The Patient’s List is a standalone psychological thriller.
Newly married Dr Rina Kent couldn’t be
happier. She has a gorgeous husband, Jonas, loves her job as a psychiatrist at
Holy Saints, and is just about to leave for her honeymoon.
With only a half-day of work ahead of her, Rina
is packed and ready. But Rina is a little concerned about one of her patients,
Jenny, as she had only just started opening up and her behaviour that day
seemed to be regressing to her previous depressed and suicidal state.
As Rina leaves the hospital to fetch some
files, Jenny manages to launch herself through a window. Straight onto Jonas’s
car. And Rina realises she could have prevented it if she had reported the
loose table Jenny was standing near.
A year later and Rina’s life has turned
around. Having not gone on her honeymoon as she blamed herself for Jenny’s
death, her marriage then unravelled and her work is suffering. She will only
take on “easy” cases as she doesn’t feel confident enough to deal with others,
and prefers to work late at night, keeping to herself.
Then Amy Deaver is brought in. After being
suspected of trying to kill herself, Amy, who is autistic and non-verbal, will
not communicate with anyone in any way. On one of Rina’s late shifts, Amy
sneaks out of her room and, on finding Rina in the hospital gym, whispers a
list of names to her. The last name on the list is her ex-husband’s. Then she
says, “Say nothing.”
With Amy refusing to say another word, what
is Rina supposed to do with the list?
I had high hopes for this story, as the
premise sounded very intriguing. However, I struggled to feel for any of the
characters as they were all remarkably unlikeable and the story very slow with
things being repeated unnecessarily.
I found the characters flip-flopped a lot. The
people at the hospital seemed to have no empathy for their patients, and the way
they treated and spoke to each other was very harsh. They also seemed to have
no issue speaking badly about each other. But then suddenly they would act like
best friends. This happens with the detective’s character, too.
Spoilers ahead:
Some parts of the story seemed very out of
place. The introduction of the rhyme went nowhere and didn’t create the connection
necessary between Amy and Rina. Rina, too, seemed very “able” to put her
detective hat on and investigate dangerous scenes, all the while completely
ignoring what the real detective was telling her not to do. She outright lies
about where she is going and has been and then lands up having to explain it
all anyway, which seemed like a complete waste of time.
The fireplace poker… Phyllis used it to
kill Marie but when Rina goes to her house the poker is not there. And then the
poker is found at the bed when Jonas is hurt and the police think Phyllis hit
him. Why the emphasis on the empty poker holder only for it to come back into
the story?
The money issue… Jonas says they have the
money. Why on earth would they have a bag of cash buried? This is money that
has been embezzled from the new building, so why is it in cash? How did the
four of them work together to do the embezzling? And how did Amy know where it
was buried at Rina’s house to be able to dig it up?
One glaring question I had was: Why would
Amy tell Rina the names on the list? Why her in particular? She hadn’t made a
communication connection with her and her mom had told her not to say anything
to anyone, so why go and tell Rina?
There were a few grammatical mistakes in
the book but nothing to make the reader pause too long. I think if some of the
characters were worked on and the story tightened a little, this could be a
really good book.
Thanks to the author and Voracious Readers Only
for a review copy.
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