The Model Patient
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Apr 14, 2026
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A psychological tour-de-force about obsession, control, and the dangerous relationship between a therapist and patient in 1960s London.
Evelyn Westbrook has given up her career as a model and wants to find fulfilment in married life. But when her husband suggests they start trying for a baby, everything begins to unravel. Struggling to cope with crippling nightmares, Evelyn takes the advice of a friend and goes to see a psychotherapist. She is apprehensive about exposing her intimate issues: what she absolutely does not want to do is unearth the secrets of her past. The enigmatic Dr. Daley, however, is determined to take her back there, and she soon finds herself drawn to him. Evelyn’s interest in her therapist turns to obsession, and she becomes locked in a powerful relationship where the question of whether he is caring for her or manipulating her becomes impossible to untangle.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ashe (The Sleeping Beauties) draws readers in with this seductive story of obsession centered on a young wife and her enigmatic therapist in 1960s London. Evelyn Westbrook has felt lost ever since her marriage brought an abrupt end to her modeling career. She's spent recent months plagued by vivid nightmares and locked in a fight with her husband and his family about her decision to take birth control pills. To cope, she begins secret weekly therapy sessions with Dr. Daley, a Freudian psychologist. As Daley solicits intimate revelations from Evelyn, including that she was sexually abused as a teen, she grows both desperately attracted to him and infuriated by his dispassionate neutrality. Soon, Evelyn starts to unravel, and Ashe keeps readers deliciously uncertain about who's manipulating whom. By depicting the domestic and social pressures on Evelyn with meticulous realism, Ashe makes the character's possible descent into madness equal parts plausible and chilling. Evocative, empathetic, and ultimately empowering, this coiled psychological thriller will be catnip for fans of Alex Michaelides.
