Watching You

January 6, 2014
In Robotham’s disturbing eighth thriller featuring London-based psychologist Joe O’Loughlin and retired detective Vincent Ruiz (after 2012’s Say You’re Sorry), O’Loughlin has a troubled new patient, Marnie Logan. Marnie has a slew of problems—her husband has gone missing, which has forced her to work as an escort to support her children; she’s plagued by “mind slips”; and it appears someone is following her. The good-hearted O’Loughlin maintains Marnie’s innocence after she becomes a suspect in a murder case, but when his office is broken into and only Marnie’s file is stolen, he turns to Ruiz for help. As Ruiz and O’Loughlin hunt for answers, they discover Marnie has a dark past, full of erratic, vindictive behavior, as well as a history of mental illness. Might Marnie be the real culprit? This is a steady and commanding book with an ending that’s sure to give even the most jaded reader a shock. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management.

January 1, 2014
Robotham, an Australian-based writer who specializes in edge-of-your-seat thrillers, turns in a complicated story that centers around a group of individuals who are not what they seem. Marnie is a beautiful woman who has fallen on hard times. In addition to the untimely and unexplained disappearance of her journalist husband, Daniel, she's struggling with a moody teenage daughter, a fragile young son and debts that are driving her into a demeaning lifestyle. Since she can't provide Daniel's death certificate, Marnie can't collect his life insurance, nor can she access his personal information or accounts. Even his employer refuses to hand over his personal effects. And that's not the worst problem with which Marnie must deal: Daniel's gambling habit has left him thousands in debt to a gangster who is determined to make his wife pay what is owed him. After he threatens her, her children and her elderly father, Marnie reluctantly agrees to work as an escort for a man who would not hesitate to order her death. About the only thing Marnie has going for her is her psychologist, Robotham's longtime character Joe O'Loughlin. The psychologist has worked with police on sensitive cases in the past, and he knows his way around trauma victims, but while he does well with helping the helpless put their own lives together, his own remains a mess. O'Loughlin also suffers from a worsening case of Parkinson's. Soon after starting Marnie's treatment, he begins to suspect there is more to Marnie than she admits, and when people start turning up dead, he knows he's dealing with more than just another victim. Robotham's writing remains solid. His latest, while not his best, will convert new readers and make his fans happy.

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Starred review from February 1, 2014
Aussie thriller master Robotham starts with a touch readers have seen before. Every person who does wrong by the hero, therapist Joe O'Loughlin, has something awful happen to them, and all Joe knows is that he didn't do it. Meanwhile, Marnie Logan could use help. Abandoned by her husband, raising two children, and behind in the rent, she joins an escort service. Her pimp beats her. She visits a banker to beg that her husband's money be released. The jerk sneers her out the door. All her life Marnie has had a sense she's being watched by someone who stays in shadows and disappears when she turns on a light. Now she's sure. Scared, she confides in her friend, O'Loughlin, who does some detective-style investigating and learns that suddenly, like Marnie, he seems to have someone looking over his shoulder, too. This is where Robotham slowly, expertly begins tightening the screws in a deadpan style as sneaky as Joe's shadow friend. Revelations increase rather than release tension until the last page delivers the final chill. It will be a long time before memories of this one retreat back into the shadows.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2014

Marnie Logan's husband, Daniel, has been missing for over a year, leaving her in financial limbo. She can't access any of his accounts, and he has left behind a large debt, previously unknown to her, that she is expected to pay. When the debt collector is found murdered, the police turn their attention to Marnie as the last person to have seen him alive. Soon they discover a disturbing pattern: anyone who has caused Marnie harm has been paid back in spades. Her psychologist, Joe O'Laughlin, is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, perhaps risking his own life. VERDICT Robotham's newest thriller (after Say You're Sorry) is full of surprises. Well written and slightly creepy, it will keep readers intrigued to the final page. [See Prepub Alert, 9/16/13.]--Lisa O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2013

More psychological suspense from the author of Say You're Sorry, featuring a woman who feels she's being watched and then makes a shocking discovery in husband Daniel's Big Red Book after Daniel disappears.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2014

Marnie Logan's husband, Daniel, has been missing for over a year, leaving her in financial limbo. She can't access any of his accounts, and he has left behind a large debt, previously unknown to her, that she is expected to pay. When the debt collector is found murdered, the police turn their attention to Marnie as the last person to have seen him alive. Soon they discover a disturbing pattern: anyone who has caused Marnie harm has been paid back in spades. Her psychologist, Joe O'Laughlin, is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, perhaps risking his own life. VERDICT Robotham's newest thriller (after Say You're Sorry) is full of surprises. Well written and slightly creepy, it will keep readers intrigued to the final page. [See Prepub Alert, 9/16/13.]--Lisa O'Hara, Univ. of Manitoba Libs., Winnipeg

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.