Shrink Solves Murder

by Philippa Perry

***THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR***

**OVER THREE MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE**

'Fantastic wickedly witty, with delightful, quirky characters and a cracking plot' JAQUELINE WILSON
'An assured and hugely enjoyable murder mystery debut. It's brilliant!' RICHARD COLES
'A joy. Cosy crime with a side order of psychological insight' JENNIE GODFREY

Her 3 o’clock just became a murder case...

When a body washes up near Beachy Head, the Police chalk it up to suicide — a tragic but not uncommon end in these parts.

But local psychotherapist Patricia Philipps isn’t convinced.

The victim? Her three o’clock patient, Henry Clayton.
The cause? Supposedly self-inflicted.
The truth? Pat suspects murder and she’s trained to spot what others miss.

After all, she spends her days listening to secrets, resentments, fantasies and motives. And she’s certain someone wanted Henry Clayton dead.

With her chaotic best friend Pritchard in tow (part-time brewer, full-time meddler), Pat swaps the therapy room for the crime scene. It’s time to unpick the lies, untangle the egos and catch a killer hiding in plain sight.

Shrink Solves Murder is a warm, witty and wise crime caper from the nation's favourite therapist.

Kindle Edition

Expected publication May 7, 2026

About the author

Philippa Perry, author of How to Stay Sane, is a psychotherapist and writer who has written pieces for The Guardian, The Observer, Time Out, and Healthy Living magazine and has a column in Psychologies Magazine. In 2010, she wrote the graphic novel Couch Fiction, in an attempt to demystify psychotherapy. She lives in London and Sussex with her husband, the artist Grayson Perry, and enjoys gardening, cooking, parties, walking, tweeting, and watching telly.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/philip...

Reviews

[Denis Wheller · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a body is found in the sea at the foot of a cliff famous for suicides one’s first thought is ‘another suicide’. The police certainly think that, when Henry Clayton’s body is found in such a position. Henry’s Psychotherapist, Dr Patricia Philipps, is convinced that Henry would not have committed suicide – after all she has been inside his mind for some time – but the local police are obdurate in their verdict. The cliff beneath which Henry was found is close to her home in a small village, so she knows the terrain and can easily investigate the location, and also knows all the local people. Recruiting her friend and neighbour, Pritchard Knowles, they begin to analyse what they know, and what they find. Suspicion falls on Henry’s London based boyfriend, but also on an incomer who plans to construct a vast Hotel/Spa/Golf course on the edge of the village, or perhaps the hedonist couple next door. However, in the absence of any real clues they have to assume that everyone around them is a possible culprit. Can this unlikely pair of sexagenarians prove murder and discover the killer?
There is a category called cosy crime, but this story is more like snug crime. The plot is undemanding, albeit well written, and the characters are well enough constructed, albeit a bit obvious. Given the investigator being a psychologist, one might expect that to be an important aspect of the investigation, and be disappointed to realise that it isn’t. Coincidences are necessary in most murder-mysteries, but are overstretched here. One thing that worries me is the attitude of the local police – which seem to be just a detective sergeant and a uniformed constable (and a couple indolent in the office). Although they are entitled to make a judgement of probable suicide, they would await forensics and the postmortem before making a decision, but they seem to have none of the former and no findings from the latter. So a pleasant, easy read with a slightly surprising conclusion, but not very true to life. I'm giving it three stars but it’s quite borderline.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Shrink Solves Murder" is about a therapist who lives in the South Downs and learns that one of her clients has fallen off a nearby cliff in an apparent suicide. She suspects murder.

I think this is the first "cozy crime" book I have read, and I may be judging it harshly by the standards of the genre, but I didn't get on with the book.

The plot is motivated by two implausible points. The first is that the therapist's client, whom see saw from his London home via Zoom, would turn out to have a connection to her tiny community that for some reason he never mentioned despite being an honest and innocent witness to his life in other respects. The second is that the police would refuse to consider the idea of murder after cursory enquiries even when the therapist brings forward plausible concerns. These two points lead the therapist to take it upon herself to investigate the death.

However, she doesn't really investigate the death with much gusto, instead learning things pretty much by chance in the course of village life. I thought that the book would involve the therapist-detective making acute psychological assessments of the suspects to find the culprit, but although there are some interesting psychological vignettes (the best written parts of the book), these are basically irrelevant to the plot and the solution does not depend on psychology at all. This was disappointing because I thought that the lack of psychological material would be made up for in a Poirot-like conclusion, but this doesn't happen.

On a wider note, the author does not have a distinctive voice and, apart from the psychological vignettes, anyone could have written this book. The identity of the author as a successful and celebrated therapist is redundant to the end product. Of course, it is impossible to lots of disparate things brilliantly, and I am not critical of the author for trying her hand at detective fiction, but I came away feeling that I should have read something else.

I am grateful to have received a review copy from Cornerstone and NetGalley.

