Have you ever read a book where you are convinced, convinced, that you have it all sussed out? You smile somewhat smugly to yourself as the plot unfolds around you, nodding your head as events transpire in the way that you anticipated they would. Have you ever then had EVERYTHING that you believed turned on its head in a instant? The shock, the sheer disbelief hitting you in the stomach and causing your eyes to open wider than you thought possible in astonishment? The Silent Patient is THAT book, the one that will leave you thinking about it days, months, after you finished it and marvelling at its brilliance.

Meet Alicia Berenson who since shooting her husband has never spoken another word. Since this unfathomable and shocking event six years previously Theo Faber has made it his life goal to find out why, why a successful and renowned painter would suddenly and callously murder her own husband in cold blood?

Theo’s growing desperation to unpick Alicia results in a delicious sense of foreboding that crackles and hisses from the page. Alicia’s diary providing a fascinating insight into her life before and breathing life into the silent and haunted woman who sits mutely before us.

As the identities of Alicia and Theo blur we begin to fear exactly what is hidden behind that veil of silence and if the truth is actually so incendiary it should never ever be voiced aloud.

Destined to be the book everyone is talking about, The Silent Patient is set to reignite the thriller genre this year.

This was a teaser from the publishers via Netgalley .. completely hooked and extremely relieved to have been approved for the complete book.

Update - just finished the full book and LOVED IT will review on publication day but 4.5 big juicy stars from me

To start with I was pleasantly surprised as I received the full book rather than the expected sampler. This has me hooked from the beginning, I loved the concept. The two different perspectives are insightful and I loved the twist. However the ending left me a little frustrated.

OMG WHAT A BOOK!!!!!!
If I could I would award this book this book ten stars I would WOW.
A debut author and this is their first book. I am blown away. I was hooked, in the zone and nothing was going to disturb me while I was reading this book. I read this book in one sitting, hence I did not finish this book until 4am and boy it was worth it. This author gives you clues, red herrings and takes you one way when you really should have gone in a different direction. WOW WOW WOW the ending was explosive !!!!!! This book is a MUST READ. I loved it and I can't wait to read more from this amazing author. Highly highly recommended.

Thank you Orion for sharing a copy of this book with me - all opinions are my own.

I have to say that it is rare for a psychological thriller to truly shock and awe me with the twists they throw out, but The Silent Patient legitimately blew my socks off. This is one of those books that is a RIDE, so strap in.

The suspense in this book is sky high - you know right from the beginning what the crime committed was, but you have no idea why Alicia has been silent every minute of every day since. There is such an incredible amount of slow-burn character drama that just never feels like its dragging, as you are immersed in figuring out the mystery of Alicia's mind.

Alex did amazing work moving between present day and Alicia's diary entries leading up to the event, which peel back layer after layer of what went so wrong to land her in a psychiatric hospital, medicated to high heaven and refusing to make a sound. I so desperately wanted to figure out what happened that I ended up cancelling plans to stay in so I could finish the book.

I won't offer more, because this is a thriller that the reader needs to be able to devour fully oblivious to any hint of what is to come. All I will say is clear your schedule, because once you start its impossible to stop.

The perfect thriller to dive into to pass away the winter days!

This book ...oh. My. Gosh! The pacing was excellent, the characters well written, the plot was above par, and that ending! I will recommend this to anyone that loves a great thriller/who dunnit/why... it was amazing! Thank you Netgalley for my advanced copy!

Yes, a good sampler,I enjoyed what I read and I am looking forward to reading more. I was disappointed that this was just a sampler. Interesting

This fantastic debut novel really does live up to the hype. It is truly brilliant and easily the best book I’ve read this year.

Alicia Berenson has what seems to be the perfect life, she is an artist and her husband is a fashion photographer. One night Gabriel, Alicia’s husband returns home late and Alicia shoots him 5 times in the face. From that moment she doesn’t utter another word. Theo Faber a criminal psychologist goes to the secure facility where Alicia is kept and tries to work with her to get her to open up, to get to the truth behind what truly happened.

A truly spectacular, debut novel I could not put down.

I really enjoyed this. Pacey with unexpected twists, and a satisfying conclusion. At times it felt like it was being laid out too explicitly (in the diary entries, for example) but the final pay-off made this worthwhile.

I have somehow ended up with 2 copies of this book on my shelf. Below is the review I previously gave.


