I found this to be a bit slow going and it took me a while to get into it, partly because the main character, Sara, is rather unlikeable and difficult to engage with. Sara undertakes her own investigation into her husband’s disappearance when he fails to turn up on a boy’s skiing weekend. The mystery is revealed slowly and then gathers pace towards the end. Very intense and atmospheric, but difficult to engage with.

Very well written with dark undertones.

The settings are vivid and if you enjoy a scandi thriller you will enjoy this. You are never quite sure of what is going on and there is an unsettling feel to it all.

I jumped about with thoughts about what was happening and enjoyed discovering the truth.

An unenjoyable, uncomfortable and difficult read. The main character is very odd with nothing to like or connect to. She seems completely disconnected from the plot. I finished the book purely to find out the ending, however I felt this was a massive disappointment and was very rushed in at the very end whereas a lot of the book had no substance or point and was merely filling pages. The storyline came to an abrupt, unsatisfactory ending and I’m sorry to say was not a read I enjoyed

I found that this book dragged a bit. The main character is a bit dull and I couldn't really empathise with her. I found it hard going. It was okay but no more. I did finish it. Sorry.

It’s took me a long time to read The Therapist. I’d say it’s more of a marriage drama book than a thriller? Unfortunately not a book I’d read again, I like faster paced stories that keep me on the edge of my seat.
Not one I can recommend, sorry but thank you for the opportunity to read and review.
2/5

This novel is dark in the Nordic thriller manner. I believe this is what gives it a thrilling edge. That said, it feels more like a domestic novel of a marriage and its ups and downs.
I couldn't relate to or like any of the characters. Perhaps this is intended.
The ending was unexpected. I feel it wasn't logical regarding a certain relationship though.

Thank you to Quercus Books and MacLehose Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There’s nothing like Nordic/Scandic Noir. Not only do I appreciate it even more when I’m homesick, but there’s this gloomy, unsettling atmosphere that comes with this particular genre. And with the isolated, lonely, and unreliable narrator Sara, Flood makes sure it becomes unsettling. Sara is just as miserable as any Nordic Noir-protagonist — if not even more so. She’s consumed by sadness from both her past and her present, and the stream-of-consciousness narration adds to the atmosphere. I’m usually into that type of character but for the majority of the novel she was just, dare I say it, dull.

This psychological domestic thriller was... okay. I looked forward to keep reading it but only because I wanted to know how it ended (and if my theory was right). It did keep me guessing who the murderer could be for a while but then it became too obvious who and why Flood chose this particular character to be the criminal. I would have preferred more of an unsuspected twist.

Don’t expect an intricate police procedural in this novel. Do however expect some Nordic Noir-style critique against the Norwegian Police Department as well as emphasis on the good and the bad which comes with the work of a mental health professional. It’s a family drama and a study of human nature.

I considered giving it a 3-star rating, but the amount of filler pages as well as the unnecessary sentence: “His face was covered in moles. They would have been repellent had they been pimples, but were not unattractive once you saw them for what they were” which definitely left me feeling even more self conscious about my adult acne knocked it down to a 2,5 (rounded up).

Woah!!!! This book was intense!!! I’m not sure if the translation gave it a more heavy feel but I was hooked by this book!! So so clever

I wish I had loved this book more, it sounded like it was going to be right up my street but I just didn't warm to it like I'd hoped. I wasn't really a fan of the characters, I guessed a part of the storyline quite early on and found the end both flat and surprising. It was quite tough for me to read overall, maybe because it was translated - for some reason I always struggle. The storyline was a clever one though and for the right person, would probably be brilliant!

Sara is a therapist whose clients are troubled young people. Her private practice is at the dilapidated house she is renovating with her architect husband, Sigurd, who inherited the house from his grandfather.
When Sigurd says goodbye to Sara very early one morning and heads off for a weekend trip with two friends, Sara plans a relaxed and lazy weekend.  Despite receiving a text from Sigurd saying he'd arrived at the cabin, Sara later hears from his friends that he never turned up.
Sara reports the disappearance to the police who are not particularly interested, so she takes on the mystery of Sigurd's whereabouts herself.
From this point on we are given an insight into Sara's character and how she handles paranoia and grief.
Set solely in Sara's world this is a claustrophobic and atmospheric Norwegian thriller. I enjoyed the book and didn't guess the final twist!
Thanks to the publisher, Quercus, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a well above average crime thriller novel.
It feels more substantial than most of it’s genre and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The book maintains an interesting plot along with supporting back story until near the end where I think it loses a little pace and the ending feels a little rushed.
Despite this, it is well worth a read with well developed and believable characters and an interesting story that kept me reading.

I was disappointed in this story. I felt that very little happened and the sequence of events was slow and uninspiring. I struggled to reach the end and even then there was very little to surprise me. The main character appeared dull and uninvolved with her marriage until it ended.
I feel that it could be summed up as: marriage in trouble, sudden death, discovery of affair. For me there was nothing new.

