THE UNRAVELING by Vi Keeland

4 stars

This mind-flipping thriller has you constantly wondering: who’s the crazy one here? And honestly the constant plot surprises have you rethinking everything…again!

Dr. Meredith McCall, a talented NYC psychiatrist, loses her hockey-player-star husband Connor in a car crash in which her husband strikes and kills a young mother and daughter before striking a building. At the time he was struggling to cope with both a significant leg injury that occurred on the ice during a game, depression that he may not be able to play again, reliance on pain killers, and anger towards Meredith. Prior to his injury, Meredith thought they had an ideal marriage. She is crippled herself with depression over his loss. Meredith also feels profound guilt that her failure to more effectively intervene in his depression may have contributed to the accident.

After running across Gabriel Wright, the father of the mom and daughter who died and who Meredith recognizes from the hospital, she starts to follow him as she obsesses about how he’s doing. She sees him laughing, and wonders if he could possibly have recovered from his grief when she so spectacularly has not. Having had her practice suspended – for reasons that come out as the novel goes along – Meredith has time on her hands and starts to stalk Gabriel. As a psychiatrist, she knows she should know better, but cannot seem to help herself.

But just as Meredith listens to counsel by her therapist to let her obsession go and she gets the go-ahead from the Medical Board to reopen her practice – who should show up as a new patient but Gabriel! Does he not know who she is?! She cannot bring herself to turn him away- she justifies it as assuaging her guilt by trying to help him heal. She crosses ethical lines to treat him, and it doesn’t help that sexual sparks fly between them.

Next up, Meredith becomes aware that someone’s been stalking her. It’s a cat and mouse game, but who exactly is stalking whom? Just when you think you have things figured out, surprise twists catch you off guard. When I finished the last page, I had to sit there a long time shaking my head and struggling to absorb the shocking ending.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.