The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

4.6 (184)
$17.99

Product Details

Web ID: 12622020

**THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**"An unforgettable—and Hollywood-bound—new thriller... A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy."—Entertainment WeeklyAlex Michaelides's The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.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.

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Ratings & Reviews

4.6/5

184 star ratings & reviews

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1 month ago

Please read this!

This was recommended by a friend! I had to call her up after finishing the book to discuss the ending! Such a great read!

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

1 month ago
from San Francisco

Couldn't get enough!

Believe it or not, I read The Maidens before I gave this book a shot despite the numerous times I was recommended this book - but maybe that's why? If you are like me and try to avoid mainstream 'trendy' recommendations and because of that you have neglected to give this book a shot, you are in for a surprise. If you appreciate good writing, a murder mystery, and thinking you can outsmart the author and the directions he steers you.. you will be upset you haven't picked this book up sooner. It lives up to the hype that people have created around it, and you will not be able to set it down till you reach the last page.

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

1 month ago
from Laurelville, Ohio

Suspenseful Thriller Mystery

I tend not to read new releases or newer books in general. Lately they all seem to be the same. Not this one! What a great suspenseful thriller mystery!!! I struggled reading it, it took me about 2wks which is unusual for me. The small print is what made it difficult for me. This story had great twists and turns. Evil twists! I loved the characters. Theo and Alicia could be everyday people.

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

2 months ago

The silent patient

Soooo good must read mind was blown at the end!

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

3 months ago
from Raleigh, NC

Silenced - Pain or Protection?

I am quite confused at all the mixed reviews. I know preferences shall be had, but this does not seem to be one of those terrible vs fantastic books. I actually really enjoyed reading this book and was easily the fastest I’ve read one this year yet. It kept me so engaged, I was pulling out my kindle app at work. Silence is key, and what breaks silence? What is there to say when you literally can’t say anything at all? The book was so well written, providing quite literally a 360 degree view of the entire plot, from the beginning to the end and the wrap up to the beginning. How everything ties back so naturally to one another is just so eloquent and smooth. When I started to see where the plot was going, it was very nearly the end of the book and I was so engulfed I had to finish right then and there. This book is a real reflection of mental health, how fragile people can be, how little you can know someone but how much you can know someone at the same time, and dives into the depths of inner psychological warfare and how people with power can misuse their skills. It’s a must read from me.

Recommends this product

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

3 months ago

Couldn’t put it down !

This book is about a women named Alicia Benson and her time at psyatric unit due to the police finding her at her home and with her husband (Gabriel) shot multiple in me head, and how since then she never spoke again. Until a psychiatrist named Theo was really interested in her story and was working at the psychiatric where Alicia was, to try get her to speak again , and uncover her story & her side of things the day of the murder of her husband. Alicia wrote a diary a few weeks before the murder which explained things in her life & how a man was watching her, but no one else believed her and thought she was crazy & having psychic episodes from her past. Theo eventually and slowly got her to trust him and later on she gave him her diary. He read it and ended on a cliff hunger that she saw a man enter into her home. It was later revealed that Theo’s wife who he so passionately loved was cheating on him with Alicia’s husband and Theo was in fact the man the was watching Alicia to try to tell her that her husband was unfaithful and did not love her as he said he did. Theo the psyathipst left Alicia & Theo in their home tied up, Alicia shot her husband due to the betrayal and hurt on how he choose to save his own life over hers. Theo eventually knows Alicia knows he’s the one who was watching her, and to keep her quiet from talking and incarcerating him , he seduced & inserted a drug in her that left her in a coma at the hospital. It was later revealed how before he could kill her she wrote about Theo and how he was the man the was watching her for several weeks making her feel unsafe. The diary is fund behind a portrait of hers & the police appear at Theo’s house and know he was the guilty one of watching her & seducig her with heavy medication. This book Is a mystery. It started out strong and as a thriller and then it slowly was slow untill the end where the ending is unexpected and totally worth waiting the whole book, I enjoyed the journey that the book took me through the book and loved how it made me suspicious of every character and second guessed who could’ve killed Gabriel.

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

4 months ago
from Spokane, WA

Page-Turning Thriller

If you're looking for a page-turner that's part psychological thriller and part detective story, look no further. Let's follow along with Doc-tective Theo Faber as he tries to uncover the truth from his silent patient, Alicia Berenson, convicted of killing her husband... I picked this book for my book club at work. I hadn't read it before and really didn't know much beyond "woman kills husband then stops speaking." Once I was clued into the existence of this book, I started noticing people all over the place recommending it. As the month wore on, I still hadn't even started reading it yet. Hey! I have a lot on my reading list! Relax! But my co-workers kept asking if I'd read it yet because they'd already finished and were eager to talk about it. This is one of those books that I have to be really careful to keep spoiler free. I don't think it's a spoiler (since it's in the prologue) to say that we get Alicia's point of view through diary entries and the remainder of the story is told from Theo's viewpoint. I thought this was a good way to give Alicia a voice. Of the plot I'll say no more. Just to tell you to go read it. The writing was very readable and the chapters were short. Perfect for making a story move quickly. The mystery of the whole thing, which is why Alicia killed her husband and why she isn't speaking, is kept hidden throughout much of the book. By the conclusion everything almost seems obvious, which would make for an interesting re-read at some point. I do have to shave a little off my rating since my wife is a psychologist and pointed out some of the glaring wrongdoings on the part of Theo in his investigation and treatment of Alicia. But I'm not a psychologist - just a guy looking for a great yarn! Which this is! In the end, I gave this 4.5 out of 5 stars. The writing and the story had me hooked until the very end and I am most definitely going to look into Michaelides's other books!

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

5 months ago

The unreliable narrator

In fiction our only source of any information is the narrator. If the narrator is giving us false information, what is the "mystery"?

Customer review from barnesandnoble.com