Domestic noir The Therapist is the lead thriller debut for 2021 by MacLehose Press. It is the debut novel by psychologist turned author Helene Flood. Originally published in Norway in 2019, rights have now been sold in more than 28 languages with more than 150,000 copies sold in Norway, Sweden and Spain. Film rights have been bought by production company Anonymous Content. The book has won the 2020 Mauritz Hansen Prize for best Norwegian Crime Debut and was nominated for the Swedish Book of the Year 2020 and the 2019 Norwegian Bookseller’s Prize.

Set close to Oslo, the story is told in a refreshing first person narrative by Sara who is a self-employed therapist living with her husband Sigurd. He works for himself as an architect as part of a partnership. One early morning Sara wakes up briefly to hear Sigurd saying goodbye before she falls back asleep again. He has planned to spend a few days with a couple of friends in a cabin somewhere in the countryside. A few hours after waking she receives a voicemail from him in which he states that he and his friends have arrived.

We then follow Sara though the routines of her say as she meets one of her troubled patients Vera. Through her thoughts we understand that the old house they are living with was inherited from Sigurd’s grandfather and the couple had big plans to modernise the house and make it their own. Sara ponders how her husband’s work has prevented this from happening but actually from her own thought processes we can tell that she is a serious procrastinator who avoids doing anything that can be done at a later date.

When later she is contacted by her husband’s friends who inform her that her husband has not arrived, she comes to the realization that Sigurd has almost certainly lied about where he was. She cannot contact him but replays the voicemail many times as this uncomfortable feeling remains with her. Her condition worsens with an impression that someone has moved things in her house. We see how she interacts with her mother-in-law Margrethe, her sister Annika and her “Pappa” none of which she feels particularly comfortable being in the presence of. When she has reported her husband’s disappearance ito the police, she encounters Gundersen who is the main investigator. He makes it clear that he has suspicions about her, led partly by her rash decision to delete the voicemail which was the one evidence that Sigurd was well when he contacted her.

The Therapist is most effective at demonstrating how lost a person can become once they have isolated themselves from everyone apart from their partner. It does lead to pity but also some frustration with the main protagonist – is she really a reliable person? Despite her predicament she still wishes to continue to meet her patients, even when the police officers are in her house.

There is a clever twist late in the book with a shock encounter where Sara starts to get the answers she needs. While the first person narrative allows us to know Sara’s innermost thoughts, the one weakness to this is that as the single narrator, the reader has to find out at the time as her about some concluding investigations in the case. Nevertheless The Therapist is a highly impressive debut novel from an emerging voice in Norwegian fiction which provides a distinctive approach to the genre.

Sara, a Therapist for young adults is married to architect Sigurd. They have moved into his late grandfathers house and major renovations are taking place. Sigurd leaves for a trip with the boys, he calls to say hes arrived safe and well but later that evening his friends call Sara to say he hasn't shown up. Days later Sigurd is found murdered. Why did he lie to Sara and who is the killer?

This was a bit of a strange one for me. Instead of us reading about the police investigating Sigurds murder, we stay with Sara so we only know the snippets she is told.

As we follow Sara, we discover life isn't rosy for her and for someone offering therapy, she seems to happily ignore her own problems. Even though we know she had it tough, I didn't warm to her character at all.

My copy didn't have chapters so it was hard to know when to stop and I feel like the book lost some of the atmosphere it could have built up but I wonder if the story has lost something by being translated?

All in all, I really enjoyed reading it. The book isn't as fast paced as I normally like my thrillers but this is more pyschological and has enough twists and turns to keep you engaged.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for my advanced copy.

Really enjoyed this book, liked the genre and wanted to keep reading! Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Not as dark and creepy as I'd have expected. I'm used to nordic thriller being a lot more "get under your skin" and leave you jumping at every noise in your own home for the next wk! This isn't one of those ebooks though. Its quite slow paced but it does engage you and have enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. I read it about a week ago and can't really remember too much about it so that probably says a lot however, I think it's just because it's quite a light, easy read rather than due to anything lacking about the story. It is a decent wee storyline just more toward the tamer end of the scale.

A very slow moving plot, this ambled along to the end where you finally find out what’s what. That being said I found the relationship flashbacks incredibly interesting and well written. I also liked the feelings of the therapist.

