscars for The Departed, 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight.

*I received a proof copy from a source independent of the author and the publisher. The decision to read was entirely my own and this review forms my honest opinion.