First Chapter ~ First Paragraph (February 5)

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by from I’d Rather Be At The Beach who posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

Today The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides will be published. This book has garnered a fair amount of attention and has been billed as “The record-breaking 2019 thriller everyone is talking about”

 

Blurb

ALICIA

Alicia Berenson writes a diary as a release, an outlet – and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine. She can’t bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain.
Until, late one evening, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.

THEO

Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia’s silence goes far deeper than he first thought.
And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth? Amazon

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First Chapter ~ First Paragraph ~ Intro

Part One

He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.

Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis

1

Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband.

They had been married for seven years.
They were both artists – Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer. He had a distinctive style, shooting semi-starved, semi-naked women at strange, unflattering angles. Since his death, the price of his photographs has increased astronomically. I find his stuff rather slick and shallow to be honest. It has no one of the visceral quality of Alicia’s best work. Of course I don’t know enough about art to say whether Alicia Berenson will stand the test of time as her painter. Her talent will always be overshadowed by her notoriety, so it’s hard to be objective.

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Having read the prologue followed by this opening chapter I’m certainly interested to find out more…

What do you think? Would you keep reading?