She Treads Softly: The Therapist

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

The Therapist

The Therapist by Nicole Trope
7/31/25; 272 pages
Bookouture

The Therapist by Nicole Trope is a highly recommended psychological thriller that is wickedly deceptive and twisty.

Lana, a busy therapist, reluctantly agrees to see Sandy, a client of her colleague Ben, when he explains that she is becoming infatuated with him. Sandy opens up to Lana and claims that her husband Mike is abusive. She even shows up with a black eye, although, after she left, Lana noticed on a tissue that it appeared to be expertly applied makeup. From this point on, pay attention to what is going on, but trust no one.

The characters are unreliable, but clever and complicated. Everyone has a secret. Narrated through the point-of-view of Lana, Sandy, and Mike, the real truth won't be revealed until the surprising, twisty end. In the meantime, the tension, suspicion, and deception abound. This is a short, fast-paced novel that delivers the promised gripping psychological thriller. All the twists and reveals at the end elevated my initial opinion of the novel.

The Therapist is a great choice for fans of twisty psychological thrillers. Thanks to Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.