The Silent patient is a psychological thriller and should I say what a thriller it is. Besides, this was the first psychological thriller novel that I have read in my life and it has been an amazing experience. It is approximately a three hundred page book but it kept me hooked to it through all its chapters. This book has a mystery like no other that I have read till now and even though many times you would think that the ending is very predictable while reading the book, you, my friend, will be dead wrong, and that is what makes this book quite mind blowing. Another interesting thing that I liked about this book is that it is like two novels written from the narrator’s perspective but with events happening in two different timelines. The writer has quite successfully managed to not let the reader realize this until the very end. Overall, reading this book has been quite a new and thrilling experience for me and would recommend it to any adult who likes reading psychological thrillers.
The book revolves around a talented painter Alicia who has been charged with murdering her husband Gabriel in cold blood by shooting him 5 times in his face. She does not try to defend herself and is found guilty of the crime based on the evidence found on the scene of crime. Given her past history of mental illness and trauma, she is sent to a mental institution with the name Groves instead of being imprisoned where she spends the remaining of her days silent and heavily drugged by the therapist assigned to her.
Meanwhile, Theo, the narrator of the story and a psychactrist shows a deep interest in this murder and wants to know the truth behind it and Alicia’s enigmatic character. Led by this, he applies for a job in Groves institute for the position of a psychiactrist even after being warned by his supervisor that he is committing a career suicide.
After reaching Groves he manages to convince Dr. Diomedes to let him treat Alicia who is currently being treated by his old colleague and acquiantance Christian who only keeps Alicia under heavy dosage of drugs. This was required because Alicia has been involved in violent incidences in the hospital and also never showed any interest in interaction or any sort of therapy.
Over time, while treating Alicia, Theo talks to her relatives, neighbours, and friends in order to understand Alicia’s past and to understand what led her to do something so drastic as to murder her own husband. Soon he learns that Alicia had a pretty rough childhood filled with trauma and betrayals. She and her mother met with a car accident when she was a kid in which she survived and her mother was killed. One of the important revelations of the story is that her father wished that Alicia would have died instead of his wife which devastated her.
While the narrator is narrating this part of the story, the author keeps giving us a glimpse into Theo’s life. Theo is a married man and is deeply in love with his wife Kathy. One day he finds out that Kathy is cheating on him. After spying on her he is able to locate the guy with whom she is having an affair. Theo keeps a watch over the guy and his house for several days. Soon he finds out that the guy has a wife and starts sympathising with her and comparing the state she is in with his own. He continues to keep a watch over their house over several days and decides whether to tell the wife about her husband’s affair. One night he gets a chance to find his wife alone in the home as he knows that her husband is with Kathy. So, he decides to confront her and breaks into her home with a knife when she notices him. Theo manages to soon make her his hostage and talks to her till her husband arrives. At this point the reader realizes that the woman is actually Alicia and her husband, Gabriel, is the one having an affair with Kathy.
The story ends with Theo overdozing Alicia in the mental institution as he has realized that Alicia has managed to recognize him as the person responsible for whatever has happened with Alicia. But, before Alicia has goes into a coma because of the overdose, she manages to write the truth behind the murder of her husband in her diary and hides it behind the painting that she drew of her and Theo as he hates this painting. Alicia tells in her diary that when Theo broke into her home on the night of the murder, he ties Gabriel when he arrives home and tells everything about the his and Kathy’s affair to Alicia. He then tells Gabriel that he is going to kill either Alicia or him and he is the one to choose. Alicia still thinks that Gabriel loves her and would not let her die, but Gabriel chooses for himself to live, quite similar to what happened in the Alcestice mythology, where the husband condemns his wife to die. Upon hearing his answer Theo points the gun at Alicia and shoots. But he shoots only at the wall and to scare them. He then hands the gun over to Alicia and tells her that she can do whatever she wants with Gabriel and leaves them. Alicia, being killed by both her father and her husband is not able to take this and brutally murders her husband and the rest is history.
A few years later the chief inspector visits Theo’s house with Alicia’s diary. Upon seeing this Theo understands that he has come to arrest him and complies without any struggle.