BookBrowse Reviews Suspect by Michael Robotham

Suspect may do for psychological thrillers what Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent did for the legal variety'.

From the book jacket: At forty-two, psychiatrist Joe O'Loughlin seems to have it all: a thriving practice, a beautiful wife, an adoring daughter. But Joe's snug, happy world is crumbling. Recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he's dreading the inevitable and all too palpable deterioration of his body and mind. Then, when the police ask for his help in solving the brutal murder of a woman they assume is a prostitute, he's horrified to recognize the victim as a nurse he once worked with, and with whom he had a bit of a past. As Joe begins to suspect that one of his patients may be responsible, the police zero in on him.

Comment: Suspect was a hit when first published in the UK in 2004, but I don't believe achieved the same levels of awareness when published in the USA last year.  It starts off relatively slowly (but still retains one's interest) but really takes off somewhere around page 130.  The New York Times feels it to be a 'pleasantly creepy story, which is plotted with precision and narrated with real intelligence' while Kirkus Reviews warns that 'readers will forget their own jobs, meals and families while they race to find out which one of his targets the killer actually hits before he's brought down.'

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in March 2005, and has been updated for the January 2006 edition. Click here to go to this issue.