THE THERAPIST
B.A. Paris

One heck of a spine-tingling thriller! Feels like a Blockbuster movie.

Enter 'The Circle' where you feel more like a prisoner than an exclusive gated enclave. B. A Paris entertains and chills—and makes the reader question whether they really know not only their neighbors but their own family.

THE THERAPIST, an intricately plotted, fast-paced, gripping psychological thriller of secrets, lies, obsession, evil, and murder with a double twist that will keep readers guessing until the explosive conclusion. A hit!

If you loved Paris' sensational debut, Behind Closed Doors you better get ready for THE THERAPIST. There are a lot of secrets, a web of lies, and deception behind the gates of The Circle. The monster may be hiding right in front of you.

At the opening of this brilliantly crafted thriller, Alice and her partner, Leo, are moving to London to an exclusive gated enclave called The Circle. All the houses are very similar, and there are only twelve select upscale homes.

They have only been dating a little over a year. Alice is keeping her cottage and renting it out. Leo is the one buying the house, and he is so excited. He says it is a steal, but as they say, if something is that great, there is usually something wrong.

All the homes are in a circle from 1-12, and they are #6. However, Leo was not forthcoming about the history of the house. All the idyllic families are image perfect, or so it appears on the outside.

Alice wants to meet her neighbors, puts together a little party, and invites everyone over for cocktails. Leo was not happy about this because he does not want her to find out about the former owners and what occurred at this house.

Alice finally discovers the former owners, Nina the wife was a therapist who was brutally murdered in their upstairs bedroom, and there was also a suicide. (husband, Oliver).

At the party, there is a gate-crasher. However, Alice does not know who the person is and assumed he is a neighbor. All the neighbors seem very standoffish, and she desperately wants to be a part of this elite circle of women.

She is furious with Leo for not telling her about the prior owners and determined to discover what happened to the woman who lived in this house since Nina was her sister's name. Alice's past is something tragic that further fuels the fire to find out what happened to Nina.

The gate-crasher turns out to be an investigator for Nina's sister and befriends Alice to try and help gather more info secretly. The women in the circle are closed-mouth. They are delighted someone moved in to keep their real estate values up and do not understand why Alice wants to bring up old news when the case had been closed.

What secrets are hiding in The Circle?

However, the more Alice digs, the more danger she is in. Did Nina's husband really kill his wife and commit suicide, or was it one of the other neighbors that may still be out there who killed both of them?

"What if the real killer is still living among us hiding in plain sight?"

Soon Alice begins hearing someone in her house, strange things start happening, and everyone is a suspect. She wants to leave The Circle but feels she has to find out about Nina first.

There is something sinister and evil, and she has a feeling it was not Oliver who murdered his wife but someone else that possibly killed them both. Most of the couples are younger in The Circle; however, an older couple seems nice but appears strange. She suspects others of possibly having affairs and all sorts of theories. Alice will not give up until she learns the truth.

The author goes behind the curtains and doors from heart-racing, nail-biting suspense to reveal the horror behind this upscale community. Do you really know your neighbors and their families?

There is a clever and sinister tie-in about long hair and cutting it, and you will be on the edge-of-your-seat of this addictive read. You may want to consider cutting your hair after reading. OBSESSIVE LOVE DISORDER. No way you can put it down to sleep. So make time to read with one with no interruptions.

From past to present, the insanely gripping plot revolves around this chilling murder. The skilled author is in complete control of the narrative, pacing, and her characters. They are vivid and come alive on the page, and you can envision this train wreck with a strong sense of foreboding and darkness but not sure where it is headed. The ending is explosive!

You may think of a few movies when reading: The Stepford Wives, The Gates, Dream House, and the recent Amazon Prime new series, Them comes to mind (the new neighborhood and house), minus the supernatural with a different twist, as well as Big Little Lies, and the novel, Those People.

I am a massive fan of B.A. Paris and have read all her books. Trust me, this is her best yet. Compulsively readable, THE THERAPIST is primed for the big screen or TV series.

Plot and character-driven, for fans Mary Kubica and those of complex, tense, and well-written thrillers who enjoy the dark side of suburbia. "The author is at the top of her game." #TopBooksof2021. Do not miss this one.

Look for my Elevator Ride with the author, coming July 13th, where we will go behind the scenes of the book and author.

A special thank you to #StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for an advanced reading copy.

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Pub Date: 07/13/21
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read and review this book. The opinions expressed are my own.
I really liked this book-lots of twists and turns. I can always count on author B. A. Paris for a good psychological thriller. This book kept me guessing right to the end-I thought I had it figured out, but I was in for a surprise ending!

Another great suspense book by B. A. Paris. Another great domestic psychological thriller. Couple move move into a new house something happened in the house a murder/ suicide. Which she did not know about and she becomes obsessed with what happens. If you want a great thriller novel for the summer this is a good one

B A Paris became one of my favorite authors since I first picked up Behind Closed Doors. She never disappoints. With The Therapist another great thriller. Throughout the book I had suspicions of who killed "The Therapist" but when it came to the ending I never saw it coming. It is a great tale of who is hiding what and what secrets lie in our lives, how much do you share, how much do you keep to yourself and what are the consequences? I really liked all of the characters I cannot say there were any that didn't connect. Alice and Leo are entangled in a newish relationship and just moved into a house together in a gated community, but the house holds secrets as well as the people living in the community. When Alice accidentally learns there was a murder in the house she is now living in she has second thought on the house, her relationship and just why Leo didn't tell her. But that's only the start..

