Review: "The Silent Patient," by Alex Michaelides

Helluva good psychological thriller. And that ending... Likely to be one of the top psycho-thrillers of the tear, in my opinion. This book is written perfectly for it's genre. It's pacy, and it doesn't get bogged now with needless exposition (huge peeve of mine in thrillers). The chapters are short, so you'll find yourself racing to get to the next. The author also gives us a back and forth narrative (narrator's personal life to narrator's work life, and repeat). His back and forth narration is the perfect tool to capture the reader's attention - and play with them a little at the same time. As the reader, you can't help but feel like Michaelides is toying with you, dangling a string in front of you and yanking it away just as you think you're about to grasp it. What I enjoyed about this book (and where I feel some thrillers get lost) is the careful selection of cast. Alex Michaelides chooses just the right number of people to introduce as potential suspects in the book. Too many, and the reader gets confused. Too few, and the reader guesses the killer too quickly. What a unique devise, as well, for Michaelides to revolve his story around a completely silent patient. It's such an -oh-so-simple way to create suspense, but could go disastrously wrong if you don't know what you're doing. Lucky for us, the main character Theo Faber is an interesting character to hold out attention during all the silence. Faber is as complex as we'd expect, and it's equally fun watching his own drama unfold in the book as it is watching Alicia's unfold. It's been a while since I've been as excited about an ending to a thriller. Perhaps the most recent equivalent was the ending to "Behind Her Eyes." This denouement actually made me sit up and go back to re-read the previous few pages, just so I could understand how Michaelides had duped me. One of the reads of the season. Recommended. Onward.