Author: Alex Michaelides
Publisher: Celadon Books
Genre: Mystery
Source: Borrowed from a friend

Goodreads:  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…

Ope’s Opinion:  It took me a little while to get into this story.  There were two story lines you knew where going to cross at some point, so it was a little confusing at the start.  Once I got into it, it moved really fast.  The short chapters kept the pace going.  

There were definitely some unexpected twists in the story – maybe not completely believable, but it is fiction!

The ending felt a little rushed, not exactly what I expected and sort of odd.  You have to read it to understand – I don’t want to give anything away.