A nice escape thriller set in a London gated community that smells of lies and secrets.

The Therapist is a domestic thriller in which our main character Alice and her boyfriend Leo move into a beautiful house in The Circle, a fancy gated community in London. Inadvertently, Alice finds out why they had purchased the house below the market value - something terrible had happened inside. Someone, a kind therapist named Nina, had been murdered in the house, which is something Leo had hidden from Alice when he found the house.

As a result of this shocking discovery, Alice becomes obsessed with Nina's murder and finding out what actually happened. But when she tries to ask her neighbors about it, everyone seems to be hiding something. And as Alice and Leo begin repeatedly noticing someone's presence inside their home, it becomes clear that the truth behind Nina's murder has been hidden.

This was the light mystery I needed at this point in my difficult year, just after submitting my Master's thesis. It felt like a nice escape read, although certainly not a particularly memorable one - nor a very thrilling one, either. However, the twist and the ending managed to catch me totally off guard in a really good way.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Alice meets Leo when his car bumps into hers one rainy afternoon. No damage to either car really, but the damage will follow. This is, after all, a B.A. Paris, so if you are looking for a fuzzy, feel-good read, you have come to the wrong address.

Several months later, Leo and Alice, move into a gated, exclusive community. This is Leo’s dream - life with a woman he loves in a neighborhood he could never normally afford. So what’s the catch? It turns out that a woman named Nina was murdered in the house. Her husband was accused, found guilty, and committed suicide. Leo neglected to mention this little detail to Alice before they moved in, and as it turns out, this is not the only little detail he neglected to mention.

Alice really wants to fit in and make friends with her new neighbors. Since she knows nothing about the murder of Nina a year earlier, she doesn’t understand why she’s getting the cold shoulder from all the other women (Nina’s friends) in the neighborhood. In her attempt to warm things up, she sends a message out to the neighborhood whatsapp group, inviting everyone in for drinks. Big mistake! She unwittingly invites trouble.

So begins our story. Alice is shocked to learn that Leo has bought a house where a woman was murdered a year earlier. Worse yet, her own sister died only recently, and her name (coincidentally) was Nina, too. Are any of the neighbors to be trusted? Is her husband to be trusted? Is the private investigator she is falling for to be trusted? What about the estate agent?

Leo gets the boot, and Alice sticks her nose in, all over the place - stirring up trouble as she tries to prove that Nina’s husband was innocent of the crime (now there’s a stretch for you). Alice tears her hair out (literally) trying to figure who really did commit the crime…weird things are happening at home, things are disappearing, or appearing out of nowhere. Could it be the ghost of Nina Past? (which Nina Past?).

Alice ends up fitting in better than she expected and gets a new hairdo in the process! (I am reminded of a few bars from South Pacific, Mary Martin singing “I’m gonna to wash that man right outa my hair….” – and NO I am NOT that old, but my mother had the album which I heard at least a hundred times while I grew up).

This is a fun book with lots of finger-pointing, but I think the murder is an easy tell. This did not distract much from the read and there was a harrowing, nail-biting, hair-raising (sorry about that) ending.

This was a double the fun read – I have NetGally, St. Martins Press, AND MacMillan Audio to thank for the opportunity to alternate reading and listening to ARCs of both the ebook and audio versions of this book. I enjoyed the narration by Olivia Dowd and Thomas Judd..

I read this book in a day! It was an intriguing psychological thriller about a woman who finds out she is living in the house where another woman was murdered and becomes involved in trying to figure out who the real killer is. There were so many possibilities that the book had me guessing up until the end. This is a book for anyone looking for a quick read with secrets and twists.

This felt like a run of the mill thriller... about 100 pages too long. I did think the twists at the end were ones I wasn’t entirely sure I saw coming. Overall it was fine, nothing ground breaking.

It took me so long to finish this but it was so worth it!! Now I know why everybody loves B.A. Paris’ books so much. This was an excellent read. The book was fun and mysterious, and all you need in a thriller.

I am proud to say that I figured out what the real story was, but that knowledge in no way diminished my interest in the story. Besides, there were so many twists and turns, I could never be sure of anything!
Five stars!!

When I saw B.A. Paris had a new book coming out, I knew I needed to read it. Once I started The Therapist, I couldn’t stop reading. It pulled me in and didn’t let me go until the very end. This is the best kind of suspense! I will always want to read what this author writes.

The synopsis:

When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive…

As Alice is getting to know her neighbors, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.

Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…

This will be published on July 13th.

A new start, a new house, a gated neighborhood, but a house where a murder was committed.

Leo and Alice finally moved to London and into a posh neighborhood. When Alice finds out that Leo never told her about the murder, Alice wonders what else Leo is hiding from her.

