The Unraveling

A grieving psychiatrist falls for a potentially dangerous patient in the shocking debut thriller from romance novelist Keeland (The Spark). Meredith McCall’s life was upended when her husband, professional hockey player Connor Fitzgerald, started abusing drugs and alcohol after a career-ending injury, then died in a drunk driving accident. In the aftermath, Meredith has grown obsessed with Gabriel Wright, whose wife and daughter were killed in the crash. She’s surprised when Gabriel walks into her office one afternoon, and even more stunned when she agrees to take him as a patient, fearing she’d give away her identity—and the fact that she’s been following him—if she declined. Soon, their relationship crosses the line from professional to romantic, and Keeland unveils, in alternating timelines, the circumstances that led Gabriel to select Meredith as his therapist. Is he playing a long game for revenge? Might Meredith’s memories of Connor’s accident be less than reliable? The tone is a little soapy, but Keeland keeps the twists coming hard and fast, and few readers will be able to predict them. This satisfies. Agent: Kimberly Brower, Brower Literary. (July)