An amazing book. Well written. Keeps you wanting more. Can’t wait for the next one by this author. Brilliant

Nordic Noir at its best!
Sara - A child psychiatrist married to Sigurd, seemingly unhappy with both situations.
Sigurd - A frustrated architect, craving recognition for his work as his wife goes unnoticed.
Deciding to go away for the weekend, Sigurd rings his wife to let her know he has arrived. Several hours later, Sara answers the phone to Sigurd’s friend, informing her he hasn’t shown up. And so begins the investigation into Sigurd’s disappearance . . . . . . .

The Norwegian setting, the back story of Sara and Sigurd’s relationship, the well observed characters and the compelling writing, not to mention the wicked twists make this a five star read. I absolutely loved this creepy domestic thriller. Comes highly recommended from me!

Working as a therapist myself I was very keen to read this book. It kept me guessing from the start but I was a little disappointed to find it lost its way around the middle of the book.. I think it was because it had to go back to give some reasons behind the characters actions. I just found my mind drifting in these sections.
It did seem to come together again towards the end and it was saved by a nice little twist. I still thoroughly enjoyed reading and finding out what happened to the therapists missing husband. I don't want to say too much about the plot but I would definitely recommend this book for an easy read.

Excellent Scande-noir thriller. Superbly paced with a slow burn plot that makes you question your own sanity as the protagonist starts to question hers. Sara, the therapist of the title is having a normal day, her husband Sigurd has gone hunting with his friends but then she gets a call from the friends that he never showed up - weird because he had called her earlier and said he was at the cabin......
Twisting and turning in and out of the secrets in a marriage and the bonds of family this is a satisfying read with a twist I didn't see coming - always a bonus.

The Therapist is a story from Sara's life. She is a psychologist and works with teenagers. At the first impression, her life seems normal - she's an independent therapist, her husband Sigurd is an architect, they renovate the house. But is everything alright? Something does not match here, and Sigurd has been murdered. There will be secrets hidden by many lies.
Helene Flood wrote this book in a specific way. If you are looking for a book with lots of action, this is not for you. On the other side, if you are a connoisseur of psychological thrillers and looking for more from the content, The Therapist is for you. It is interesting how the author constructs the book. You will not know Sigurd, so you cannot develop any feelings for him, especially about the loss of his person. It seems like the reader should be objective about upcoming events, without any special bond with other characters. I was really intrigued about Sara and her thoughts, memories and feelings, how she receives the world around her, her motives and outcomings. Then at some point, you realise that life is more complicated than it looks like in the first place. I was surprised about the unexpected twist at the end and who was the killer.
When I looked at the cover, I thought about a quiet, calm but thrilling atmosphere. Like everything needs to have a special place and time in the world. Nothing is coincidental and definitely needs to be explained. Sara will look for an explanation, even if it could hurt her much more. The two chosen colours on the cover are also not accidentally selected - how many shades of grey it could be? And it shows the specifics of Sara's story.
The book is definitely for mature readers. I enjoyed reading it and would highly recommend it.

Thank you, NetGalley and QuercusBooks and MacLehose Press, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is described as a ‘chilling domestic thriller’ so I was really looking forward to reading it. It’s translated from Norwegian so I was expecting a very dark and sinister story.

Sara and Sigurd are married and renovating Sigurd’s late grandfather’s house. Sigurd is going away on a skiing trip with friends, and leaves a voicemail message for Sara to let her know he’s arrived. That evening, Sara receives a worried phone call from Sigurd’s friends to say he hasn’t turned up.

Sara has a bit of a rough time, not only is her husband missing, but she thinks there’s an intruder repeatedly breaking into her house and moving things to unsettle her. The police aren’t convinced and assure Sara that her husband will probably turn up.

The story is told from Sara’s point of view and switches between the present day, the years of her marriage and some memories from her childhood.

Despite being a therapist, Sara seems to ignore any problems in her marriage in the hopes they’ll go away. She comes across as a very lonely woman.
I couldn’t warm to her character at all and didn’t really like any of the characters. Other than Sara, they all felt quite under developed and forgettable.

I found the book really slow and kept waiting for it to pick up the pace, unfortunately this didn’t happen. I didn’t find it sinister or creepy at all. The setting had such potential for some spooky scenes and it could have been a dark story.

Unfortunately this book really fell flat for me and I didn’t enjoy it much. I didn’t work out whodunnit, but I wasn’t that bothered. The ending was a bit of a disappointment too.

Thanks to Quercus Books and NetGalley for an advance copy for review.

