I only wish I'd read these in order!

A confirmed fan of this genre (Harlan Coben, Michael Connolly, Lee Child et al) I stumbled across these books on Audible. Starting with the latest. I've now purchased and downloaded them all. This appears to be the first involving Joe and Ruiz, it documents their first meeting, under extraordinary circumstances. It also gives Joe's history (which I'd gathered bits and pieces of from the other books). Would be great if the books were numbered in order, or if the descriptions could suggest order of reading. Although, having said that, they are great standalone novels.
These books are beautifully written, with style, pace, great story lines and engaging characters. Although at times you will feel like giving Joe a swift slap when he (yet again) refuses to disclose something that would make his life so much easier. But I guess that is story telling for you.
Start with this one and work your way through. You won't be disappointed.
Gruesome murders, complex mysteries and a great team in Joe and Ruiz. Unlike most fictional detectives, Ruiz doesn't have a penchant for a particular type of music, a drink problem or problems with women. But is fascinating nevertheless.

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77 people found this helpful

A gripping yarn

This is a pretty graphic tale, fairly violent in places, but un-put-downable, with an immensely likeable central character, wrestling with personal demons, very human, with a good heart, just wanting to do his best, against all the odds!

Through many twists and turns, you wonder whether our hero will ever get his life back together again. No-one should have to suffer as he does, but through it all, he matures and gains a deeper knowledge of himself, of his past, and of human nature.

Initially, I found the present-tense style of narration somewhat irritating, but this was just because it is not the usual convention for storytelling (not sure why not, as it actually given an immediacy not found in the usual style), and after a while I became accustomed to it. The book was beautifully read, and gripping to listen to. Recommended.

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59 people found this helpful

Fast paced action and great characters

This was my third Robotham book, but reading them out of order meant it was great to see Joe and Ruiz meet for the first time in this book and to see Joe cope with the news of his Parkinson's diagnosis. The first half of the book cleverly introduces all the key characters giving insight into their lives and backgrounds and then in the second half it is non-stop action as Joe lurches from one crisis to the next. You don't want to stop - you just want to find out what happens next! The narrator does a brilliant job with many voices and accents making it easy to relate to the different characters. A great read - highly recommended!!

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23 people found this helpful

A fairly good story ruined by a terrible narrator

I listened to 'Shatter' first and then came back to this to listen from the start. The story itself is good, intriguing and fairly gripping but the narrator is dreadful which spoils the whole enjoyment of the book. His voices are poor, pronunciation is wrong and he must be a graduate of the school of over-actors. I would have stopped listening if I hadn't wanted to know what the back story was. Shaun Barrett is leagues beyond Crispin Redman and I will never listen to anything narrater by him again.

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22 people found this helpful

The Suspect (Unabridged)

A thoroughly enjoyable book - excellently written and narrated. The storyline will keep you entertained to the end. Highly recommended.

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19 people found this helpful

Excellent story, brilliantly written

If you could sum up The Suspect in three words, what would they be?

A great listen

What three words best describe Crispin Redman’s performance?

Do More research

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

human frailties overcome

Any additional comments?

Such a pity that Crispin Redman was not told by the publishers that Vincent Ruiz is not a Londoner, he was brought up in Cumberland so the accent is completely wrong for Ruiz. That said, he does a great job with the narration otherwise. This is a story of human frailties, overcoming the obstacles of errors made by Joe who is such believable character. Michael Robotham is fast becoming one of my favourite authors.

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16 people found this helpful

The later books in the series are much better

I first encountered novels featuring psychologist Joseph O’Loughlin later in the series and so was interested to listen to this first book to hear more about this character’s evidently considerable backstory. If I had started with this book I might not have bothered to pursue the rest. The later books have more coherent stories and O’Loughlin becomes a less reckless and pontificating participant.

The first part of this book is full of regurgitated psychological theorising. I got bored by the long psychoanalytical interchanges between O’Loughlin and a patient, Bobby. I felt that the author had done some research into mental illnesses and personality disorders and reckoned that by including details he'd lend authenticity to the book: however, there’s just too much of it with added diversions describing other patients that have little relevance to the story. The latter takes hours to get going. O’Loughlin sounds off confidently as a criminal profiler, whereas in later books he is more realistic and circumspect and acknowledges the shortcomings of the discipline.

I accept that thrillers are usually unrealistic and depend on characters making stupid choices, so that they are placed in jeopardy, but in this novel O’Loughlin behaves as a complete idiot in his decisions and is endlessly in life-threatening situations. He’s supposed to be disabled by Parkinson’s disease and at times can barely hobble about, yet in some scenes he’s able to dive into a canal fully dressed to rescue a drowning man and at other times clamber down walls and walk for miles through countryside.

Apart from taking too long to actually get going the story becomes more and more far-fetched and the denouement is damp squib with no build up to make it believable.

The narrator is very good.

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13 people found this helpful

Once again Robotham does not dissapoint

Although I read this book out of order in the series it did not matter, although having read bleed for me first, somethings I already knew about.

This book is like the others fabulous

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12 people found this helpful

Another great read from Michael Robotham

I have now read several of Robotham's books and I have to say, he doesn't disappoint. From initially finding

Joe slightly irritating, as the first book progressed, I found that he was an intensely human character with all the flaws and good points that entails. I read the books in the wrong order timeline wise but thoroughly enjoyed this earlier (I think it may be the first) book where he finds himself in the unusual situation of being prime suspect.

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8 people found this helpful

Enjoyable

I read Shatter first and downloaded this one as I had enjoyed that one so much.
I have to say I did not enjoy this book as much as the other one. It was still good but nowhere near as good as Shatter.
I have two others of his to read.

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8 people found this helpful