Unraveling Michael Robotham’s Close Your Eyes Mystery

(Joseph O’Loughlin #8)

Close Your Eyes Begins….

From Goodreads….

When a former student bungles a murder investigation, clinical psychologist Joseph O’Loughlin steps in to face a ruthless killer.

A mother and her teenage daughter are found murdered in a remote farmhouse, one defiled by multiple stab wounds and the other posed like Sleeping Beauty waiting for her Prince. Joe O’Loughlin is drawn into the investigation when a former student, trading on Joe’s reputation by calling himself the “Mindhunter,” jeopardizes the police inquiry by leaking details to the media and stirring up public anger.

With no shortage of suspects and tempers beginning to fray, Joe discovers a link between these murders and a series of brutal attacks where the men and women are choked unconscious and the letter “A” is carved into their foreheads. Read More

Joe Faces Family Problems

Along with the above there is a secondary storyline the book. Joe is asked by his estranged wife to move back into their cottage with his family which includes his wife and their two daughters. Joe is thrilled at the prospect of reuniting with his wife and daughters only problem is that his wife has cancer. And once again Joe is faced with the problem of balancing his work and his family!!

Bottom Line:

Close Your Eyes is another excellent book from Michael Robotham. This series is one of my favorites and like many of them it keeps getting better which is very hard to do because Robotham set the bar really high with his early books!!

I will even forgive him for joining the ranks of William Kent Krueger and Karin Slaughter

Ratings: Goodreads **** (4.15)  *RGrandad **** 1/2 (4.5)

Links

Michael Robotham Website
Amazon
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads;

About Michael Robotham

Michael Robotham is an Australian crime fiction writer who has twice won the CWA Gold Dagger award for best novel and twice been shortlisted for the Edgar Award for best novel. His eldest child is Alexandra Hope Robotham, professionally known as Alex Hope, an Australian producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Wikipedia

Born: 1960 (age 64 years), Casino, Australia

Notable awards: The CWA Gold Dagger, 2015, 2020

Notable works: Life or Death

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3. The Other Wife – Michael Robotham

Michael Robotham series featuring Joe O’Loughlin is one of my favorites.. In this installment of the series Joe gets a call from a distraught woman who tells him he must come to London. His father has been attacked and is fighting for his life. She claims to be his father’s “other wife” and has been that for the last twenty years! Talk about your life being turned upside down!

Anyway, Joe is left to discover the truth about the attack and “the other wife”. Once again Joe and his friend former Police inspector Vincent Cruz set out to discover what’s going on!!

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The Secrets She Keeps – Michael Robotham

Ever since I read Suspect book one in the Joe O’Loughlin series from Michael Robotham I have been a fan. The Secrets She Keeps Robotham’s fourth stand alone novel only increased my love for his books.  His three other stand alone books are The Night Ferry, Life or Death, and Bombproof. Bombproof is the only one of the four I have not read yet! Boo me!

About Michael Robotham’s Books

From Michael’s Website...

Michael’s novels have since been translated into 23 languages and have won or been shortlisted for numerous awards including:
The Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger (won) LIFE OR DEATH 2015 (shortlisted) SAY YOU’RE SORRY 2013.
The Crime Writer’s Association Steel Dagger (shortlisted) THE NIGHT FERRY and SHATTER.
The Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel (won 2005 and 2008) LOST and SHATTER.
The Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Novel (shortlisted) 2016 LIFE OR DEATH Read More

But let’s get back to The Secrets She Keeps . In The Secrets She Keeps there are two shes. Agatha and Meghan, They come from different backgrounds but both are keeping big secrets, Robotham suspensively exposes those secrets, bit by bit, throughout the developing story.

On his website Robotham writes this about the book…..

THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS is seeded in a story that I covered as journalist many years ago, but I can’t reveal the details without giving too much of the plot away. I can tell you about the two narrators, who are both pregnant and expecting their children on the same day.

Meghan Shaughnessy was born into a comfortable middle-class family, went to private schools and university, worked for a magazine, and then met a handsome and successful man and married him. They five in a lovely house in a nice area of London and have two children, a boy and a girl.
Agatha Fyfle was abandoned by her father, raised by her mother, and spent time in foster care. She lives in a one-bedroom flat and works in a supermarket, stacking shelves and waiting for her boyfriend – the father of her child – to call her.

