She Treads Softly: The Patient

Thursday, April 21, 2022

The Patient

The Patient by Jane Shemilt
5/3/22; 320 pages
William Morrow

The Patient by Jane Shemilt is a recommended novel of domestic suspense.

Set in Salisbury, England, Rachel Goodchild is a doctor, her husband Nathan teaches at an elite private school and their 24 year-old daughter Lizzie is a librarian. When French architect Luc Lefevre comes to her practice for a consult concerning his depression, Rachel is immediately attracted. She meets him again when his wife throws a party at their restored a historic home in Rachel’s neighborhood.The attraction between her and Luc continues at the party and turns into an affair. At the same time her daughter Lizzie is increasingly distant and hostile toward Rachel and Nathan has grown progressively more remote. Adding to her uneasiness are the footsteps and the feeling that someone is following Rachel all the time.

This is a slow-moving novel that really never picks up speed until the end. We know that Rachel is being held for committing some crime at the beginning but reaching more information about what happened and why is slow to be revealed. The story of the beginning of her affair with Luc seems related to the crime. It also becomes obvious that a whole lot of people are lying about something. The key to everything is knowing who is lying and the clues crawl to the resulting ending. This isn't a psychological thriller as much as it is a novel of domestic suspense.

Although it is an interesting story, it is not quite as suspenseful as one would hope. Readers are required to follow every thought that Rachel has in order to follow the plot. It is really about an affair and requires you to buy into all the excuses for a 49 year-old doctor to start up an affair with a younger patient. I know you are expected to approve of their relationship but there really is no reason given to do so. Neither are appealing characters. The events leading up to the ending are not especially intriguing and the ending is a little over the top and beyond belief. It is technically well written and the plot is thought provoking.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of William Morrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment

John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.