Library Journal - Audio
02/01/2022
Unlicensed marriage counselor Avery Gordon refuses to alter her unprecedented, oft-ridiculed methods, even after the revocation of her license. Her confrontational 10-session couples' counseling strategy has strict rules but garners results for those who can adhere to her terms. When Marissa and Mathew Bishop arrive for their first session with Avery, they seem, at least on the outside, to be the proverbial golden couple, with money, beauty, a child—everything they could want. But behind the Bishops' perfect exterior is a relationship filled with secrets, lies, uncertainty, and cheating. As Avery employs her unconventional, hands-on methods to investigate the Bishops' problems, she begins to unravel their carefully curated lives. Told from two points of view, this novel unfolds chronologically, with a few flashbacks. Karissa Vacker and Marin Ireland masterfully narrate, with subtly changing inflections for each character (Avery's no-nonsense style; Marissa's often-unsure and scared voice), so listeners will always know who's speaking. Most impressive is Vacker and Ireland's ability to deftly mimic the voices of characters whose dialogue is heard from another character's perspective. Hendricks and Pekkanen's fourth thriller (following You Are Not Alone) has lots of twists—not all of them unexpected; not-so-subtle hints appear early on but are stubbornly ignored by the novel's protagonists until they realize much later what's been going on. VERDICT Fans of Gone Girl and Woman on the Train will enjoy the surprises, unreliable witnesses, and slow reveals in this thriller.—Lisa Youngblood
Publishers Weekly
12/06/2021
Risk taking has helped make Avery Chambers, the protagonist of this suspenseful if not always credible thriller from bestsellers Hendricks and Pekkanen (You Are Not Alone), the hottest mental health professional in Washington, D.C., but her maverick approach, at times incorporating techniques more typically employed by PIs (like tailing patients to check up on them), does have its dangers. Already on edge after making a whistleblower call to the FDA concerning a pharmaceutical company’s malfeasance, the recent widow starts to experience unsettling events, like what looks to be a professional break-in of her home, around the time she begins treating lawyer Matthew Bishop and his wife, boutique owner Marissa. Avery senses there’s much more going on with this power couple than their stated infidelity issue—but can even someone as resourceful as Avery get to the bottom of a relationship stretching back to the pair’s teens, and to the murder of Marissa’s best friend back then, in time to avert disaster? Though several of the twists seem forced, the authors keep the pages turning. This one represents a return toward the high standard of their early nail-biters. Agent: Margaret Riley King, WME (Mar.)
From the Publisher
Mystery Tribune’s Book of the Day
One of E! Online's Best of March titles
One of Mystery & Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of 2022
One of Goodreads Readers’ Most Anticipated Mysteries of 2022
One of the Nerd Daily’s The Most Anticipated 2022 Book Releases
One of Parade’s 28 Books We're Loving This Season
One of GMA.com’s 15 March Reads to Get You Through the Month
One of PopSugar’s 66 Thrillers That Will Give You Goosebumps, Best New Books of 2022 So Far, and 35
Must-Read Thrillers and Mystery Books to Keep You Chasing Clues in 2022
“Suspenseful. This one represents the high standard of their early nail-biters.” –Publishers Weekly
"The ending made total wacky sense — and was a complete surprise." —The New York Times
“The next Gone Girl.” –Reader’s Digest
"Wickedly clever... Hendricks and Pekkanen (The Wife Between Us) expertly build narrative tension... in this propulsive thriller." — Shelf Awareness
"My favorite kind of thriller: a guessing game filled with characters you care about and twists you don't see coming. An utterly compelling, spellbinding read." –– Lisa Jewell, author of Then She Was Gone and Invisible Girl
“Part domestic psychological drama, part cat-and-mouse page turner, The Golden Couple is one of those fiction books you might expect to devour in a weekend. The twisty tale of lies, lies, and more lies is perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Paula Hawkins.” –RD.com
"The Golden Couple is a propulsive, twisty, unputdownable thriller - with two heroines you won't be able to get enough of... and a twist you'll never see coming. Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have outdone themselves!" ––Laura Dave, author of The Last Thing He Told Me
"The Golden Couple is propulsive and thrilling. It grabbed me from the first page and didn't let go. A page-turner that will keep you guessing until the very end." –– Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising and Daisy Jones & the Six
"The Golden Couple is a riveting cat-and-mouse game of a novel that explores the intricacies of marriage, and the many ways in which people lie to themselves...and others. This is a psychological thriller in every sense of the word." –– Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
"Superior prose and intricate plot lines... [a] riveting story, "The Golden Couple" will suck you in." —Zibby Owens
Library Journal
10/01/2021
Never mind that Avery Chambers's approach to therapy is so controversial that she's lost her license. Marissa Bishop willingly signs up herself and her husband because Avery says she'll take on only clients whose problems she can mend in ten sessions. Marissa intends to confess her infidelity, but far more dangerous secrets sneak into the room when the "golden" Bishops join their new therapist to talk. With a 350,000-copy first printing.
DECEMBER 2021 - AudioFile
Literary duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen deliver another electrifying new novel. Narrators Marin Ireland and Karissa Vacker dazzle as they deliver this twisted domestic thriller. Ireland expertly embodies Avery, a razor-sharp therapist who has lost her license for her unconventional methods and "10-session cure." Vacker's layered, emotionally driven portrayal of Marissa, the mysterious other half of “the Golden Couple,” keeps listeners on the edge of their seats. Both narrators shine in this multilayered psychological suspense, edgy down to the last twist. M.R.R. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-01-14
This Washington thriller achieves suspense mostly through misdirection.
At one point, a character wonders what another is really up to, but most of the characters here actually have hidden agendas. Case in point: Avery Chambers. As a therapist, she’s gone rogue, having lost her license thanks to unorthodox methods that include a combination of detective work, with all the data-mining and surveillance that entails, and prescriptive advice. She tells clients what to do—and sometimes does it for them. Matthew Bishop, a high-powered Washington lawyer, and Marissa, his wife, come to Avery for help. At the first session, Marissa confesses to infidelity with, she lies, a guy from her gym. Suddenly, this “curated Instagram” marriage is on the rocks. Can Avery salvage the relationship in her trademark 10 sessions and done? She cases the gym in question, the Bishops' opulent residence in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and looks into Marissa’s boutique and her slightly unhinged shop assistant, Polly. There's more to Marissa’s story than meets the eye, Avery thinks, somewhat superfluously. The truth could explode any chance of reconciliation. At times, Avery’s tactics seem unusually cruel, even sexist: She busts up one marriage where the wife is unduly controlling but appears to ignore her own initial suspicion that Matthew might be that way, too. Avery’s intrusiveness has made enemies, among them drug company Acelia, which she’s reported to the FDA on behalf of one of her clients who hesitated to be a whistleblower. The Acelia subplot feels superfluous, but it must be pivotal, because it takes up so much space while telling elements of backstory are withheld. There are some sharply observed class dynamics, and the final reversal is unexpected—but only because it is not foreshadowed. There’s a thin line between gaslighting characters and gaslighting readers, and this novel crosses it.
Replete with “huh?” moments.
