'The Therapist' by B.A. Paris

2 stars

Started: August 17, 2021

Finished: August 23, 2021

Publication Date: February 25, 2021

The Circle, an exclusive, gated neighborhood in London, has many unsettling occurrences happening - from extremely close knit neighbors that are in your business, to a murder/suicide.

Alice and Leo are new to The Circle and are excited to start their life together in London. Alice is a very nervous person and is unsettled with the neighbors, while Leo is very nonchalant about everything and disregards Alice's concerns.

A private investigator somehow gets passed the gates and approaches Alice to ask her questions regarding the murder of Nina Maxwell, the therapist that was murdered in The Circle. Alice is shocked and terrified when the investigator tells her that murder happened in the home that she is sharing with Leo. Her trust and her mental state deteriorate when she finds out that Leo knew about the murder and decided not to tell her about it.

Alice becomes obsessed with the death of Nina, especially when the neighbors refuse to talk about Nina, and makes it her mission to discover who truly killed her. Alice starts questioning everybody she comes into contact with, especially Leo.

This is the first book I've read by B.A. Paris and I was really disappointed. The twists of the book were interesting and I didn't see a lot of them coming. The story idea was clever, but the execution was lacking. I was also not a fan of how obnoxiously dumb Alice was written. Her naïveté was painful - she was the stereotypical definition of a small town girl getting lost in the big city.

What I did like about this book was that it did have me questioning every character's involvement. I was convinced that two of the characters potentially murdered Nina and was surprised by who the true killer was.

Despite not being impressed with this book it was a good quick read that did take you for a ride, albeit a not very exciting one.