Book Review and ARC Giveaway: Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham

This started a little slowly but midway it became engrossing so I didn’t want to stop until the end.

Bleed for Me (Joseph O'Loughlin) 
by Michael Robotham

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Mulholland Books; Reprint edition (February 27, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316126381
• ISBN-13: 978-0316126380

     Genre: Crime Fiction
     My Rating:  4.25 of 5.0 

Book Description
Publication Date: February 27, 2012 | Series: Joseph O'Loughlin
She's standing at the front door. Covered in blood. Is she the victim of a crime? Or the perpetrator?

A teenage girl--Sienna, a troubled friend of his daughter--comes to Joe O'Loughlin's door one night. She is terrorized, incoherent-and covered in blood.

The police find Sienna's father, a celebrated former cop, murdered in the home he shared with Sienna. Tests confirm that it's his blood on Sienna. She says she remembers nothing.

Joe O'Loughlin is a psychologist with troubles of his own. His marriage is coming to an end and his daughter will barely speak to him. He tries to help Sienna, hoping that if he succeeds it will win back his daughter's affection. But Sienna is unreachable, unable to mourn her father's death or to explain it.

Investigators take aim at Sienna. O'Loughlin senses something different is happening, something subterranean and terrifying to Sienna. It may be something in her mind. Or it may be something real. Someone real. Someone capable of the most grim and gruesome murder, and willing to kill again if anyone gets too close.

His newest thriller is further evidence that Michael Robotham is, as David Baldacci has said, "the real deal--we only hope he will write faster."

Review:

The story is told by Joe O’Loughlin, a semi-retired psychologist who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He is separated from his wife, not because of his illness but because she can’t handle his deep unhappiness, as well as his tendency to get lost in a case.  Their 14 year old daughter, Charlie, is at an age where she is struggling to assert her own personality and she is confused and resentful.  Apparently Charlie was kidnaped and traumatized in a prior book that raises issues of balance between living and safety. Joe still spends lots of time around his family hoping that his wife will let him come home.

One night his daughter’s close friend shows up covered in blood and totally disoriented. Sienna is the immediate suspect in the brutal murder of her father. Joe doesn’t believe she is the killer and he sets out to investigate other suspects.  At first the tough police detective recruits Joe to help with the case but as the facts start to reveal that the murdered cop may have been an abuser the police become less friendly. Joe calls in an old friend, Ruiz, a private investigator who adds some more character depth.

The first part of the book was rather depressing and I struggled with the sad family drama. Midway the clues start to lead somewhere and it is nonstop clue tracking from then on. I really liked how the connection between pieces is revealed by interviews. The clues point to one suspect, a well-liked, respectable man who appears to have walked away from the murder of his first wife, who was never found.  The fellow is slick though and there isn’t enough to accuse or arrest him. Meanwhile there is a side story of a trial where Joe’s wife is serving as a translator. Not only do  issues of jury tampering, and more, arise, but along the line there is a connection discovered between Joe’s prime suspect and the trial defendants.

The writing begins crisp and abrupt, fitting a male narrator. At other times the writing has an almost lyrical flow.  the characters are well developed to give a unique personality to each. The mystery was nicely puzzled and connected. This is the first book I have read by this author and I would be interested in reading more. I understand that this book is part of a series of books with Joe O'Loughlin.  It read fine as a stand alone although it is likely that reading earlier books might give a fuller picture of the family and friendship dynamics.

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A sad comment on Joe’s status with his family:
I know the script. I know the stage directions. I no longer have a walk on part. P71.

A good description as Joe takes a helicopter ride with injured suspect and cop:
Higher still, we’re above the whitecaps and rocky shore, higher than the Mendip Hills and the patchwork fields, where everything is bathed in lustrous sunshine that makes a mockery of all that is dark about the day. P 394.

Thank you to Little Brown & Co. for providing this book to read and review.

I will add this to my ARC, New Authors and Mystery and Suspense challenges.

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY for the ARC copy: 

1. Visit the author's website and tell me something that interests you there. This is required for entry.

2.  For an extra entry, become a follower or tell me if you are already a follower.

3. For two more entries, blog, facebook, tweet (any of those networks!) about this giveaway and tell me where you did.

It isn't necessary to use separate entries unless you want them in different chronological order.
(Four total entries possible.)

