Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham

Joseph O'Loughlin is facing some tough times. His fourteen year old daughter, Charlie, recently suffered a traumatic kidnapping and hasn't been the same since. He has separated from his wife of over twenty years, Julianne, and a divorce seems imminent. On top of all his family issues, Joe has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, and the involuntary ticks are slowly taking over his body. A seasoned psychologist, Joe lectures at the local university, assists in court cases, and attempts to keep the last strands of his personal life from unraveling.

Despite their strained relationship, Joe picks up his daughter and her best friend, Sienna, from school. He intends to take them back to the family home, but Sienna insists that he drop her off to meet with her boyfriend. Joe knows the "boy" is really closer to a man, but after a confirmation phone call to Sienna's mother, he agrees to drop her off. That evening, Joe receives a startling phone call from Julianne. Sienna has shown up at their home, catatonic and covered in blood. After sending the girl to the hospital, they learn that Sienna's father has been murdered at his home.

Immediately, Sienna is committed to a hospital for psychological analysis, and becomes the only suspect in the murder case. She is unable to remember any of the previous evening's events, and has no reasoning to explain her father's death or why she was covered in blood. Joe sets out to reach Sienna, discover who killed her father, and hopefully regain a relationship with his daughter.

In the tradition of other "literary" detective authors such as Dennis Lehane and Tana French, Michael Robotham has written a grim and moving novel while never sacrificing the suspense. Each character has a unique sense of reality in them that Robotham is able to relay to the reader, without getting bogged down with descriptions. As each layer of this mystery unfolded, I felt more and more connected to the characters and to the situations they were presented. My heart ached for the troubled Sienna and the flawed O'Loughlin family. This is one of the best novels I have read this year, and readers should definitely take notice.

For more information, visit the author's website,
http://www.michaelrobotham.com/index-usa.php,
the publisher's page, http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780316126380.htm,
my Amazon review
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3GO8HXJ1M2FWI/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm,
and http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11641557-bleed-for-me

(week 17, book 19)

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22, 2012 and is filed under ,,,,,,. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.

12 Responses to “Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham”

  1. Ethan....this sounds like a great read. I love it when you connect with the characters and become invested in the outcome. I enjoy a good mystery and am adding it to my list

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    1. I highly recommend this one. This is the kind of book where all the pieces just come together perfectly.

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  2. I really like your blog.I am looking for a better way to list all the books on my blog. I have a Book Index (Labels) roaming down the sidebar. I would prefer your format on the Navigation Bar listed with authors names alphabetically and the book titles highlighted. Would you mind telling how you did that?
    Thankyou. Joyce at http://www.jssherr.blogspot.com

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    1. It took me a while to figure out the best way to index all of my reviews. Unfortunately there is no widget, that I could find, to automatically do this. Thankfully, Blogger allows you to create static pages. In the same menu you use to create a post, you can select "create new page". Once there you can format the way you want your index to appear. I manually typed the letter headers, and I add each new review to the index as I post it. To link to your review, type the title and select the "link" tool. Then you just have to paste the url of your review post. There is a navigation bar widget included in Blogger, so that part is easy to add. It takes a little time to start off, but maintaining and adding to the index is really quick and easy. I hope this helps you a bit. If you have any more questions, feel free to contact me. Thanks for supporting this blog!

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    2. Thank you so much. I will give it a try..How about making the titles clickable or highlighted...how did you do that? Appreciate your help....you can respond at JSSHERR@gmail.com if you would like....

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    3. When you are typing, there is a tool called "link". Just highlight the words you want highlighted and then select "link". It will then ask you to paste the url that you want those words to link to.

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    4. Thankyou again,Ethan.. Appreciate your helping me out..

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  3. I haven't heard of this one before, but it sounds like a great read. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

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  4. Bleed for Me is one of those books all the cool kids are reading this year. Glad to hear it lived up to the hype!

    Jonathan @ I Read a Book Once

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    1. This is definitely one that I agree with the "cool kids" on!

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  5. THE MAID! I only recently heard about this one and now with your review Ethan, I'm going give it a try.
    Thanks for update on it.
    Michelle

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