
The Therapist by Nicole Trope
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 8th August 2025
Published: 31st July 2025
★★★★ 3.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
Everyone thinks they can trust their therapist. We are good listeners. But what if we’re good liars, too?
The therapist: I love my job. People tell me their worries, their fears. Then Sandy becomes my patient. Something about her tears as she cries about her husband doesn’t feel right. But I tell her she can trust me. I promise to keep her secrets… for now.
The patient: I never should have married Mike. My head is a mess. All I want is for someone to listen. At least I can trust my therapist – she believes everything I say. And I’m going to show the world exactly what my dear husband is really like.
The husband: We used to be so happy. I just want my smiling, beautiful wife back. I was glad when Sandy signed up for therapy. But one day, Sandy doesn’t come home. I’m frantic. Then her therapist knocks on the door and says we need to talk… what has Sandy told her about our marriage?
Someone is missing. Someone is in danger. Someone is a liar. Who will you believe?
A completely unputdownable psychological thriller that will leave you not knowing who to trust, from million-copy bestseller Nicole Trope. Anyone who loves Shari Lapena or Lisa Jewell will be totally addicted!
MY THOUGHTS:
Good listener...good liar...?
Meet Lana. She's a therapist in private practice in Sydney's leafy suburbs and still bearing the emotional scars of her past. She was married to Oliver and together they had Iggy, now seven, until she discovered he was having an affair. Now he's married to a terminally happy and perfect woman named Becky. And Iggy adores her.
But she leaves her personal life behind when she comes to work. Although it's her personal life that has influenced the direction in which her professional life has taken as a therapist. After the tragedy of her past, she knew she wanted to help others better understand themselves and to help understand people better. She shares the practice with Ben, a psychologist from the UK. Everything is going smoothly until, against her better judgement, she takes on one of Ben's clients who has developed transference and is in complete and utter despair.
Meet Sandy. She comes to Lana on Ben's recommendation and confides that she is in a controlling and abusive marriage. She loves her husband but she doesn't love the way he lets his anger get the better of him. She just wants the husband she met and married back...before he hurts her, or worse - one of the children - Lila (5) and Felix (7).
Meet Mike. Sandy's husband is despair of his own. He cannot understand what is going on with his wife. One minute she's up, the next she's down. But either way she's always screaming or crying. He just wants his happy smiling wife back. He'll even go to therapy with her if it means it will help her.
And then Sandy disappears.
When Sandy doesn't show for her next appointment, Lana is worried. Sandy said something in the last session which gives her cause for concern now. She is certain her husband Mike knows more than he's letting on and against her better judgement (again) she goes around to Sandy's house to confront Mike and says that they need to talk. But Mike wonders what has Sandy said to her about their marriage. Surely she hasn't told her...everything?
Lana is caught in a tangled web of secrets, lies and uncertainty. She has crossed the boundaries between patient and therapist by turning up at her door but Lana finds herself questioning just exactly what is truth and what is fiction? She isn't sure what to believe anymore. And then the text message arrives.
"Help me Lana. I think he's going to kill me."
Lana knows whatever has happened, she needs to know that Sandy is safe. And Mike of course doesn't help himself by behaving just the way Sandy claims. It's a classic "he said/she said" with a complex twist. And Lana doesn't know what or who to believe.
Honestly, Mike and Sandy were a train wreck. But who do you believe? Lana has listened to them and watched them both and even she's confused, questioning her judgement as well as reality. What is truth and what is fiction? She can't quite tell. And Lana was a tough one to connect with. She didn't really open herself up at all so it was hard to know who she really was and how she was feeling or what she was thinking.
Like all of Trope's "tropes", this tale is multi-layered with tension and complexity, delving into psychological themes of trust and deception. The story was easily predictable but it didn't ruin it for me - it just wasn't completely surprising as we watch it unfold. Trope drip-feeds us little by little by the climax before pulling the rug out from under us to reveal what's really going on.
It was a slightly slower build than some of Trope's other offerings and I found both Lana and Sandy equally irritating that it was hard to slip into rhythm. But by the end, I had fairly enjoyed the ride. The ending was satisfactory though I would have liked to hear from that last final voice. When you read it, you will know what I mean. It would have been good to get that final perspective.
I would like to thank #NicoleTrope, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheTherapist in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature. After the birth of her first child she stayed home full time to write and raise children, renovate houses and build a business with her husband.
The idea for her first published novel, The Boy under the Table, was so scary that it took a year for her to find the courage to write the emotional story.
She is now published by Bookouture and is an Amazon top 100 bestseller in the USA, UK, AUS and CAN.
She lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.
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