But the book's pacing and structure is inch-perfect as Joe struggles to clear his name - and I must admit I never saw the final twist coming, despite adequate clues! I adored the opening scene where Joe is talking a teenager cancer patient down off a rooftop, and the pair end up having a spitting contest onto the crowd below. The early scenes are sharp but relaxed, often funny, and lull the reader into a false sense of security. Robotham combines dry wit, punchy dialogue and a wonderfully distinctive 'voice' for his hero. As Joe investigates more, he spirals deeper and deeper into trouble and we start to wonder just how reliable a narrator he is.
Enter, too, a particularly insistent cop in the form of Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz. Joe starts to wonder if, in fact, Bobby is a murderer. The family are visiting the grave of Joe's Aunt Gracie and as they are carrying out the annual ritual of throwing piles of leaves onto her grave (she was an agoraphobic, and there's a wonderful scene, told in flashback, of Joe's birthday plans for his aunt), Joe sees the police dragging a body out of a grave next to the nearby Grand Union Canal.īut his perfect world threatens to crumble around his ears when a patient, Bobby Moran, begins to hear voices and have strange dreams. He appears to have it all - a good job, a nice house, a beautiful wife and a cute, smart-mouthed daughter. Professor Joe O'Loughlin is a psychologist in London. THE SUSPECT is his first novel - and a breathtaking debut it is too. Michael Robotham has worked on some top UK newspapers, now lives in Australia and has more than a dozen ghostwritten best-sellers under his belt. I sat up to the early hours of the morning to finish this book with my eyelids propped open by matchsticks.
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