I read The Silent Patient as I was near the end of writing The Black Book. I knew where I was going with it and I wanted to start to learn more about the market I was entering. Where better to begin than the current height of the genre?

There’s been a few, The Therapist, The Woman In The Window, The Patient. And I expanded a little and also read Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney which led me to Rock, Paper, Scissors and  I Know Who You Are. The psychological thriller genre is huge and popular right now. This was published in 2019 and managed to claim a top spot on the bestseller list, so I’m late to the game but the genre is still going strong.

The setup is simple and unsettling. A woman kills her husband and then never speaks again. That silence is the whole engine of the book and I liked reading how the other characters responded and what their assumptions were, because that’s often how the world works. Our views tainted by others or what we believe to be true. And then with these characters how uncomfortable people become when there’s no explanation, no co-operation or unveiling.

I enjoyed the concept that the story is told through Theo, a psychotherapist who becomes involved in the murderer’s case and whilst there was a vague stretch here and there it all felt very plausible and realistic in that sense. This isn’t a book that needs to be clinically accurate although of course we all hope books will be, without too much technical detail, it’s aimed at keeping you reading and it’s very good at that.

The chapters flow easily and I always felt like something was subtly shifting, even when not much seems to be happening on the surface. It’s one of those books where you tell yourself you’ll just read a bit more and then suddenly you’re further in than you planned.

I won’t say anything about the ending, except that it made me sit back and think for a moment, which I always appreciate. Even when you’re not entirely sure how you feel about a book, if it lingers a little afterwards, it’s probably done its job. I’ve recommended it to a few people and enjoyed Michaelides’ work enough to go on and read The Maidens which has an overlap of characters. Michaelides has created his own world now and it offers a familiar mark of recognition to readers. I love that.

The Silent Patient is well designed in delivery and very readable.

If you’re in the mood for a psychological thriller that’s easy to get into, with unexpectedly relatable characters and a slow build with a worthy payoff – this is a great contender.

You can buy The Silent Patient via this Amazon affialiation link if you’d like to read it too.

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