The Doctor (ePub)

When Emily and Ben move to their new home, they find their neighbours a bit strange, but that’s just how it is at times. Even though Emily tries again and again to get in contact with Alisha, the woman refuses all kind of interaction. Only when one day, Emily accidentally stands in front of their house and hears cries for help, the neighbour thaws a bit. What she has to tell is awful: not only is she seriously ill, but the couple hides a disabled child in their home. Alisha is highly scared of her husband Dr Burman, an anaesthetist and control-freak who made her cut all bonds to her family and friends. The women work out how to trick him and for the next couple of weeks, they meet regularly in secret. But what Alisha always feared one day happens: her husband finds out about their meetings and swears that Emily will have to pay for intruding his house.

Lisa Stone’s thriller is an addictive and gripping story that captivates you at once and keeps you from putting the book down. The author reduced the characters to an absolute minimum, focussing on the two couples and their complex relationships. Especially the one between Mr and Mrs Burman is not only highly interesting, but – unfortunately - authentic and more than plausible. He is the prototype of an abusive husband who egoistically puts everybody and everything after his own will.

The plot is not very surprising, since you get all characters’ perspectives, you know what they are up to and what to await. Yet, this doesn’t reduce suspense even a bit, since the story is simply terrifying and fascinating in the most awful way. Mr Burman’s medical research in his shed directly comes from a science-fiction horror show, but, and that is the creepy part of it, what he is doing has been dreamt of by medical doctors and other researchers for centuries and now we seem to be in the possession of the knowledge and the means to make it reality.

I highly enjoyed reading this psychological thriller for its captivating and spine-tingling plot.