The Silent Patient

by Alex Michaelides

First published 2019

Alicia Berenson has everything a successful artist could want. She paints in her London home while her husband Gabriel works as a fashion photographer. Their life appears flawless until the night Gabriel comes home late from a shoot. Alicia fires five bullets into his face, then falls completely silent. She refuses to speak to police, lawyers, or doctors. Her silence transforms a murder case into a public obsession. The art world goes wild for her paintings as she disappears into the Grove, a secure psychiatric facility. Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, has waited years for this chance. He believes he can make Alicia talk and solve the mystery that has captivated everyone. But his obsession with uncovering her motive pulls him deeper into dangerous territory. The more Theo pushes, the more he risks losing himself in the search for truth.

Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, psychological-thriller

Vibes: dark, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: unreliable-narrator

Setting: Grove, London

336 pages · Hardcover · Celadon Books

Content warnings: mental-illness

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