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Unabridged Digital Audiobook
Runtime: 10 hours, 2 minutes
Read by Olivia Dowd and Thomas Judd
Living in a small community can feel close and welcoming. It can make you feel like you’re never alone. Or, if things don’t go well, it can also feel suspicious and smothering. And in the audio edition of The Therapist by B. A. Paris, one woman finds herself always looking over her shoulder in her new, tight-knit neighborhood.
The story moves into The Circle, an exclusive gated community in London, with Alice and Leo, who are moving into a new home together after working through a long-distance relationship for several months. It seems like the perfect house in a beautiful neighborhood, and Alice is eager to settle in and befriend her new neighbors. But she soon discovers that the house has a troubling secret: the last resident, Nina Maxwell, was murdered there. Alice is haunted by the horrific murder that took place in her beautiful new home—and when a private investigator turns up at her door, looking for answers, she becomes engrossed in figuring out what really happened to Nina.
The story takes its time as Alice settles into The Circle and begins wrestling with the new revelation and its implications. And as the days pass, everything loses its luster for Alice: her new, updated house, where Nina was killed, her new neighbors, all of whom she begins to suspect—even her formerly blossoming relationship with Leo, who’s clearly been keeping things from her. Miles from home with just one friend nearby, Alice suddenly feels completely lost and alone.
There’s an eerie feeling lurking in The Circle. And the only thing that keeps Alice from packing up and leaving—even after she begins sensing that someone is in the house at night, watching her as she sleeps in her study—is the feeling that she needs to solve Nina’s murder. She believes that Nina’s spirit is left behind, waiting for someone to bring her justice.
As she digs for information—and, some might say, obsesses about the case—the search takes Alice in some strange directions. She becomes suspicious of just about everyone. And, really, it’s no surprise that some of the neighbors start questioning her sanity.
For the most part, the story moves along at a deliberate pace, giving Alice plenty of time to dig for clues between lunching with the neighbors. Still, the pace does eventually pick up toward the end. And all of the suspects and red herrings do eventually make for an intriguing—if not entirely surprising—read.
Life in The Circle isn’t what it seems, and the residents seem to have more than their share of secrets. That makes The Therapist a suspenseful novel, though some of the suspense sometimes feels forced. And while the conclusion does work, it doesn’t necessarily feel satisfying.
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