Author: Alex Michaelides
Publisher: Caladon Books
Publication Date: February 2019
Genre: Thriller / Suspense
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
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 Thoughts: A gripping and intense story about a woman who appears to have the perfect life and marriage. She is a talented painter, married to a very successful fashion photographer. They live in a beautiful home in a very posh neighborhood. Alicia’s life takes a downward spiral one evening when her husband comes home late and she shoots him multiple times and then becomes near catatonic, never uttering another word.
An explosive premise creating more questions than answers to Alicia’s actions kept me engaged throughout the entire story. Why did she kill her husband? Why is she not speaking? Her guilt was never a question as she was found with the weapon and the forensic evidence proved her guilt. The reasons why she did it appear to be locked in her mind and she isn’t telling anyone.
Theo was an interesting character. He has followed Alicia’s case from the beginning and is excited at the opportunity to be Alicia’s psychotherapist. He is determined to be the one to unravel the secrets locked away in Alicia’s mind, to get her to open up and speak about what happened. I kept wondering why he was so interested in Alicia’s case and what was driving him to near obsessive measures to reach her. He’s a likable character and appears to care about his silent patient’s well-being. Alicia is a murderer and there were moments that I truly believed she would kill Theo, but I felt a lot of empathy for her. I was rooting for Theo to succeed and break Alicia out of her self-imposed prison.
This story takes the reader into the lives of both Alicia and Theo, both present-day and in the past. The author does an excellent job of creating characters that are easy to relate to but are also intriguing and very mysterious. He has a brilliant talent of writing the scenes so descriptively that the reader feels they are more than a casual observer or bystander. The plot flows easily and the transitions between present-day and the past are smooth.
My Final Verdict: There are some major twists and turns in this story that I did not see coming and it completely blew me away making this my favorite book of 2020. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an interesting story with characters who will shock and surprise the reader to the very end.
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