THERE WILL BE ONE WINNER.

* This contest is only open to residents of US and Canada.

* No P.O. Boxes Please - for shipping reasons.

* Limit one win per household.

* This contest will close 10 PM (Central) on March 9, 2012.
The winners will be randomly selected from all entries and announced on March 10 with 72 hours to complete the winners form.

Book Review: The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen

This is a story that makes you wonder about the future, the past and the "what ifs." I recommend it - especially if you like issues of time/future paradox.

The Revisionists

by Thomas Mullen

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Mulholland Books; 1 edition (September 28, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316176729
• ISBN-13: 978-0316176729

     Genre: Sci Fi Thriller
     My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

A fast-paced literary thriller that recalls dystopian classics such as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, from the award-winning author of The Last Town on Earth.

Zed is an agent from the future. A time when the world’s problems have been solved. No hunger. No war. No despair.
His mission is to keep it that way. Even if it means ensuring every cataclysm throughout history runs its course—especially the Great Conflagration, an imminent disaster in our own time that Zed has been ordered to protect at all costs.

Zed’s mission will disrupt the lives of a disgraced former CIA agent; a young Washington lawyer grieving over the loss of her brother, a soldier in Iraq; the oppressed employee of a foreign diplomat; and countless others. But will he finish his final mission before the present takes precedence over a Perfect Future? One that may have more cracks than he realizes?

Review:  I found this to be a good combination of engaging entertainment and thought provoking philosophy.

Zed is a “protector” of the future. His world of peace and well being resulted from the survivors of the great conflagration that destroyed the world of our present. Now Zed’s job is to make sure that events in the past (our present) occur as expected.  Zed travels to the past and follows instructions given by superiors to protect certain events. Zed insures that no “hags” interfere with the time stream.

Hags are other time travelers who are trying to stop the events that led to the great conflagration.
If the hags aren’t stopped they might go back and kill Hitler or prevent the 9/11 crashes. Although this would save thousands of lives, it wouldn’t allow the future to become what it should be... according to Zed’s handlers. There is a certain paradox that Zed is helping maintain tragic events but, in protecting the past, the argument is ‘the end justifies the means.’

The story also follows the paths of three present day people whose lives cross. Each character reveals a different view of corruption and a different sense of being alone. A common thread of the characters is their disillusionment with their jobs and their struggles to change circumstances surrounding them.  Eventually, or more accurately, finally, even Zed starts to question the instructions and limited facts that he is being fed.

Most of the story takes place in the present time and reveals pictures of Zed’s future world through comparisons.  Zed wonders if people appreciate the fresh air and the complex cities they live in. He marvels at the different races of people with their  prejudices and anger. He steps into the beautiful churches and thinks about the religions that cause such strife.  The reader gets a vision of a future world without races and without religion. But you also begin to see the restrictions in Zed’s world where they are not allowed to learn of the history before the great conflagration. They are not allowed to question their superiors.  Is it possible that Zed’s loved ones have been killed to eliminate their threatening inquires and to manipulate and control Zed?

Zed begins to learn more about the alias that has been established for him. As he uncovers the circumstances of the missing “Troy Jones” and discovers more events of that life it begins to cross over into parallels - or is it memory? - of Zed’s life.  Zed doesn’t know what to do when he realizes that he has always been able to look back at the facts given him and he has forgotten  what it is like to not know what the future holds. Manipulating the events of the past creates a point where one has to question which circumstances will change the future?  Could the future be better ... or worse? And who gets to make the decisions as to which events to protect or which might be better changed? With so much corruption abounding, who are really the revisionists?

This is a story that could probably benefit from a re-reading. I liked the writing which switches from first person for Zed to third person for the other characters. I read part of the book and  listened to part on Audible to speed the reading.  The narrator did a very good job and for me the easy but steady pacing blended with the puzzlement of the “what if” question.

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I received the ARC for review from Mulholland Books, Little Brown and Company, division of Hachette.
I will probably add this to the ARC box after a bit.