Michael Robotham is a writer with an interesting background. He was a respected journalist for 14 years, writing for newspapers and magazines in Australia, Britain and America. In 1993, he quit journalism to become a ghostwriter, collaborating with politicians, pop stars, psychologists, adventurers and showbusiness personalities to write their autobiographies. But he has since gone on to become an award-winning thriller writer, his books translated into 22 languages, and with many awards to his name.
Michael Robotham is one of my favourite thriller writers, and I have a soft spot for his recurring character, psychologist, Parkinson’s sufferer and family man, Joe O’Loughlin. Joe doesn’t get on that well with his aloof father, a celebrated surgeon, but is devoted to his mother, a loyal wife for sixty years. His parents were childhood sweethearts, and have a solid marriage and relationship, both with a clear sense of right and wrong. At least that is what Joe thought until he rushes to the hospital after his father has been brutally attached. There at his father’s hospital is a woman who claims to be his father’s other wife of twenty years.
The police begin investigating the brutal attack, but Joe can’t help but begin his own investigation, and he discovers sides to his father he never knew. But at what cost is finding the truth? This is a gripping thriller that is emotionally engaging, fast-paced and completely unputdownable. As always, I thoroughly enjoy how Michael Robotham mixes a brutal crime with family problems and in this case, uncovering old secrets. To add even more emotional depth and tension to the plotline, in The Other Wife, Joe O’Loughlin not only has the challenge of living with Parkinson’s but he also the challenge of raising two daughters on his own, after the recent loss of his wife.
The Other Wife is the ninth novel featuring Joe O’Loughlin, although Michael Robotham has written many other novels with different characters. With 5 million copies of his books sold worldwide, if you haven’t read Michael Robotham by now, I’d urge you to go and pick up any of his books – they are all first class!
Reviewer: Karen McMillan
Hachette, RRP $34.99