The Client

A Domestic Psychological Thriller

Fiction - Thriller - Psychological
Kindle Edition
Reviewed on 04/28/2025
Buy on Amazon

Author Biography

Kat Goss has a passion for exploring strange ideas and reimagining normal situations through an alternative lens. Away from her screen, Kat enjoys unraveling the complexities of human nature and searching for the unusual in the usual.

Kat lives in Stanford, a heritage village in South Africa where she lives a quiet life with her wife and a small menagerie of animals.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Alma Boucher for Readers' Favorite

In The Client by Kat Goss, Natalie Kemp earned a good income for three years while working as an editor for Alan Peckin. However, Natalie suddenly stopped hearing from Alan entirely, without any explanation or new assignments. Natalie quickly began questioning her abilities, feeling that perhaps she had not performed well enough. Since Alan's projects constituted the bulk of her income, losing this caused her and her husband, David, to almost lose everything. As a freelancer, Natalie sought other job prospects, only to discover that none of the work she had completed for Alan had ever been published, leaving her without an official portfolio. One day, she received an email from Alan’s wife stating that he was missing and that she and her private investigator wanted to meet with Natalie. Despite David's objections, Natalie agreed to the meeting and soon found herself entangled in a situation that could jeopardize both her career and her marriage.

The Client by Kat Goss has all the elements of an exceptional psychological thriller. The story began with such a calm, almost serene tone that it was easy to overlook the tension simmering beneath the surface. As the story unfolded, that tension steadily built, making it harder and harder to put the book down. The characters were vivid and convincingly realistic. Most of the plot centered around Natalie and David, with Amanda and a private investigator joining in later. Despite the small cast, the story never felt lacking—in fact, it was gripping from start to finish. The writing was superb; I found myself flying through the pages. The ending was mind-blowing. I had imagined plenty of possibilities surrounding Allan’s disappearance, but nothing prepared me for the twist that came. It was a perfect, shocking conclusion that left a lasting impression.

Lucinda E Clarke

In The Client, author Kat Goss introduces us to David and Natalie Kemp. They live a quiet life, she as a manuscript editor while he works compiling adverts for radio and television. Natalie has one client, Alan Peckin, who sends her pages of his books almost every day, which, together with David’s work, provides a comfortable life. But without warning, the editing work stops, and Natalie has no idea why. She discovers that none of Alan’s books have ever been published, but she has no contact with him apart from an email address. She has no personal knowledge of him at all. Natalie and David downsize and live frugally, but as Natalie fails to find another client and struggles to write her novel, she spirals into depression. She has always been a solitary individual, but now she relies on David and feels she is failing both of them. Several years later, out of the blue, she receives an email from Alan’s wife asking for help in finding her husband. David is reluctant for her to get involved, but she meets Amanda and the whole tale begins to unravel, revealing secrets no one could ever have imagined.

What a great read! I thoroughly enjoyed The Client by Kat Goss. I bonded with the characters, especially Natalie, who was so relatable. I could feel her pain, her sense of desperation, and her worries about her husband, David. Beneath the puzzles about the unexplained disappearance of her one and only client, there lies an undercurrent of fear and impending doom. It was so compelling that I had to keep turning the pages, and I must confess, I read the whole book in one day. I could not tear myself away from the story. A well-written book with just the right pace, questions that demanded answers, and a very unexpected ending. I did not see that coming. This is an author I recommend you add to your must-read list

Mimie Odigwe

The Client by Kat Goss is a steady-paced psychological thriller that lingers in your thoughts long after the last page. When Natalie, a freelance editor, suddenly loses her only client, her life unravels. Struggling with financial insecurity, a strained marriage, and growing self-doubt, Natalie questions everything. An unexpected email informs Natalie that Alan Peckin, the man she has worked with for years, has vanished without a trace. Irresistibly drawn to the mystery, Natalie teams up with Alan's wife to uncover what happened. What begins as a search for closure soon forces her to confront uncomfortable truths about Alan and her marriage.

The Client is about trust, loneliness, companionship, and how easy it is to lose oneself in those one loves. Kat Goss explores the fragile boundaries between work and identity, trust and dependency, and love and illusion. Natalie’s marriage to David is comforting yet complicated. Every argument and reconciliation seems more loaded than the last. Even their dog, Barley, is a source of multiple arguments, often wedged between them. Natalie feels guilty and confused, and her emotions are real and relatable. This novel is intense, and the pacing is deliberate, allowing the suspense to simmer. It drops enough hints and foreshadowing for readers to see where things might be heading, but this thriller’s charm lies in watching the mystery unfold, piece by piece, and wondering just how far things will go wrong. Readers who appreciate domestic thrillers with a psychological edge will devour Kat Goss’ The Client from cover to cover.