Wow. The twist at the end of this book is brilliant. This book had me pulled in from the first page. The characters are so interesting I wanted to know more and more about them. Everything is really well written. I read this in one sitting. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

If you have read the synopsis I will be surprised if you're not already dying to get your hands on a copy. Even thought famous painter Alicia Berenson appears to have the perfect life with her loving husband, things are certainly not what they seem. When her husband returns home late from work one evening and Alicia shoots him in the face five times, then never speaks again, Alicia's life changes forever.

The book is set over the duration of 6 years whist Alicia is living in a mental care facility called The Grove. During which time criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber transfers over to The Grove after becoming obsessed with Alicia's case and the idea of solving the mystery.  During the book we get snippets from Alicia's diary, and even though Alicia is now pretty much mute, using these extracts and the POV of Theo, we slowly we begin to piece together what really happened that awful night.

The final diary entry is discovered towards the end of the book which is what finally slots the last piece of the puzzle into place. The pace of the book changes at this point and things (as well as my pulse) begin to speed up rapidly.

I loved digging deep into each and every character including Alicia herself (for someone that is silent she had an incredible amount to say), as well as getting to know Theo's background. I was surprised to find I didn't get bored like I sometimes do when character development is overdone a little too much in books.

Unwrapping each layer of the story bit by bit proved to uncover more significant detail which lead to more twists and an explosive ending. I didn't see the twist coming, and I couldn't have guessed how the book was going to end which overall meant my experience of reading The Silent Patient was fantastic.

What a teaser and what a book this promises to be !!
I devoured this sampler and was lucky enough have also received the full book also so its straight on to that as it totally compulsive reading just reading the first few chapters and I can't wait.

Wow, the sampler of The Silent Patient is a great teaser and I can't wait to keep reading! The opening few chapters included in this sample are such a great set up. We get to meet Alicia and understand that she is the silent patient ever since killing her husband. We also get to meet Theo who has had his own issues in the past but is now a trained psychotherapist and is desperate to be able to work with Alicia. He seems sure that he will succeed in helping her where others have failed. I love the way this novel is written, it draws you in so quickly and makes you want to know more. I can't wait to see where this novel is going to go!

Great storyline, I loved the characters and they really drew me into their lives. I was enjoying the flow and speed of this story, then all of a sudden the twist hit me, I thought to myself..really, did I just read that, why didn't I see this coming? Great twist leading to another twists, brilliant ending.

A book I really enjoyed and loved more as it progressed.

I have already written my feedback lat week, so not sure why this is still waiting for it.
I found this book very good indeed and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I thought this was a thoroughly good read, but has a shockingly good ending. You wonder why Theo is so spellbound by the silent patient, but assume (or are led) to believe it is due to the circumstances of her committal. Wow.

I couldn't bring myself to read this sampler until I had a proof copy of the whole book. So now I've read the whole thing, and all I can say is that the hype is entirely justified. This is a near-perfect thriller; it reads like a classic. Despite knowing there was a big twist, I didn't come close to guessing what it was. And when I got to it, I had that wonderful feeling of everything slotting into place, and the desire to go back to the start and read it again, armed with my new knowledge. This book is a triumph and I can't wait to see where the author goes next.

The Silent Patient is deliciously dark and disturbing. This debut novel is a psychological thriller charting one woman’s act of violence against her husband and her therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive. The problem is she won’t speak a word.

This book draws you in and has some great twists and turns. I can recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishing and the author for the chance to review.

I have been desperate to read this book for sooo long! The story is fresh and really makes you think. It really is an exceptional read, was worth the wait and I am devastated that I have finished it.

I just finished The Silent Patient and now I understand all the hype. Yes, the hype is deserved!

When psychotherapist Theo Faber is offered a job at a psychiatric clinic where Alicia Berenson is treated, he doesn't hesitate one second to accept it. Theo has been following Alicia's case for years, since she had been charged with a murder of her husband. Alicia has not spoken since the murder, she keeps silent, surviving day by day in the clinic under high sedation.

The Silent Patient was such a smooth, enjoyable read. The story flows nicely while the suspense is building up. The story is told in two timelines, the first narrator is Theo as he is trying to get through to Alicia and make her talk. His POV is intertwined with notes from Alicia's diary just before the murder.

There is something fascinating about books told from the perspective of psychiatrists. They give me chills everytime, as the psyche of a patient is being analysed and understood. I also enjoed the analogy with the Greek tragedy Alcestis by Euripides who kept silent after she returned from the dead to her husband.

It was incredible how the ending totally sneaked up on me. I had to blink twice, swipe back to the previous page to make sure I didn't miss anything, re-read the sentence and just gasp for air. Very clever ending, indeed.

Many thanks to Orion Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.