The Golden Couple

 

I do love a good psychological thriller. I was excited when I heard about The Golden Couple, co-authored by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. It sounded like a great book, making for a great blog post.

Avery Chambers is a psychotherapist who recently lost her license to practice because she used extremely unethical approaches to treat her clients, but that hasn’t stopped her. No longer held to industry standards, Avery is now free to apply unconventional methods of psychotherapy. She's a shrewd cookie when it comes to human behavior. Her insightfulness is throughout this book, which makes for enlightening reading. She takes on Marissa and Matthew Bishop – the golden couple. In their first session with Avery, an infidelity is confessed.

In the first few chapters, we are quickly immersed into Avery’s personal life. She's a young widow, but is dating someone, has a stepdaughter and adopts a dog. She's also made some dangerous enemies along the way. Because of this, Avery has to be extremely careful about her personal security – something that heightens this narrative’s suspense.

Likewise, a lot is learned about the Bishop family. They have an 8-year-old son name Bennett. Matthew is a lawyer. Marissa is a small business owner. They too have secrets of their own.

Avery’s techniques for treating Matthew and Marissa are indeed intriguing. She tells them that she needs “free reign in your lives”. What that means is that Avery does some independent detective work or snooping to find out more about them. She literally spies on Marissa and Matthew aggressively and uses the intel during therapy sessions. Avery senses the Bishops are a couple with many complexities. More so than most of her clients. She has to dig deep into their lives to gain more information about them.

Diving into these 3 characters’ lives and their interactions with each other, I sense something major is coming – a big twist. I'm paying close attention for clues. There are several secondary characters to keep an eye on as well.  All kinds of crazy scenarios about how this will play out are running through my mind. However, as I continue to read, I grow impatient waiting for this surprise to happen.

Inching towards the end of the story, the tension slowly, but surely escalates. Then, finally, secrets about Marissa and Matthew’s relationship are revealed.

While The Golden Couple is a bit slow in the middle, it has a gripping ending that kept me engaged and wanting to read more – a true psychological thriller with a conclusion fitting for this genre. Honestly, it kept me guessing until the end, particularly, about the true nature of these characters and their motivations. If you liked The Silent Patient or Girl on the Train, then I think you will really enjoy The Golden Couple.

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