'The Silent Patient' was one of the books I enjoyed reading last year. Alex Michaelides won many accolades for the book as well. A great debut. Now, his next one showed up at the library and I definitely had to read it.
Mariana, a group therapist, is fighting her own personal problems. Her husband had passed away in an accident a year back and she is still not out of the same. One day, she receives a call from her niece, Zoe who studies at Cambridge. One of her friends was found dead. Mariana reaches the place to provide some solace to Zoe and plans to be back in a day or two. But the death turns out to be a murder with the body count rising. She gets sucked into the turmoil. Mariana suspects one of the professors, Edward Fosca who is enigmatic, and his group of girl students named 'The Maidens'. But no others share her suspicion. How she fights her inner demons and tries to prove her right? Are the professor and his group of girls the real culprits? forms the rest of the story.
The writing is simple and kept me involved from Page One. The reading was breezy. The reference to Greek tragedy was an interesting approach. Like in the first book, this also delves into the psychological aspects which I really enjoy in the books. Guess, the author's experience does help this cause. There was a lot of ambiguity to the main characters initially which did confuse me but in a good way. Mariana was interestingly written with her own personal conflicts. Zoe and Sebastian do not have much presence initially but when they do get the space in the story, they were good. The professor's character had an air of mystery around him right from the time he was introduced. There was a tiny reference to the first book like a cross-over which was good. The ending was left open which I think hints at a continuation.
Overall, a good second book by Alex and a good read for mystery lovers.
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