Synopsis
Psychologist Joe O’Loughlin returns in this dark and masterful psychological thriller to investigate a suicide that is beginning to look more like the work of a diabolical serial killer.
A women, wearing only high-heels, is perched on a bridge high above a flooded gorge, sobbing into a cell phone. Joe O'Loughlin stands only feet away, desperately trying to coax her back to safety. Suddenly, she turns to him and whispers, "You don't understand," and leaps. Joe is haunted by his failure to save the woman, until her teenage daughter convinces him that her mother would never commit suicide. Compelled to investigate, Joe becomes obsessed with discovering who was on the other end of the phone. What voice could have driven someone to such despair? Having devoted his career to repairing damaged minds, Joe must now confront an adversary who tears them apart.
Publishers Weekly
Winner of Australia's Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel, Robotham's compelling fourth thriller (after The Night Ferry) finds clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin and his family in Somerset, where he teaches part-time at the University of Bath. When Joe fails to persuade a suicidal woman not to leap from a bridge to her death, he becomes obsessed with understanding the woman's motives. The woman's grief-stricken teenage daughter tracks down Joe, but the police don't take notice until another woman ends up dead under suspicious circumstances. Joe calls on an old friend, retired London detective inspector Vincent Ruiz, and together they race to catch a killer who uses psychological techniques Joe recognizes from his own practice to destroy people. Robotham smoothly mixes Joe's investigation and personal struggles with glimpses into the killer's mind. Even the sharpest readers may not anticipate all of the plot's agile switchbacks or foresee the chilling climax. (Mar.)
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