Reviews

At the start of the sharply plotted third thriller from Australian author Robotham (after Suspect and Lost), London police detective Alisha Barba, a Sikh woman who's recovering from a back injury incurred in the line of duty in Lost ("After six operations and nine months of physiotherapy I am fit again, with more steel in my spine than England's back four"), receives a brief note from a school friend, Cate, whom she hasn't heard from in eight years: "I'm in trouble. I must see you. Please come to the reunion." At the school reunion, the pregnant Cate tells Ali that someone is after her baby. As Cate and her husband, Felix, are leaving the event, a car strikes them both, killing Felix instantly and fatally injuring Cate. Insp. Det. Vincent Ruiz, Ali's crotchety colleague, accompanies her to Amsterdam in search of answers that involve drugs and frozen human embryos. In keeping with the opening sentence's invocation of Graham Greene, the author's terse, resonant prose hides more than it reveals. Readers will hope Robotham has many more books of this caliber in him. (June) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

This is another dense, action-packed delight of a thriller by the ex-journalist author of Lost and Suspect. Recovering from injuries sustained on the job, Det.Ali Barba, receives a terse but startling note from Cate, an estranged friend who is pregnant, pleading with her to attend a high school reunion. There, in a brief conversation, Cate reveals that someone is trying to take her baby. The plot thickens when Cate and her husband are killed by a passing car as they leave the reunion. The apparent accident reveals that Cate had faked her pregnancy, and as Ali investigates, she uncovers a sinister underground network in which Cate was involved and soon becomes determined to honor her friend's memory by bringing those involved in her death to justice. Readers of Robotham's earlier novels will be pleased to see the return of both Ali Barba and Det. Vincent Ruiz. Recommended for all public libraries.-Caroline Mann, Univ. of Portland, OR Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Why isn’t Michael Robotham a huge name in Australia? He’s won a Ned Kelly, achieved very impressive sales in the UK (over 150,000 copies of his debut, The Suspect) and he writes a damn good book. In this, his third in a linked chain of novels, DC Alisha Barba is about to resume her work for the police department after recovering from a serious spinal injury sustained during a previous case. Alisha’s return to official duties is interrupted by a plea for help from an old friend who fears that someone is trying to steal her unborn baby. The investigation leads Ali to Amsterdam and a world of people smuggling and sex trafficking, where the goodies are morally ambiguous and the villains are very black indeed. Robotham’s books are relentlessly fast paced and he has a gift for fleshing out the character of a likeable and multifaceted protagonist in the midst of a narrative that starts at a sprint from the first line and doesn’t flag until the last. If excellent characterisation, deft plotting and a light touch count for anything, Michael Robotham is a name that should be on all of our lips. Sophie Groom is the marketing coordinator for Leading Edge Books