The Patient

A richly imagined novel in which the elements of suspense grow organically from the characters’ lives. Fifty-something Rachel, a doctor, has a tidy, if dull, life with her husband of many years, a medical practice she enjoys, and a beautiful home in the cathedral town of Salisbury. Her one regret is adult daughter Lizzie, who is totally over her mother (“Take a break Mum, stop texting me!”). When French painter Luc walks into Rachel’s office—he and his family are new to town and he’s experiencing psychological issues—the attraction is immediate, although left unfulfilled. Meanwhile, Rachel suspects she is being followed, her husband is acting weirdly, and Lizzie is keeping something from her. Eventually she and Luc reunite and—professional ethics be damned!—initiate their affair while in the south of France. Affairs can peter out, some manage to live on in secrecy, while others are exposed, creating scandal. But Rachel and Luc’s relationship razes their world—leading to murder, incarceration, and abandonment. Way to throw away those middle-class inhibitions! Readers will be seduced by Shemilt’s ability to gradually build a story, leading us from the mundane to the miraculous.