"That rarest of beasts: the perfect thriller. This extraordinary novel set my blood fizzing--I quite literally couldn't put it down. I told myself I'd just dip in; eleven hours later--it's now 5:47 a.m.--I've finished it, absolutely dazzled."
--A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
"A totally original, spellbinding psychological mystery so quirky, so unique that it should have its own genre."
--David Baldacci
"Smart, sophisticated storytelling freighted with real suspense - a very fine novel by any standard."
--Lee Child
Promising to be the debut novel of the season 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. 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....