The silent patient by Alex Michaelides

I was introduced to this book through a recommendation in one of the sites as a good mystery novel. Initial opinion was that it was dragging a bit and still wanted to soldier on just out of curiosity. The story begins with a psychiatrist, joining a new hospital, wanting to treat one specific patient who had proven to be a tough nut to crack (no pun intended) for even the chief psychiatrist of that hospital. He slowly tries to engage with that patient, who had been admitted to the institution, for having killed her husband in cold blood. She had been diagnosed with the illness prior to that incident and had been known to exhibit hallucinatory and aggressive behavior. The very second meeting with the doctor, she attacks him and inflicts severe wounds. The biggest challenge in dealing with her being her silence. Never once had she spoken ever since that incident happened and despite the best efforts from everyone attending her, the result is always the same stony silence. The doctor slowly manages to get to break her silence and manages to make her speak. As a parallel story, we are told about his relationship with his own wife, who is cheating on him. The only confusion is around the timeline as to which event happens when, and this seems to have been deliberately introduced to throw the reader off track. To add to the mix are entries from the diary written by the lady patient which detail her mental state and also her relations with the very people who are showing animosity towards her. One by one each of those who were potential suspects is cleared and when the final reveal happens, it does take you by surprise. The reason why the husband was killed and by whom makes it worth reading. I had literally no expectation and was guessing it would be the case of another domestic abuse story with a sad childhood story about the patient thrown in. But the way every incident ties back to the core plot and how it all unfolds makes you sit up and take notice. When you think the culprit has escaped after all those painstaking level detailing, the final twist in the plot seems more amateurish after such a closely knit storyline.

Would recommend this for leisure reading for thriller fans, despite its slow-paced nature.