She was absolutely certain: she was looking into the eyes of a murderer." MindsetĪs with any psychological thriller, you need to be in a stable headspace to read this book. "As she looked into his black eyes, Mariana no longer had any doubts. She was absolutely certain: she was looking into the eyes of a murderer." Standout Quote Against her will, Mariana goes back to the campus, only to discover that the murderer is hiding in plain sight. After months of suffering this heartbreak, things only get worse when Mariana's only lasting family member, her niece Zoe, calls her to tell her that her best friend was brutally and horrifically murdered at the same college Mariana and Sebastian had once found so much joy. Their happiness is unparalleled, until one day, during a trip Mariana suggested on the island of Naxos, Sebastian winds up dead. Despite being lonely, quiet, and always on the outskirts, Mariana meets and falls in love with her future husband, Sebastian. After reeling from a rough childhood in Greece, Mariana goes to Cambridge University to complete her education as well as leave her past behind. The Maidens revolves around a group therapist named Mariana whose past has consisted of more death than life.
Enticingly dark and compulsively pageturning, this chilling novel takes readers on a suspenseful journey that's both terrifying and twisted. If you like mysteries with a psychological twist, I am confident you will enjoy The Silent Patient.What do Greek mythology, a secret society, and two brutal murders all have in common? They set the scene of The Silent Patient author Alex Michaelides's brand-new thriller (out today!), The Maidens ($17). This is a quick read and engaging thriller exploring the themes of mental illness, family relationships, and marriage. Recommendation: Thriller with an Epic Twist The story is more complicated than it first appears, and all guilty parties are punished for their crimes in the end. I won’t spoil this story for anyone by saying all the pieces of the puzzle fit together nicely at the end to explain why Alicia killed her husband and how Theo gets through to Alicia to solve the mystery. I don’t read many thrillers, so I did not guess the outcome and was surprised and wowed by the twist revealing what really went wrong with Alicia and Gabriel. The ResolutionĪuthor Alex Michaelides develops strong characters as convincing decoys to throw readers off the trail of what really happened, leaving readers guessing who murdered Alicia’s husband or who might have pushed Alicia to become a killer. Theo’s wife Kathy, an actress hiding extracurricular activities of her own, even plays into the drama.
And fellow Grove psychiatrist Christian, who overmedicates Alicia to keep her quiet and hides the fact that she was a patient of his off the books prior to her incarceration at The Grove. Alicia’s best friend and gallery owner Jean-Felix, who appears more interested in profiting from Alicia’s notoriety by showing her paintings than helping Theo get through to Alicia.
There’s Gabriel’s brother Max, a hot-headed and frightening lawyer with the hots for his brother’s wife. Other screwed up relatives and acquaintances cast doubt on who is really to blame for Gabriel’s death, Alicia’s murderous motives, and Theo’s so-called good intentions. Alicia’s upbringing was equally traumatic, with a mother who committed suicide by car accident with Alicia along for the ride in the backseat, and a father who she overhears wishing she had died instead of her mother. Character DevelopmentĪll characters in The Silent Patient are deliciously flawed and delightfully presented, including psychotherapist Theo himself, who had a difficult upbringing with an abusive father and alcoholic mother. Alicia’s diary entries provide her mental state and explanation of circumstances leading up to the murder and pivotal developments with Theo’s therapy sessions at The Grove. Theo and Alicia’s therapy sessions are told from the first-person perspective of Theo. She’s locked up at a mental facility called The Grove, and Theo feels he’s just the person to coax her to talk again, so he can help with her mental recovery after determining why she would commit such a brutal crime in the first place. Theo Faber, a forty-something London psychotherapist, is obsessed with discovering why painter Alicia Berenson splattered her husband Gabriel’s face and brains against the wall of their home at point blank range six years ago, especially since Alicia has refused to speak a single word since the murder. Speed reading is not the norm for me, and that unusual behavior tells you just how much I enjoyed this gripping, well-written medical drama.
I finished reading the psychological thriller The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides in four days.