The protagonist of this novel, Sara, is a psychologist, married to Sigurd, an architect. Both have recently left jobs within established companies to set up on their own and move into a large house inherited from Sigurd’s grandfather. It all sounds very idyllic and middle class. However, we learn that Sigurd’s mother had left on a long holiday and had asked Sigurd and Sara to keep an eye on her father, Old Torp. They had clearly taken the responsibility quite lightly and when they finally clear time to drive over and see him, we learn, he had been dead for several weeks. It is this house that they have now moved into, with all of those memories ever-present.

This incident sets the tone for the entire book. There is a lot of darkness hidden beneath a calm exterior and we clearly cannot rely upon our narrator’s viewpoint. The more that we learn of Sigurd’s family, friends and co-workers, the more we doubt the veracity of the characters we began the novel with and then we are introduced to Sara’s own family and their strange dynamic. Before long, we suspect everyone and everything that we thought we knew.

This is a clever novel, deliberately playing with our perception of how people should behave in different and difficult situations. I see that some readers have mentioned that they didn’t like Sara’s character and I understand their frustration as I have had a similar issue myself with some books. Here however, it seems to me part of the plot device and necessary.

With thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books & MacLehose Press for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Wow this book was amazing! It was about Sara whose husband goes missing after going way to a cabin. He leaves her a voicemail - which she deletes. Then the police take an interest in why she did and why he has subsequently disappeared. This books was very creepy - in a good way. She is a physiologist and there is so many themes that come back to this that it has you on the edge of your seat. I was a little bit worried that it was a translation from Norwegian- but I need not have worried - it was fantastically translated and had a brilliant plot! It’s currently 99p on kindle and well worth it!

Sara, a psychologist for troubled teenager and her husband, an architect are a married couple living in a house they inherited and in a middle of refurbishment. The house , like their marriage , is on stand by. Both trying to build a life they imagined but struggling to build it. And like the house, Sara and Sigurd are fragile characters.
it is not long before the reader enters the drama of the couple; Sigurd is found dead , killed in a cabin, miles from where he was supposed to be.
Unlike other crime novels, the police investigation is not described, instead the reader stays with Sara. the reader follows Sara in a sleepwalking, naïve and sometimes paranoiac state. While Sara is questioning her own sanity, the reader is also wondering if we are reading something more than a crime novel. Are we being manipulated by the writer, the character?
This is definitely a book that left me pounding about the role of the reader. I am a reader of Nordic Noir but I was surprised by the style of the book where very little happens because I have become the woman who tries to grasp the idea that someone killed my husband.

I read the book in a few sittings because wandering in Sara's world felt cold and like Sara, I felt lost, perplexed and alone.

I quite enjoyed this book, it was rather creepy, with a definite Nordic feel. I did find it a bit hard to really engage with and found my interest waning a bit towards three quarters of the way through. However it was quite a good read with some rather strange characters.
Interesting

I was intrigued by the set up but then found the story a little slow and introspective. I wasn't sure I really cared about her husband as we never really meet him.

I received the ARC in exchange for an honest review thanks to NetGalley. I thought this novel was quite fast-paced which I love. I love that it gets right into the plot. Typically I hate books that I can predict, but with this novel that wasn’t the case. I kept trying to figure it out, but couldn’t. Didn’t expect the ending at all. Although thought the ending could’ve definitely been better… This book is a must read!


#TheTherapist #Netgalley

I found this book quite difficult to get into and struggled to connect with the characters. An interesting premise and there was a twist that did explain everything but it wasn’t a book I raced through with anticipation rather a chore I’m afraid

I didn’t know this was translated from Norwegian but it does have that scandi noir feel to it. I really enjoyed it and I wouldn’t of picked this book up in a book shop but was kindly gifted it from NetGalley so thank you. Was a really good read !

I received a copy of this e-arc in exchange for an honest review thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books.

I didn’t realise this was a translated work. Had I have known that, I probably wouldn’t have requested it.

The version that I received wasn’t chaptered properly, it was just 1 piece of continuing text, which made it a bit difficult to know when to be able to pause/take a break. It does have dates in italic on some of the pages which I presume is in placement of chapter numbers.

It was okay, not fantastic, but I loved the plot of the book. I do think that this book would make a fantastic film!

I liked Sara’s character, though she did annoy me at times. I loved the imagery of her house, it sounds so luxurious and modern.

There were some plot twists but nothing overly shocking. It was quite flat and boring in chunks so it took me a while to plough through it.