Why didn't Leo tell Alice that's why the house was so affordable?

Why did she have to find out from a stranger about the murder?

What will Alice do now - stay or leave?

We follow Alice as she decides what to do and as she tries to find out what really happened in her home.

The women in the neighborhood are friendly, but there is something they are holding back.

Will she uncover a secret someone is hiding?

Will she disturb the atmosphere of her exclusive, gated neighborhood?

Alice needs to know what happened and she is determined to find out.

Things get involved, a bit dangerous, and tense.

You will suspect a number of characters, but will you guess correctly?

Who really did murder Nina, and is this group of neighbors as well as Leo hiding something?

A great twist at the end…don’t miss it. 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 ⭐️‘s
After only seeing each other on weekends for several months, Alice and Leo decide to buy a house that’s conveniently located for both of them. When Leo finds a place too good to be true, Alice isn’t quite as taken with the house, but goes along with his enthusiasm. Something happened in #6 Circle. Something the neighbors don’t want to talk about. As strange things start to happen, Alice becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened and everyone is a suspect!

B.A. Paris does it again! This book is quite the ride. A young couple move to a gated community. Shortly after, the questions begin. Who previously lived here? What was their story? Who is the Therapist? How do those answers impact this couple? You will trust everyone & no one, and will think you have it figured out, only to find out you have more to learn. I highly recommend! Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love everything B.A Paris writes so I was especially excited to be approved for The Therapist. Paris creates such intricate plots that will keep you guessing until the last page. I absolutely love how Paris builds her characters and makes them so realistic. Paris also keeps the suspense in all of her novels, and one will change theories multiple times about where the story is going. Five stars!!

Alice and Leo move into a home in the gated community called The Circle. This is supposed to help them become closer in their relationship, allowing them to spend more time together, and less traveling on the weekends to see one another. Alice, ignoring Leo’s discontent to having guests, invites all of her new neighbors over to meet them all. One person arrives, unbeknownst to everyone except Alice, and turns her world upside down. As relationships build within the community, Alice has set herself on a dangerous path to discover secrets, so deeply hidden, within this seemingly serene community. To include her new home being the site of a gruesome murder and suicide very recently; one that she was unaware of, and that she is soon to become very familiar with.

I enjoyed this novel and the twists and turns it presented. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. All of these opinions are of my own.

If you have read anything by B.A. Paris before, then you won’t find anything out of the ordinary in this book. If you have not read anything from this author before, you’ll find a basic psychological thriller in which the main character puts herself in situations and locations where she really shouldn’t be, at least for the sake of her safety. But I guess if she did that, we wouldn’t have a book, would we?
So, Alice and her boyfriend move into a house located in an exclusive little enclave with only twelve homes in London. For some reason, the home came at a bargain price so why not snatch it up while you can. When Alice digs deeper and deeper into the reason for the homes low price, she is shocked and surprised but still can’t leave the reason alone, even if it costs her her relationship and quite possibly, her life.
There is quite a bit of suspense, although the first two-thirds of the book move pretty slowly and then picks up at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Therapist by B. A. Paris. Paris has become one of my favorite authors since I read Behind Closed Doors! If you have not read that, I highly recommend it! I enjoyed reading The Therapist and the twists and turns it took! I suspected everyone at one point and was extremely surprised in the end! MOUTH OPEN! This is a must-read and I recommend if you want a book that keeps you guessing!! Thank you again to NetGalley and I look forward to her next book!

I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. While the pace of the book might seem a bit slow at first you will realize later it was needed to give the backstory. The author did an excellent job in providing just enough information to keep you thinking, calculating, and guessing exactly which way the story was going. Who can be trusted? Who is a friend? Who is to be suspicious of? What really happened to the previous homeowner? Think you have it figured out? You might but I think you will be surprised at the end. I have not read books by B.A. Paris in the past but I will look to read more.

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook and thought the narration was great, and paired it with the written copy. What I loved about this book is the amount of suspense, and how you really do suspect everyone. I also thought the ending was expertly plotted, explaining exactly how only Lorna had met the "investigator" and no one else in the Circle had seen him come in. The only downside to this novel (and this because I am comparing it to the amazing Behind Closed Doors), was the main characters lack of common sense - hard to connect with a character like this. Overall, very enjoyable! Will definitely be recommending on my blog later today. www.instagram.com/deebibliophilia

Such a mesmerizing read! Since the summary of the book does not give away so much; therefore, I won't either. There is much bobbing and weaving in this story. From the beginning, I thought right away that everyone was a suspect. About 60% in the story, I thought Alice was the crazy one! I thought The Circle was an elaborate mental institution and they were helping Alice process her disorder. The ending was expected yet unexpected. From the beginning, I knew there was a killer. The ending does explain some of the questions I had, except for the falling hairs. I can't go into details without giving away a great plot. Read it and you'll get what I mean. This is not a story where I would need to know full detail of the character i.e background. The pace was steady and kept me entertained. It's a must-read book this year.

Thank you to Martin's Press and NetGalley for letting me read this amazing ARC in exchange for an honest review.