[Mrs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book from start to finish. A body is washed up near Beachey Head and the Police decide it was suicide. The Detective Sargeant is adamant not to pursue it as murder as it would mess up her crime rate figures. Dr Patricia Phillips was a lawyer and now is a psychotherapist. Henry Clayton, the one found was one of her patients. She had never met him other than on zoom and she was convinced that he would not have killed himself. He was planning to visit her and Patricia was surprised he was in the local area the day before their appointment. She becomes a nuisance to the Police and decides to investigate his death herself with the help of a neighbour Pritchard Knowles (I loved this character). They bundle along blindly as there does not seem to be any clues but bit by bit they piece the story together. They decide there are several people in the frame and start to eliminate them one by one. It does not help Patricia’s mood as there is a rumour that a Spa and a Golf Course will be built on her doorstep and her newish neighbours are driving her crazy. She has a lot to contend with. The neighbours are very free and easy – enough said. She goes from one drama to the other with a need to solve all. Eventually the crime is solved and all the other things which irritated her come to conclusions. Her daughter has visited and helped with this and that has made her very happy. A charming book

[Tracy Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Psychotherapist Patricia Philipps likes living on the south coast, her small cottage suits her, and she can run her business from the shepherd hut in her garden. When one of her patients is found on the shore close to Beachy Head, the local police detective is convinced its suicide. Pat, however, thinks otherwise. She was sure Henry Clayton wasn't suicidal. He was just very confused about his way forward with a violent partner. The police aren't interested in her theories and so, along with her best friend, Prichard Knowles, Pat decides it’s up to her to get justice for the young man she had become quite fond of. With the distraction of a possible golf club and spa being built at the end of her garden, an elusive Mars bar wrapper dropping stranger, and new neighbours who live quite a hedonistic lifestyle she knows she needs to focus if justice is to be served.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Random House UK, Cornerstone, Hutchinson Heineman, but the opinions expressed are my own. The beginning of a new series, this was an interesting read. Pat grated on me to start with, but her heart was in the right place, and she softened as the story progressed. There was a definite lead into a second book at the end, which I will be on the lookout for.

[Farah G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who better than a psychiatrist - with all her insights into the human condition - to figure out the motives of a killer? Even more so, surely, when the victim (dismissed by the police as a case of suicide) is a patient of hers.

With the able assistance of her excellent bestie Pritchard, Pat is soon on the case, undeterred by her age and determined to find out what happened to her patient Henry, whom she did not consider suicidal in the least.

This is a humorous and enjoyable cosy crime caper, and will appeal to those who like reading the genre.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[WhatFrizRead · Rating 2 out of 5]

When the body of one of her clients is found washed up at the bottom of a cliff, Pat is not happy to accept the police verdict of 'Death by Suicide' and her own investigations begin.
With newcomers to their sleepy South Downs village coming under her suspicion, will Pat find out the truth?

This story is ok; the plot itself dragged a bit through predictability until the final few chapters when it picked up steam. The characters are largely likeable but not massively engaging as their back stories are quite complicatedly interwoven. A moment has to be taken for when the mail character plugs Perry's own piece of non-fiction... a book which I've read too and is much better than this one!

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would just like to say that I really love Philippa Perry and I was excited to see that she was having a go at cashing in on the cosy crime genre. However, the storyline of the murder was fairly tenuous.
That said I liked the characters and the village. Maybe the storyline could have been different. I would have liked more about Pat, Pritchard, Dorna, Sofe and Sue and less about the murder plot. But, I still found it enjoyable, even when she takes the opportunity to remind people to look after their mental health and plugs her own books. Very meta. A clever read. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for the ARC.

[Sandy Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry’s body is found on the beach near Beachy Head shortly before he was due at an appointment with his psychotherapist, Pat. The police decide it’s death by suicide, but Pat is not so sure, there was no indications from her meetings with Henry that he had any intention to do this. She is determined to find out the truth and calls upon her friend Pritchard to help her. Well written and I liked the characters and enjoyed how the plot developed. Hopefully, Pat will be doing more sleuthing in future books. My thanks to Net Galley and the author for an ARC

[Lola Dreamfire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Philippa Perry's non-fiction work as it has proven so informative professionally and personally. Her foray into fiction was no less impressive and I should not have been surprised given her ability to communicate effectively and with humour. This is a cozy piece of crime fiction with a character that is relatable and humorous. The wit and insight that is across Perry's other writing is evident here, but so too is an ability to create fictional characters you care about and want to stick with. I hope she writes more fiction (and non-fiction) going forward.

[Matt Johns · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant enough read although was hoping for a bit more meat to the story. It felt like there wasn't a lot of drama or twists to the tale, and one key plot point seemed to fizzle out a bit at the end.

Living close to Seven Sisters, where the book was set, it was interesting to have that local aspect to the story.

Was pleased to have read this but won't be rushing to re-read it.

[Susan Care · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant - Philppa Perry has written an excellent crime novel drawing on her own field of expertise, psychotherapy. Patricia Philipps is not convinced the body of her 3 o'clock appointment found on Beachy Head was a suicide. With the help of her best friend, Pritchard she sets out to solve the puzzle. I can't wait for the next one!

[Sarah Rossi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple, page turning cosy crime read. It won’t change your life but I very much enjoyed the colourful cast of characters, the friendships and the landscape. I also felt many of the details made this a much more ‘current’ read than often of this genre. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.

[Emma Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for a bit more from this one. Appreciate its badged as a cosy but this is a little too safe that at times the plot felt laboured. Some interesting characters and moments, but hasn't left me wanting more.

[Beachcomber · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars. I really enjoyed this mystery, which sees a therapist try to solve what she suspects is a murder, but the police are convinced was a suicide. A light and easy read, I hope there will be more from Perry.

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.