{"id":926,"date":"2013-02-21T17:18:56","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T23:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=926"},"modified":"2013-02-21T17:18:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-21T23:18:56","slug":"michael-robotham-bleed-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/michael-robotham-bleed-for-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Robotham: Bleed for Me"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bleed for Me<\/em> is an interesting mix of very early Jonathan Kellerman (the good stuff) and Tana French.\u00a0 Robotham has French\u2019s writing chops and a way with prose – but he has Kellerman\u2019s knack for suspense, some of it down and dirty. His central character is Joseph O\u2019Loughlin, a psychologist and sometime police confidant and consultant. While Kellerman\u2019s Alex Deleware is always specifically called in on a case, O\u2019Loughlin\u2019s ties seem more tenuous, though he certainly has friends on the force.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The story opens with O\u2019Loughlin discovering the missing Sienna Hegerty, best friend of his daughter Charlie, bloody and nearly dead in the woods.\u00a0 He gets her to the hospital and all hell breaks loose – her father has been discovered murdered, and Sienna is the main suspect. Joe is asked to do a psych evaluation of the girl.\u00a0 His police contact, the gruff Ronnie Cray, involves him in the case from the start.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the case has personal repercussions for O\u2019Loughlin, who is worried about his own daughter Charlie (kidnaped in the last book). His worries center on a drama teacher, Gordon Ellis, who seems a bit off to O\u2019Loughlin.\u00a0 His perspective is skewed because of the affection he has for Sienna, and the worry he has for his daughter.<\/p>\n

The story is made more specific by O\u2019Loughlin\u2019s on and off struggle with Parkinson\u2019s disease and a separation from his wife that looks to be budding into a divorce. He\u2019s not actually a miserable guy, though, setting him apart from many other contemporary detectives.<\/p>\n

Robotham\u2019s skills as a suspense novelist are first class, especially as the whodunnit isn\u2019t really in question, it\u2019s the how and whydunnit, as it is in any good psychological thriller.\u00a0 While Robotham also can craft a beautiful sentence, he\u2019s not held up by prose as his story races toward the finish line. While the perpetrator isn\u2019t a surprise, what is a surprise are the number of darkening layers to his complex story.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d be more than willing to read the rest of the series, though naturally the first one isn\u2019t available. This one stood nicely on its own, however, so don\u2019t be put off by beginning mid-series – just plunge right in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bleed for Me is an interesting mix of very early Jonathan Kellerman (the good stuff) and Tana French.\u00a0 Robotham has French\u2019s writing chops and a way with prose – but he has Kellerman\u2019s knack for suspense, some of it down and dirty. His central character is Joseph O\u2019Loughlin, a psychologist and sometime police confidant and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-british"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":928,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}