BLEED FOR ME

Michael Robotham

Sphere

The back cover blurb reads as follows:


Ray Hegarty, a highly respected former detective, lies dead in his daughter Sienna's bedroom. She is found covered in his blood. Everything points to her guilt, but psychologist Joe O'Loughlin isn't convinced.

Fourteen year old Sienna is the best friend of Joe's daughter and he has watched her grow up and seen the troubled look in her eyes. Against the advice of the police, he launches his own investigation, embarking on a hunt that will lead him to a predatory schoolteacher, a conspiracy of silence and a race-hate trial that is captivating the nation.

That is an excellent if somewhat brief outline.

The main protagonist is Professor Joe O'Loughlin, clinical psychologist, but ex-detective Vincent Ruiz who has been in earlier titles, and DCI Ronnie Cray whom we first met in Shatter both play leading roles.
O'Loughlin is an especially well drawn character, (I got to like him a lot), he suffers from the early stages of Parkinson's Disease, (superbly handled by the author), and is recently separated from his wife which causes him much angst as he is devoted to his two school-age daughters both of whom feature quite prominently in the story.

The story is largely set in and around Bristol in the UK which is interesting given that the author is a Sydney-based Australian.

This is crime fiction at its best and I will not be at all surprised to learn that the Ned Kelly Awards for 2010 has been won by BLEED FOR ME although Peter Temple's TRUTH is also on the shortlist of three. The winner will be announced on 3 September and the following week the author is a guest at The Press Christchurch Writers Festival.

I had trouble putting the book down and in fact had some 60 odd pages to go upon boarding a flight to Wellington yesterday. I finished it as the plane landed and I was so totally captivated by the story that I have no recall at all of the flight itself!

Here is the author's list of titles:


The Suspect (2003)
Lost (2005)
The Night Ferry (2007)
Shatter (2008)
Bombproof (2008)
Bleed For Me (2010)