Review: A Breath After Drowning by Alice Blanchard

Author: Alice Blanchard
Publisher: Titan Books
Date of publication: April 2018

Child psychiatrist Kate Wolfe's world comes crashing down when one of her young patients commits suicide, so when a troubled girl is left at the hospital ward, she doubts her ability to help. But the girl knows things about Kate's past, things she shouldn't know, forcing Kate to face the murky evidence surrounding her own sister's murder sixteen years before, bringing Kate face to face with her deepest fear.

In A Breath After Drowning, Kate is a child psychologist who loses a patient to suicide.  She begins to question her ability to help other patients.   Her next patient seems to have ties to her sister's murder years before.  Now, she is questioning everything she knows about what happened 16 years earlier. 

I really enjoyed this one.  I was sucked in right away. I liked Kate's character.  She is smart, strong and compassionate.  Yet she is also flawed because she still suffers from the effects of the childhood loss of her mother and the murder of her sister. I liked that she was still willing to treat Maddie, even after she found out who she was.  

The problem with reviewing psychological thrillers is being able to do it without giving away any key elements of the story.  This book is one that you are almost better off going into it without knowing much beyond the synopsis.  The book kept me guessing with several twists.  I was completely wrong at the reveal.  My only complaint about the book is that it was a bit slow to get going.  However, if you can make it past the 30% mark, it quickly picks up from there.  I highly recommend this one, especially if you like psychological thrillers.