I have written both of these women in the first person because I think first-person narrators create an immediate intimacy with readers. You are watching the world through their eyes. They are not kick-ass heroines like Buffy or Lisbeth or Katniss or Arya Stark, nor are they damsels in distress. They are strong, vulnerable, intelligent, empathetic women, who both have a terrible secret.

Bottom Line

I have rated this book a strong 5 out of 5. The Secrets She Keeps has everything one wants in a psychological thriller. Two well-drawn characters whose lives and secrets are on a collision course. Along with a wild post-collision ride.

Along the way Robotham also develops strong secondary characters  in Meghan’s husband Jack and Agatha ‘s boyfriend/ fiancé Hayden.

Then there is just Michael Robotham’s fine writing. Several times I stopped and said to myself. I like that line.  That’s just nothing something I often do!

Here is my favorite

She says I should reach out and build bridges, but I think certain bridges are meant to burn and it’s a shame some people can’t be on them when it happens.

So The Secrets She Keeps s is one of my favorites of  2017 and could be one of yours, too. So check it out!

Oh, I did read on Michael’s website that there will be a new Joe O’Loughlin book release in 2018. I can’t wait.

There are eight books currently in the series so if you start now maybe you can read them all before the next one’s released. Believe me it’s worth it!

Links

Michael Robotham Website
Amazon
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads;

About Michael Robotham

Michael Robotham is an Australian crime fiction writer who has twice won the CWA Gold Dagger award for best novel and twice been shortlisted for the Edgar Award for best novel. His eldest child is Alexandra Hope Robotham, professionally known as Alex Hope, an Australian producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Wikipedia

Born: 1960 (age 64 years), Casino, Australia

Notable awards: The CWA Gold Dagger, 2015, 2020

Notable works: Life or Death

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Watching You – Michael Robotham (Joseph O’Loughlin #7)

 The Story

As Watching You begins, Marnie Logan has problems her husband Daniel has been missing for a year and times are tough. Her missing husband  Daniel left a pile of gambling debts behind and Patrick Hennessey a mobster wants to collect. So Marnie is forced to take a job at with an escort service to help settle her debt and pay her bills. One night she meets and saves a businessman from committing suicide. She collects no money from the distressed John. Her pimp beats her! The next morning his body is fished out of the river. He has been stabbed and killed by a kitchen knife!

This isn’t the first time that something bad has happened to Marnie and revenge has been taken on the perpetrator! Is Marnie making these people pay or is it someone else? Maybe someone who has been watching over Marnie and her children. Maybe it’s the man who has recently helped her daughter Zoe or her son’s secret friend?? As Joe and Victor Ruiz try to unravel the mystery the situation only gets more cloudy, until the explosive ending!!

The Press for Watching You…

“Robotham slowly, expertly begins tightening the screws…Revelations increase rather than release tension until the last page…It will be a long time before memories of this one retreat back into the shadows.”——Booklist (starred review)

“Full of surprises. Well written and slightly creepy, it will keep readers intrigued to the final page.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“[A] commanding book with an ending that’s sure to give even the most jaded reader a shock”—Publishers Weekly

My Take on Watching You

Rating : 4.5 out of 5 

Joe O’Loughlin, for me, is one of the most interesting characters in the mystery and thriller genre.Joe’e life is anything but perfect he suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and it is a constant battle for Joe to keep his body doing what he wants. And Joe;s dedication to his patients and their troubles has torn his family apart.

In Watching You Joe is faced with a challenging client in Marnie Logan a seemingly loving mother with a missing husband trying to get her life together. Only problem is that Marnie does experience unexplained “blackouts” sometimes losing substantial periods of time! Could Marnie have anything to do with her pimp’s murder? Joe doesn’t think so but the detective assigned to the case and former detective and Joe’s friend Victor Ruiz are not so sure, and neither is the reader!!

I have read all the books in the series and they are all great especially the series opener Suspect and Book #3 Shatter.. The characters and the story lines are always well above average! So Check out Watching You which I think stands on its own and then go back and read the other books! You won’t be disappointed!!

