Review: High Society

Title: High Society
Author: Daniel Kalla
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Tandem Collective
Format: Paperback
Release Date: May 28, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

From internationally bestselling author Daniel Kalla comes a twisty psychological thriller about a pioneering psychiatrist hiding dark secrets, in the vein of The Golden Couple by Hendricks and Pekkanen and Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty.

At sixteen, Holly Danvers barely survived the car accident that killed her father. While she has no memory of the crash, it took an ayahuasca treatment, a native plant-based psychedelic therapy, in the jungles of Peru for her to emotionally recover. Twenty years later, Holly is a sought-after psychiatrist determined to use her expertise with psychedelics to treat patients suffering from addictions. Ignoring the risks, she embarks upon an unproven new protocol with miraculous results. But her success in probing the traumas of her patients and the secrets they keep is short-lived.

When one celebrity client goes public with his recovery and another overdoses after accusing Holly of improprieties, her world is turned upside down. With her career on the line, Holly reaches out to her mentor—and estranged husband—Dr. Aaron Laing, for advice and comfort. But he has a different agenda, and it soon becomes clear that it will be up to Holly alone to figure out why her clients are relapsing and dying. To accomplish that, she will have to risk her life and revisit her own deep-seated trauma.

Review:

At sixteen, Holly Danvers was in a car accident that killed her father. Her grandfather took her on a trip so South America where she was given psychedelics to recover from the trauma, which inspired her future work as a psychiatrist. Now, twenty years later, Holly is working with a group of patients to use psychedelics to overcome their addictions. It’s a risk because it isn’t an official treatment. However, after one experimental treatment, one of her patients accuses Holly of abusing her. The patient overdoses before she can go public with her accusations. Holly suspects there’s something more to the sudden overdose, which is followed by more suspicious behaviour from her patients. Holly must figure out what’s happening with her patients before her career is ended. 

This was such a great thriller! I don’t like medical things in books, so I was a little skeptical about this one, but the medical scenes were fairly short. The chapters were short, which made it a fast paced read. I was surprised at the ending because the person I suspected wasn’t behind everything. I highly recommend this thrilling page turner!

High Society is a great thriller!

Thank you Tandem Collective and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book. 

Content warnings: addiction, overdose, suicide, murder, needles, hallucinations, fire, car accident

Have you read High Society? What did you think of it?