I love Gabriel so much.”Īlicia writes in her diary that the only reason for her writing is her husband Gabriel. I don’t ever want to cause him any distress or make him unhappy or cause him pain. 200,000-copy announced first printing.“I can’t bear the thought of him worrying about me. This edgy, intricately plotted psychological thriller establishes Michaelides as a major player in the field. The boundary between doctor and patient blurs as Theo, who admits he became a therapist 'because I was fucked-up,' seeks to cure his own emotional problems in the course of treating Alicia. Her current therapists reluctantly agree to let Theo treat the heavily drugged Alicia to get her to speak. Before the murder, Alicia painted a provocative self-portrait entitled Alcestis, based on a Greek myth that seemed to echo her life. Since the day of her arrest, Alicia has never said a word.

The evidence against Alicia was clear Gabriel was tied to a chair and shot several times in the face with a gun that had only her fingerprints. Psychotherapist Theo Faber, the emotionally fragile narrator of Michaelides's superb first novel, finagles his way to a job at the Grove, a 'secure forensic unit' in North London, where artist Alicia Berenson has been housed for six years since she was convicted of murdering her prominent fashion photographer husband, Gabriel. 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. Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. 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. 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.Īlicia’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. 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.

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.Īlicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy.' 'An unforgettable-and Hollywood-bound-new thriller. **THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**

Alex michaelides the silent patient