Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match" where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It's our great pleasure to present Lucy Ashe!
Writes:
Psychological novels in atmospheric settings about the dark and hidden passions of the human mind. THE MODEL PATIENT is an unsettling and suspenseful novel about a fashion model turned housewife in 1960s London who develops a dangerous obsession with her psychotherapist. It’s about control, the roles we play that define us, and seductive but troubling power dynamics in therapy.
My novels have a vintage feel, with THE MODEL PATIENT set in 1963, a transitional time between the conservatism of the 1950s and the sexual revolution of the Swinging Sixties. THE MODEL PATIENT examines challenges for women that resonate today, such as access to birth control, women’s autonomy over their bodies, and attitudes to mental health. My first two novels, THE DANCE OF THE DOLLS and THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES are gothic historical novels about ballet dancers in 1930s and 40s England, rich with historical detail and driven by obsessive, destructive relationships as well as powerful female friendships.
About:
From the UK but currently living in Brooklyn with my husband and baby girl, Lyra, I used to be a ballet dancer before changing career plans and going to Oxford University to read English Literature. My first two novels are set in the world of ballet in the 1930s and 1940s, and were inspired by my passion for dance. In my writing, I love to tap into my emotional world. I wrote THE MODEL PATIENT as a creative way to understand and cope with a traumatic and intense experience in psychotherapy.
I’m looking for readers who:
● Want to be unsettled and intrigued, taken into the darker corners of the human mind
● Are drawn to complex characters with real flaws and obsessions - you might not like all my characters, but you will feel what they are feeling!
● Love immersive period settings, particularly the turbulence and fast social change of the 1960s
● Are fascinated by psychology, by the way we hide from ourselves and others, and by how painful and how powerful it is to relive the past.
What to expect if we're compatible:
● In THE MODEL PATIENT, expect to be swept along by an intense therapy relationship with twisting and turning power dynamics.
● A slice of life in the mid-twentieth century, packed with changing fashions, music (The Beatles!!), food, drink (think too much BabyCham!), and issues central to women’s lives - marriage, the contraceptive pill, controlling expectations and conventions…
● Obsessive and destructive relationships that pull you in even when you want to turn away.
● Tension, forbidden relationships, sexual fantasies spilling into a dangerous reality
● My Instagram account about books I’m loving, my Brooklyn life with my baby, my writing process, and my fascination with psychotherapy. And maybe some London and UK travel recommendations every now and again.
A psychological tour-de-force about obsession, control, and the dangerous relationship between a therapist and patient in 1960s London.
Evelyn Westbrook has given up her career as a model and wants to find fulfilment in married life. But when her husband suggests they start trying for a baby, everything begins to unravel. Struggling to cope with crippling nightmares, Evelyn takes the advice of a friend and goes to see a psychotherapist. She is apprehensive about exposing her intimate issues: what she absolutely does not want to do is unearth the secrets of her past. The enigmatic Dr. Daley, however, is determined to take her back there, and she soon finds herself drawn to him. Evelyn’s interest in her therapist turns to obsession, and she becomes locked in a powerful relationship where the question of whether he is caring for her or manipulating her becomes impossible to untangle.
Suspense Psychological [ Union Square & Co., On Sale: April 14, 2026, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781454960775 / ]
Lucy Ashe is the author of THE DANCE OF THE DOLLS and CLARA & OLIVIA (shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger 2024), and THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES. Her latest novel, THE MODEL PATIENT, will be published in April 2026. She trained at the Royal Ballet School, before changing career plans and going to St Hugh's College, Oxford University, to study English Literature. She is an English and Drama teacher.
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