Thursday, January 5, 2012

Bleed for Me- Michael Robotham

Bleed for Me


Michael Robotham

Little, Brown/Mulholland, Feb 27 2012, $25.99

ISBN 9780316126380



Following the over thirty-five football game, the players stop at the only pub in the village of Wellow. Though the other fourteen players are divorced, psychologist Joe “Shrink” O’Loughlin, who has been slowed a bit by Parkinson’s disease. His estranged spouse Julianne calls him because fourteen year old Sienna Hegarty, a classmate of their daughter Charlie, arrived at the back door in shock and dripping blood. The teenage did not stick around as she ran away.



The police go to Sienna’s home near Bath that she shares with her dad, former cop Ray Hegarty. They find Ray dead with his throat sliced. The cops find Sienna and her blood is that of her father. She claims amnesia as she is charged with fratricide; the motive being her dad molested her. O’Loughlin offers to provide a psychological assessment of the troubled teen. He conceals his agenda is to help Sienna in hope that Charlie will once again adore him as she did before her parents’ marriage began crumbling. The shrink also obtains a favor from his friend, retired police inspector Vincent Ruiz, to investigate discreetly the Hegarty case because something seems off kilter in this highly visible case.



The latest O’Loughlin thriller (see The Wreckage) is a great psychological investigative tale that grips the reader from the moment Julienne calls Joe and never slows until the final murder attempt. The storyline is fast-paced with a strong ensemble cast. However, it is the protagonist who makes the novel (and his series) excellent as a champion with Parkinson and more devastating personal family issues especially his obsessive need to regain his place on his daughter’s pedestal that he recently lost.



Harriet Klausner

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