What I'm Reading: Michael Robotham

I just finished reading Michael Robotham’s newest novel, Shatter. This is Robotham’s fourth book, and the third to feature clinical psychologist, Joe O’Loughlin. O’Loughlin is a fascinating character, a skilled therapist with an uncanny ability to read people and discern their motives. Oh, and he has Parkinson’s Disease. “Parkinson’s is not incurable,” he says. “There is a cure; they just haven’t found it yet.” Robotham’s novels are complex and sharply plotted, resulting in thoughtful and subtle thrillers with credible three-dimensional characters.

The first book in the series is called Suspect, and in this book, Joe himself is the suspect when he is arrested for murder by London homicide inspector Vincent Ruiz. This is also when he is diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Joe is eventually cleared of the murder, and he and Ruiz become friends and collaborators.

The second book is called Lost, and in it, Detective Ruiz is hauled out of the Thames with a bullet wound in his leg and no memory of how it got there or the week preceding the shooting. He contacts Joe to help him reconstruct the missing pieces of his memory, and is aided by his partner, Alisha Barba, a young Sikh woman.

The third book is The Night Ferry, and it features Ali (recovering from an injury sustained in Lost) and her partner, Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz. In this story, an old college friend of Ali’s contacts her, claiming that she’s in trouble and needs Ali’s help. Before the visibly pregnant friend can explain, she and her husband are killed in a hit-and-run, then it’s discovered that the pregnancy was faked. Ali and Ruiz end up in Amsterdam, on the trail of an international baby-selling conspiracy.

In "Shatter," Joe is back, and he and his family have moved to Somerset. Joe is teaching part-time at the University of Bath when he’s asked to help talk a potential suicide out of jumping. He fails, but then discovers that the “suicide” is not what it seems. Joe enlists the help of the now-retired Vincent Ruiz, and they go up against a twisted, ex-military interrogator who uses psychological techniques to destroy people.

--Sana M