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The first Michael Robotham book I read was Suspect. I was introduced to one of the best characters in the mystery-thriller genre Joe O’Loughlin, who not only battles wits against the bad guys but also battles Parkinson’s disease. Since that first books I’ve followed all of Joe’s adventures and Book 37 of 2012 Say You’re Sorry  is the fifth book in the series that just keeps getting better.

Recently Michael was named as one of the Top 100 most Influential People in Sydney. and Michael wrote, “I’ve been named among the 100 most influential people in Sydney. I’m not even the most influential person in my house. My daughters think it’s hilarious.”

The Story

n this installment while in Oxford to give a conference speech, Joe is enlisted by the police to aid in a double murder a man and woman have been brutally murdered in their farm-house. Soon the body of a missing girl Tash McBain is found frozen in a lake not far from the farmhouse. Tash is one of two missing teenagers known as The Bingham Girls. Tash and Piper Hadley went missing three years earlier. The farmhouse where the murders occurred was her former home!! Soon joe and his friend former police detective Victor Ruiz join the hunt for Piper before it’s too late!!

Along the way the story of their disappearance is told through Joe’s investigation and the writing of Piper.

Final Thoughts

Once again Robotham’s characters are great. Joe moves through the story battling his personal problems and his family problems which includes a separation from his wife, that was the result of a former casThe book is a fast paced fun book to read, I enjoy Robotham’s writing as much as any of the authors that I read!

Stephen King included Say You’re Sorry among his :2012 Best Books of the Year: Stephen King Lists His Favorite Reads of 2012

So check out his work, you won’t be sorry!

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One of my favorite characters in the Mystery-Thriller genre is psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, who springs from the pen computer mind of Australian author Michael Robotham. Book 24 of 2012 Bleed for Me is the fourth book in this series featuring Joe. On the cover of the book, Linwood Barclay sums up how I feel about Robotham’s work:

Michael Robotham doesn’t just make me scared for his characters; he makes my heart ache for them.

And in Bleed for Me my heartaches for all of them from Joe, his estranged wife Julienne, daughters Charlie and Emma and especially the focus of this book Sienna Hagerty

The Story

Sienna Hagerty, a troubled friend of his daughter Charlie. As the book opens, Sienna appears at the O’Loughlin’s doorstep, where she often spends time. Only on this night, she is covered with blood, terrorized and incoherent.

Later, police find Sienna’s father, a celebrated former police officer, murdered in Sienna’s bedroom and quickly, Sienna becomes the prime suspect!

Through the rest of the twists and turns of the book, Joe must untangle the lies, find truth and save Sienna, in more ways than one! All while trying to keep his world from falling apart!

Thoughts About the Joseph O’Loughlin Series

What makes Joe O’Loghlin unique is that he does all he does while fighting Parkinson’s disease, and as someone who has seen the crippling effects of Parkinson’s (both my mother and my father’s brother have struggled with the effects of the disease)  I feel for him.

Robotham does a great job with the creation of Joe’s character, much the way Karin SLaughter does with Will Trent, who battles dyslexia, and creates a character you really care about, well beyond the pages of a book!

While I think that the book could be read without reading the prior books. I would recommend that if you want to get the full effect of this book, you really need to have read the other books!! Robotham has just created so much that has happened to get the characters to get where they are in Bleed for Me that you just have to know them, to get that extra jolt from the book.

So check it out – as for me I just can’t wait for the next installment, Say You’re Sorry, due to be released on October 2, to see where Joe and his family’s life will go from here!

Links

Author’s Website
Facebook
Instagram
Goodreads
Amazon

About Michael Robotham

Michael Robotham is an Australian crime fiction writer who has twice won the CWA Gold Dagger award for best novel and twice been shortlisted for the Edgar Award for best novel. His eldest child is Alexandra Hope Robotham, professionally known as Alex Hope, an Australian producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Wikipedia

Born: 1960 (age 65 years), Casino, Australia

Children: Alex Hope

Nationality: Australian

Notable awards: The CWA Gold Dagger, 2015, 2020

Notable works: Life or Death

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