Alex Michaelides books are not all created equal, and I say that as someone who has read all three of his novels. Before he wrote a single thriller, Michaelides trained in psychotherapy for three years and spent two of them at the Northgate Clinic’s adolescent unit, treating teenagers with complex mental illness. That work shows up directly in his fiction. His first two books, The Silent Patient and The Maidens, are both five-star favorites for me. The Fury, his third, is a clear step down (I gave it four stars, though my private note at the time said 3.5, which is closer to the truth). This is his entire published catalog to date. He has not announced a fourth novel, so this ranking will stand until he does.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Silent Patient (Celadon Books, February 2019) follows Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist who becomes obsessed with treating Alicia Berenson, a celebrated painter who shot her husband five times and then never spoke another word. Theo takes a post at The Grove, the secure London psychiatric unit holding her, convinced he can get her to talk. Michaelides’s debut was the biggest-selling first novel in the world in 2019, sold in a record forty-nine countries, and spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list. It also won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Mystery & Thriller that year. The clinical detail rings true because it is true: Michaelides spent three years studying psychotherapy before he wrote this, and the therapy sessions never feel like research, they feel like observation. The twist is the most-discussed ending of any thriller I read that year, and it earns itself. Of his three books, this is the one I would keep on the favorites shelf without a second thought.
This one is for you if you want the thriller that everyone was talking about in 2019 and still is. Find The Silent Patient on Goodreads.
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
The Maidens (Orion Publishing, UK, June 2021; Celadon Books, US, June 2021) follows Mariana Andros, a grieving group therapist, after a member of her niece’s friend group is murdered at Cambridge. Mariana becomes convinced that Edward Fosca (a charismatic Greek Tragedy professor whose secret society of devoted students calls itself “The Maidens”) is responsible, despite his airtight alibi. Michaelides’s second novel was an instant New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2021 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Mystery & Thriller (it did not win; that year’s award went to Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me). Miramax Television and Stone Village optioned it for a series. The Cambridge setting and the Greek tragedy thread give this one an atmosphere The Silent Patient does not attempt, and the secret-society premise is the most purely gothic thing Michaelides has written. I gave it five stars too. It sits just behind The Silent Patient only because Mariana’s fixation on Fosca runs a shade longer than the mystery strictly needs.
This one is for you if you want a campus thriller with real academic texture instead of a generic ivy backdrop. Find The Maidens on Goodreads.
The Fury by Alex Michaelides
The Fury (Celadon Books, US, January 2024; Michael Joseph, UK, February 2024) follows Lana Farrar, a reclusive former movie star, who invites her closest friends to Aura, her private Greek island near Mykonos, for an Easter getaway. A fierce Aegean wind the locals call “the fury” strands the group on the island. A body turns up in a pool of blood before the police can cross the water. Elliot Chase, a struggling writer who has lived inside Lana’s orbit for years, narrates the weekend, and it becomes clear well before the end that his account cannot be fully trusted. Michaelides’s third novel was an instant New York Times bestseller on release. It is his most deliberate use of an unreliable narrator, more explicit than anything in his first two books, and the smaller, more intimate cast (seven people, one island) is a real departure from the clinic and the university. I gave it four stars, though 3.5 was the number I actually wrote down at the time. The narrator gimmick is the most ambitious swing of the three books, and it does not land with quite the same clarity as the twists in the first two.
This one is for you if you want Michaelides at his most unreliable, and you don’t mind a twist that takes some work to trust. Find The Fury on Goodreads.
If you are new to Alex Michaelides, start with The Silent Patient. It is the book that made him a bestseller, and it is still the clearest example of what he does best. This covers all three of his novels to date. He has not confirmed a title or release date for a fourth, so I have nothing left of his to read until he does. If you want another thriller built entirely around a single twist, Riley Sager is worth a look for the same one-sitting pull. For more, my list of best thrillers for beginners covers where to start with the genre. Find me on Instagram and Goodreads — I’d love to know which one you read first.