The Therapist is told from the perspective of Sara. The book begins on what seems an ordinary Friday, with Sara having three clients scheduled and her husband Sigurd kissing her goodbye before leaving on a weekend getaway with his friends.
Only, that evening Sara gets a call to say Sigurd hasn’t arrived, does she know where he is? Well sure she does, he left her a voicemail message saying that he’d arrived safely, mentioning one of the guys as well.

What at first seems like a prank, soon turns out to be quite serious and Sara is at a complete loss. Who can she turn to, who can she trust? Clearly her husband lied to her, or the friends, or all of them. Alone at the house she feels unease. Things don't seem right, items disappearing, things being moved.
I would say the book starts as a slow burner, but the thriller element is there, bubbling under the surface.
All in all it's a good scandi novel, and well worth the read

A good psychological thriller, different to what I expected and it kept me hooked.
I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

If you’re looking for an atmospheric page turner, The Therapist will keep you hooked from start to finish. A scandi murder mystery in which you can almost feel the cold emanating off the page, this clever whodunnit is not an easy one to figure out.

In between therapy appointments, Sara receives a voicemail from her husband Sigurd saying he’s arrived at the cabin he’s gone to for a lads weekend. However later that evening his friends call to say he never arrived. From this point out Sara begins to question everything she thought she knew about her relationship and, as everything around her starts to unravel, eventually starts to question her own memory too. She’s always been sharp and had an excellent recall for detail, but can she be sure she’s remembering events correctly? The police don’t seem convinced..

I loved how atmospheric I found this book considering I was reading in June on a hot day. It felt so cold and icy and the tension is palpable, it would make an excellent autumn/winter read as you can immerse yourself in the snowy Norwegian pines on these pages. It’s gripping and very easy to get sucked in to, I absolutely flew through it.
The plot is clever and I didn’t see the very last twist coming but found it quite satisfying. A few times I thought it might go down a different road in to a slightly different twist but I’m very glad it played out the way it did. The police’s interactions throughout make you question whether Sara is a reliable narrator but I won’t spoil that either way. What I will say is it’s refreshing that Flood didn’t just opt for a standard trope, and you’ll have to read it for yourself to see what I mean!

Overall I gave it four stars rather than five because I’d have liked to have seen a bit more character development, but that said it was a nice quick read so in fairness adding more depth might’ve made it drag. All in all though I definitely enjoyed the novel and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a chilly thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Norwegian noir at its very best. At last Karin Fossum has a new contender for her throne. Helene Flood could soon be crowned the new Queen of Norwegian crime writers.
Sara Lathus (like the author who created her) is a psychologist. It is her first person narrative that makes this such a hauntingly compelling thriller. The suspense gathers in an intense, complex plot, but the denouement when it comes is both shocking and surprising.
Helene Flood is an outstanding new voice on the crime fiction scene.

It wasn't the thriller that I was expecting to read, but more of a mystery story. The atmosphere in the house seemed very creepy. Quite a gentle, well written read translated from Norwegian. Sara was not a particularly endearing person. I enjoyed the interaction with the detective. Worth reading to the last page.

This was really fun to read! An excellent psychological thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.

There’s always a bit of a structural problem when the events of the story are in the narrator’s past. Eighty percent of this novel is set in the years and months leading up to the first scene, the story as it is today. Therefore, there’s far too much backstory, catching-up, putting us in the picture, etc. And frankly, it’s a rather dull picture. We have to know how the couple met, how their courtship evolved, their marriage and its ups and downs. We have to know about their career developments, their relationships with their colleagues and clients. We have to know about their respective parents and siblings. We have to know about Sara’s relationship with… just about everyone who makes an appearance in this novel. It just goes on and on and on.

The only scenes I almost enjoyed were the ones with the leading policeman, even if he was a caricature: a rather grumpy divorcee, a seen-it-all-before, world-weary cop.

Towards the end, something finally happens, something exciting. It is, sadly, the first time this happens in this novel. But it doesn’t last long. Then to make sense of this one-off almost exciting development, to put it into context, we have to endure several pages of backstory – again.

Then… the twist. And guess what – because we, the reader, aren’t there at the scene, because, once again, it happened in the past, it’s all related to us as conjecture: ‘I imagine this is what happened…’

All in all, rather dull.

As a former psychologist I was really interested to read a book with a psychologist protagonist. Sara works as a therapist in private practice but for some reason which never becomes clear she keeps her client list very small and does not seem intent on building it up. She is married, seemingly happily to a man who goes missing when he is supposed to be on holiday with his friends. As the police investigate his disappearance various aspects of Sara and her husband's life come to light which show their marriage is not as happy as she first presents it.

I found this to be a slow read. Sara is not a particularly likeable character and her reactions to her husband's disappearance are a bit wooden. Everything is nicely tied up at the end but I wasn't convinced by the outcome. In short I was a little disappointed by this novel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.