Another winner from my favourite author! Grippy and twisty throughout and kept me guessing right up until the end. A well deserved 5 stars!!

As I have read all the earlier books by this author I was excited to see his latest up for review on NetGalley. As in the previous novels this one features clinical Psychologist, Joe O’Loughlin who as well as investigating horrible crimes is also battling a debilitating disease.
In this book, the eighth in the series, Joe is struggling with being a single father. His daughter Emma has been acting up at her new school and he finds it difficult to get through to her despite being a psychologist himself which is somewhat ironic. In the midst of these difficulties he receives a call to say his father has been seriously injured and his life hangs in the balance.
Rushing to the hospital expecting to find his Mother he finds another woman at his father’s bedside who claims to be his wife!
Joe begins to investigate how his father has ended up in this state and who this woman is. He begins to discover his father was not the man he thought he was and had a number of secrets which Joe needs to untangle.
As well as being a crime mystery this book also examines fathers’relationships with their children. Joe begins to question his own connections to his father as well as looking at how he is bringing up his daughters. How well do we really know our own parents?
There are a number of characters in the book who could be responsible for Joe’s father’s injuries and as Joe conducts his investigation with the help of Ruiz, his oldest friend, he begins to uncover all sorts of information which might or might not be relevant.
This is as much about Joe’s personal life as it is about a crime investigation. We even get a suggestion of a possible romantic interest which is left hanging at the end ready for he next book!
This is a great read and perfect for fans of Michael Robotham’s earlier books. I would suggest reading the previous books first as this would help with the context although it is possible to read this as a stand alone.
An enjoyable addition to this fabulous series and certainly a five star read for me.

This was an easy book to read with lots going on and a great psychological thriller. I enjoyed seeing how the relationship between Joseph and his mother and sisters developed between Olivia and her family. Although it did seem a bit unreal that the police gave so much leeway to Olivia who at best was the 'wife' of a bigamist and I found it strange that Joseph took to her quite so quickly . Great side issues to keep up the interest such as Bethany and Ray and the Passage's and how Emma was coming to terms with the death of her mother. The truth about the financial issues seemed a bit rushed at the end and I still wasn't sure who had actually done what. A few loose ends needed clearing up in my opinion for example what happened to Olivia and Ewan, how did the financial aspects of the two families play out, what happened to William and did Joseph and Kate get together. These issues stopped me giving a full five stars but a great addictive read nevertheless!

An interesting enough read, but unfortunately it did not capture my attention as much as I hoped it would.

The story itself is not bad at all, I just had a lot of trouble immersing myself in it