The Therapist
Fiction
St. Martin's Press
July 13, 2021
Advance reader e-book
304
Publisher via NetGalley
When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive…
As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.
Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…
Unlike many readers, I really loved this author's previous novel (The Dilemma), which was a bit of a departure from her typical thriller style. With this book she is back in thriller mode, and I did enjoy this one as well. I still stand by my opinion that I don't think thriller writers always have to stay within that genre to write a good book, but it does seem that some get pigeon holed with what readers expect. This one has all your normal thriller must haves, lots of secrets, lies, twists and turns. I liked the fact that we are given these throughout the novel as opposed to just a big dump at the end. I'm not sure if I really liked the main protagonist Alice (not even sure if I was supposed to), she had her moments when she pulled me in, but she also did some really stupid things that annoyed me. In the end my opinion of her didn't matter because the pacing kept me turning pages to find out what really happened in Alice's new neighborhood. There were most definitely tense moments, and the pages written from the therapist's viewpoint were interesting as the reader tried to figure out which therapist (there were a few mentioned) was writing them. The end was a humdinger, although by that point I would not have been surprised by anyone being guilty! I will say that the sections with Alice's neighbors did get a bit repetitive, but with the plot moving quite fast I almost felt like it was giving me a breather before the next twist.
This would be a perfect read if you want a bit of escapism and a plot that isn't so complicated that you have to think too hard. This one should get a lot of traction from those who like thrillers as opposed to romance summer reads.
