29 August 2015

Review: CLOSE YOUR EYES, Michael Robotham

  • format: Kindle (Amazon)
  • File Size: 1498 KB
  • Print Length: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Sphere (August 6, 2015)
  • Publication Date: August 6, 2015
  • Sold by: Hachette Book Group
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00UFYZX3U
  • #8 in the Joe O'Loughlin series
Synopsis (Amazon)

I close my eyes and feel my heart begin racing
Someone is coming
They're going to find me

A mother and her teenage daughter are found murdered in a remote farmhouse, one defiled by multiple stab wounds and the other left lying like Sleeping Beauty waiting for her Prince.

Reluctantly, clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin is drawn into the investigation when a former student, calling himself 'the Mindhunter', jeopardises the police inquiry by leaking details to the media and stirring up public anger.
With no shortage of suspects and tempers beginning to fray, Joe discover links between these murders and a series of brutal attacks where his victims have been choked unconscious and had the letter 'A' carved into their foreheads.

As the case becomes ever more complex, nothing is quite what it seems and soon Joe's fate, and that of those closest to him, become intertwined with a merciless, unpredictable killer . . .

My Take

Fans of Michael Robotham have been waiting anxiously for the return of Joe O'Loughlin and I don't think they will be disappointed.

Robotham has become an expert in complex plots and with getting inside the minds of both perpetrators and victims. The structure of the book is interesting - the plot is narrated mainly through the eyes of Joe, but there are some large sections, italicised, from the point of view of the perpetrator. At first the reader does not know who this person is, and then you find yourself listing and discounting suspects. I have to admit that I didn't guess correctly even though there were plenty of clues.

Joe is still fighting Parkinsons and his daughters are growing. Charlie has finished school and ready for university, but what course has she chosen and where?

And excellent read, again.

My rating: 4.8

I've also reviewed
BOMBPROOF
SHATTER #3
SHATTER (audio)
BLEED FOR ME #4
5.0, THE WRECKAGE #5
4.8, SAY YOU'RE SORRY #6
5.0, WATCHING YOU #7
4.8, IF I TELL YOU... I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU (edit)
5.0, LIFE OR DEATH Shortlisted for the 2015 CWA Gold Dagger 

Author website

Mini Review: LOST (#2) & SUSPECT (#1)

DI Vincent Ruiz is near retirement age and is known in the force as a bit of a loose cannon. He is head of London's Serious Crimes Group. He has a fixation on a missing child case theoretically solved three years earlier. Although a body was never found, someone has been convicted of Mickey's murder. Ruiz is convinced they got it wrong, that the child is still alive. Ruiz is fished out of the Thames, more dead than alive, a dreadful bullet wound in his leg, the top joint of one of his fingers missing, and amnesia. He has no idea what happened. In a sense this is a sequel to Robotham's first novel SUSPECT, with the same two main characters, Ruiz and psychologist Joe O'Loughlin. Whereas SUSPECT focussed on O'Loughlin's predicament, LOST focusses on Ruiz. LOST won the 2005 Ned Kelly Award for best mystery by an Australian author.

Joseph O'Loughlin series
1. The Suspect (2004)
2. Lost (2005)      aka The Drowning Man
3. Shatter (2008)   aka The Sleep of Reason
4. Bleed for Me (2010)
5. The Wreckage (2011)
6. Say You're Sorry (2012)
7. Watching You (2013)
8. Close Your Eyes (2015) 

2 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

One of my favorite series.

Anonymous said...

Hard to go wrong with a Robotham, Kerrie. Glad this one worked for you.

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