A fantastic psychological thriller that starts off quietly and then hurtles along at top speed keeping you guessing all the way. I read it in two days which is always a good sign. Her white dress glowed ghostlike in the torchlight” ~ “I remember so much white everywhere: […] the white of her eyes, her teeth, her skin. I’d never known that skin could be so luminous, so translucent ; ivory white with occasional blue veins visible just beneath the surface, like threads of color in white marble. She was a statue.” ~ “strands of long red hair falling across bony shoulders, blue veins beneath the translucent skin”.

Filming began in mid-January 2022 in Los Angeles. [9] [5] Reception [ edit ] Audience viewership [ edit ] Rachel is a doctor with a rather quiet life who has an affair with her patient Luc, a French painter who with his wife has bought and renovated a home near where Rachel and her husband live.A beautifully written story where the characters came alive for me. Several of them surprised and fooled me more than once!!

Of course, after all that buildup and the success of the big plot twist, the ending had to come together, or all was for naught. I was a little concerned for a few minutes, but honestly, the conclusion was the cherry on the cake. We have a few ‘ugly’ characters who are either ‘ mad’ and or violent ( Elif, a ‘massive’ Turkish woman, who spends her time shouting or grunting because she is a patient and that’s how ‘ugly’ and mentally ill people behave. Lydia, Alicia’s mean aunt. She is grotesquely ‘fat’ and has lots of cats. She basically just glares, scorns, and spits at people). Paul, Alicia’s cousin, still lives with his mother so he looks like ‘virgin’ and in spite his size he seems ‘stunted’. Kathy and Gabriel are the antithesis of credible (actors and fashion photographers manage to be self-engrossed and 1 dimensional). We have Gabriel’s brother...who is the typical chip-on-my-shoulder character (he has acne, he is balding, he is just a ‘lawyer’, boohoo). Jean-Felix owns a gallery so he is the embodiment of some sort of art-vampire.

Customer reviews

I really wanted to love this story -- billed as a twisty mystery -- about the impact of a patient/client affair. But the narrative was so slowly-paced that I had to force myself to get through it, and also found the ending rather predictable. The concept, however, was intriguing and I'd like to read a revised version that nails pace and denouement. First of all, let me start with what I liked in this book. The writing style of the author is suited for writing a thriller like this. He succeeded in making me glued to the book even after the glaring innuendos that were disparaging to the core kept me exasperated. He worked out the plot twist well. This might be the reason why almost every friend of mine in Goodreads love this book. I must confess now itself that if I was not a Doctor and I didn't know how the healthcare system works, I would also have given this book four or five stars. Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense. And what about Alicia’s silence?? The mystery at the heart of the book - in the very title itself. The big reveal, the big answer shrouded in suspense and mystery .... the reason she didn’t talk was because she felt she had nothing to say??? Because she felt like she was dead too?? Wait... what? Seriously? She’s been accused of murdering her husband, while the man who stalks her, breaks in to her home, ties her up and threatens to kill her later shows up as her therapist, while she allows her other therapist to continue drugging her with “horse dosage” amounts of sedatives - but oh well, silence for years and years because she felt dead and had nothing to say?? And she stays silent mind you, while she still manages to hide her diary?!? We can only assume she goes to extreme measures to keep the police from ever finding it? Even though they walk in right after the murder while she’s still holding the smoking gun - I guess they gave her time to gather her things and somehow hide a diary down her pants while she was brought to prison?? Not to mention how no one found it when she was transferred to the mental hospital?! Why go to so much trouble to hide a diary if you feel like you’re dead and you have nothing to say!? Jane Shemitt, executed this plot with precision and attention to detail. This was my first book by Shemitt, but I know it will not be my last as I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book.