Michael Robotham's previous books include Bleed for Me, The Suspect, The Night Ferry, Shatter.
Last seen in Suspect, Det. Vincent Ruiz is pulled from the Thames with a bullet in his leg-and no memory in his head of why he was carrying a photograph of a kidnapped child long since thought dead. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Det. Insp. Vincent Ruiz (a supporting character in Robotham's debut, Suspect) is hauled out of the Thames with a bullet wound in his leg and no memory of a shooting, let alone how he wound up in the water in Robotham's fine, moody second thriller. Keebal, a nasty cop from internal affairs, hounds Ruiz from the start, and everyone seems to know something Ruiz doesn't. When psychologist Joe O'Loughlin (the protagonist of Suspect) shows Ruiz a picture of young Mickey Carlyle-a seven-year-old girl kidnapped three years earlier whom everyone but Ruiz thinks is dead-he figures there must be some connection between her case and his shooting. Despite his injuries, Ruiz retraces this investigation with the help of his partner, a young Sikh woman named Ali. The past returns in dribs and drabs and none too gently. Mickey is the daughter of a Russian-born crime lord, Aleksei Kuznet; a cache of diamonds and a man known as a "grooming paedophile" also figure prominently in the splintered plot. The warm relationship between Ruiz and Joe, who suffers from Parkinson's, counterpoints the main story line's grit. Robotham works some good wrinkles into Ruiz's relationship with Ali and an empathetic nurse, too. The result is a thoughtful and subtle thriller, with convincing, three-dimensional characters. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Adult/High School-Robotham's second mystery features some of the cast from Suspect (Doubleday, 2005), including Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz and clinical psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin. The fast-paced action opens with a half-dead Ruiz being fished out of the Thames. When he awakens from his coma, he has no memory of why he was in the river, almost dead from a bullet wound to his leg, nor can he remember anything from the week leading up to his injury. With the help of O'Loughlin, Ruiz begins piecing together details that show he was following up on the disappearance of eight-year-old Mickey Carlyle. The only problem? Mickey disappeared three years earlier, and a sexual predator has been convicted of her murder. As Ruiz retraces his steps, he relives several incidents from his past that are linked to his need to investigate a closed case. This is a fast-paced thriller with plenty of adventure; Ruiz's hunt for answers takes him deep into the sewers below London and into the cold waters of the Thames. The characters are complex; Ruiz, the son of a Gypsy woman raped by German soldiers in World War II, is haunted by the childhood drowning of his half-brother, even though he's estranged from his own children. Robotham understands that some quests are worth any sacrifice no matter how long the odds of success might be. This is a subtle and taut thriller with convincing characters and strong psychological components.-Erin Dennington, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Australian Michael Robotham’s first thriller, The Suspect, was a hit at the London Book Fair of 2002, generating foreign rights deals in 13 languages. His second novel, Lost, proves that he’s no one-hit wonder. Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz wakes in hospital to find that a bullet has torn a hole in his leg and another in his memory. Shut out by his colleagues at the Met, he turns to an old friend, immensely likeable clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, to help him recover from amnesia and pick up the threads of a rapidly cooling case. The more he discovers about his actions of the last few weeks, the more confused Ruiz becomes: it seems he was investigating a case he successfully closed three years ago, one that no-one wants him to reopen. From the very first sentence of this gripping thriller a reader can relax, feeling safe in the hands of a talented storyteller just as accomplished as Harlan Coben or Barry Maitland. With the velocity and wit of an American thriller and the emotional complexity and characterisation of a British mystery, the author has captured the best of the genre. If Michael Robotham isn’t a star already, he will be. Sophie Groom is manager of Dragon Books—St George in Sydney C. 2005 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors
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