Alex Michaelides’ The Silent Patient was a perfect mountain weekend read.

From the publisher’s summary:

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….

This one largely kept me guessing until the end. And because I was reading it purely for fun, I didn’t mind that parts of it were implausible. It’s the suspension of belief that sometimes makes a thriller all the more appealing.

Michaelides does disappoint me in one area. There was a minor character who I really liked, who I thought was the moral compass for the story, and it turns out I was wrong about that.

There’s nothing too deep in this one, but if you’re looking for a good, fun, beach/vacation read, this is a good one to put on your list.