The Patient’s Secret by Loreth Anne White is a suspenseful psychological crime thriller novel, and boy is it a good one! Amazon Prime offered users a choice of one Amazon Select Kindle novel for free in the month of December 2024. All the users had to do is select a free First Read book, and they’d automatically be able to select an additional select Kindle novel. I’m so glad I’ve chosen The Patient’s Secret. It revolves around an actual true crime that took place in the small city of Medicine Hat of Alberta, Canada in 2006. While a lot of the book is fictional, the events and core of the story is based on that gruesome true crime. It’s unbelievable and sad once you learn about. However, fair warning to all in that there are a few scenes in the book that depicts of violence, death and a lot of blood. If you’re not of the squeamish type, The Patient’s Secret is one hell of a novel.

Everyone is running from something. That is one of the main themes of the novel. In a lavish coastal town of Story Cove, the lives of what seems to be a perfect family of wife, husband, son and daughter are thrown into chaos once a woman’s body is found on the beach. All fingers initially point to the husband, but it’s clear soon enough that the wife is also not without her own secrets that she’s kept hidden for so many decades. As the woman’s death and story told through quick flashbacks come into play, the drama starts to unfold and quickly engulfs the lives of neighbors as well. It obviously sounds cliché when described that way, as don’t all mystery crime thrillers start out that way? Regardless, without giving too much away, The Patient’s Secret is just one of those novels that grips you from the moment you start until the very end. Oh, especially the end!

I got a bit scared when the story started out a bit slow, but I had to keep reminding myself that an author needs to take their time to set everything up right and not rush into things. For my reward, things truly were fleshed out, slowly but surely. With quick flashbacks, we see how everyone’s relationship was with each other and how it ended up with a dead woman on a beach. I believe the real time events of the story takes place only within a couple of days and the rest were flashbacks to anchor it down. I loved the ending. The last half quarter of the book was wild enough for me to skip morning breakfast to just power it through. Everything from the final confrontation to the killer reveal was excellent. I had thought that I found some loose ends that weren’t mentioned, but sure enough, the author came to the rescue at literally the very last minute to explain it away. Great job!