The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
Details
The results are in! The winner of our poll is The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides. We used STAR Voting for the first time this month, and twenty-two members voted in the poll. Of our four book choices, Listen for the Lie and The Silent Patient received the most stars in the scoring round and advanced to the runoff round. In the runoff round, six people ranked the finalists equally, Listen for the Lie received seven votes, and The Silent Patient received nine votes. The vote was close, but The Silent Patient is our winner for August '25. Thank you to everyone who voted!
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2019 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS BEST MYSTERY & THRILLER • LONGLISTED FOR 2019 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • LONGLISTED FOR 2019 AMAZON.COM BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • DEBUTED ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER LIST AT NO.1
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. 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.
— description from the publisher Celadon Books
"Superb... This edgy, intricately plotted psychological thriller establishes Michaelides as a major player in the field."
—Publisher's Weekly, starred review
"Impressive debut...The Silent Patient is intelligent, imaginative and a terrific read."
—The Times (London), Book of the Month
“Alex Michaelides has written one of the best psychological thrillers I have ever read. The Silent Patient is a swarming, paranoid nightmare of a novel with an ending that is destined to go down as one of the most shocking, mind-blowing twists in recent memory.”
—Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter
“The Silent Patient sneaks up on you like a slash of intimidating shadow on a badly lit street. Alex Michaelides has crafted a totally original, spellbinding psychological mystery so quirky, so unique that it should have its own genre. I read it in two nights and savored every luscious word, every grim encounter, every startling twist. The pages will burn with the friction from your hands turning them.”
—David Baldacci
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The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides