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mrsbear's review against another edition
5.0
My Two Cents
Bleed for Me was a won book from Goodreads. I was so excited, I have read others in this series and loved them. This baby was no disappointment!
I think I am in love with Joe O’Loughlin! I love his attitude, his dry humor and his outlook on life. He handles situations with grace and efficiency. In this book he is like a dog who won’t let go of his bone.
The story moves at lightening speed and Joe is determined to help Sienna and get to the bottom of things. Sienna is a friend of Joe’s daughter and Joe knows things at home may not be what they seem. In case this was not enough Joe is dealing with a teacher who is not what he seems, a soon to be ex-wife who is still in love with him, and let’s not forget Mr. Parkinson. That’s how Joe refers to his disease that is slowing changing his life. His way of dealing with this disease is amazing. He says he has Parkinsons but it does not have him!
Every character in the book is outstanding and the author does a great job of making us love them, dislike them, question them and shake our heads. The secondary story with Joe and his family is heart warming. I am still rooting for him and hope his wife gives him another chance. My favorite part was Joe talking to one of his wife’s dates.. I was laughing out loud!
I think even readers who have never read the author’s other books will still enjoy this. Of course I have to say go back and read the others for more background and to enjoy Joe, he is that good.
Bleed for Me was a won book from Goodreads. I was so excited, I have read others in this series and loved them. This baby was no disappointment!
I think I am in love with Joe O’Loughlin! I love his attitude, his dry humor and his outlook on life. He handles situations with grace and efficiency. In this book he is like a dog who won’t let go of his bone.
The story moves at lightening speed and Joe is determined to help Sienna and get to the bottom of things. Sienna is a friend of Joe’s daughter and Joe knows things at home may not be what they seem. In case this was not enough Joe is dealing with a teacher who is not what he seems, a soon to be ex-wife who is still in love with him, and let’s not forget Mr. Parkinson. That’s how Joe refers to his disease that is slowing changing his life. His way of dealing with this disease is amazing. He says he has Parkinsons but it does not have him!
Every character in the book is outstanding and the author does a great job of making us love them, dislike them, question them and shake our heads. The secondary story with Joe and his family is heart warming. I am still rooting for him and hope his wife gives him another chance. My favorite part was Joe talking to one of his wife’s dates.. I was laughing out loud!
I think even readers who have never read the author’s other books will still enjoy this. Of course I have to say go back and read the others for more background and to enjoy Joe, he is that good.
isaacrm's review against another edition
3.0
To me, this one is the weakest of the series so far (I'm reading them in order except for #9 which was my first).
I'm not sure if it has to do with the storyline in the book or is that I'm still infatuated with Shutter the previous book on the series, which is going to be very hard to top. The truth is that this book was OK, but I thought it was a more predictable story line, and it had a lot of frustrating parts around Joe's relationship with his wife.
If you're interested on the series, don't let this review to stop you. Overall is a good book, just not as impacting as the others (especially Shutter).
I'm not sure if it has to do with the storyline in the book or is that I'm still infatuated with Shutter the previous book on the series, which is going to be very hard to top. The truth is that this book was OK, but I thought it was a more predictable story line, and it had a lot of frustrating parts around Joe's relationship with his wife.
If you're interested on the series, don't let this review to stop you. Overall is a good book, just not as impacting as the others (especially Shutter).
kcfromaustcrime's review against another edition
2.0
Fans of Australian writer Michael Robotham will always be waiting with baited breath for the next instalment from him. Be it a book that features (now) ex-cop Victor Ruiz, psychologist Joe O'Loughlin, Sikh detective Alisha Barba or a combination of those characters. BLEED FOR ME is another Joe O'Loughlin book, with a hefty appearance from Ruiz as well - and these two are particular favourites of this reader anyway.
If you've never read a Robotham book before it won't take you long to get up to speed with Joe's back story. A psychologist, he doesn't practice any more, now teaching instead. A sufferer of early onset Parkinsons, his physical frailty is something he struggles with on a daily basis. As he struggles with his separation from wife Julianne. A separation he is consistently unable to accept, his lose of close and regular contact with the woman he continues to love deeply is made even worse by his longing to be back living in the same house as his daughters - baby Emma and teenager on the verge Charlie. When Charlie's best friend Sienna is embroiled in the death of her father - ex-cop in his own right Ray Hegarty Joe is there from the very start. Searching for Sienna on the night that Ray is murdered; trying to help Sienna; trying to help his own daughter deal with the impact of the upheavals in her friends life; trying to restore his marriage; trying to stay in good with the police; trying to find the real killer. Joe seems to spend a lot of his life trying - and he tries the patience of a lot of people around him in the process. Calling in a favour from Ruiz, Joe and Victor seem to be the only people who don't believe Sienna killed her father, even when revelations of what has been going on in that family start to surface.
Joe's family have been through a lot in earlier books, and those circumstances, and his increasing Parkinson's symptoms seem to have made Joe more of a hero and Julianne, in particular, somewhat of a villain as their marriage has crumbled. BLEED FOR ME definitely is going someway towards explaining the relationship - the tensions and the difficulties between these two people. A lot of those difficulties play out as the pressure, this time albeit one removed from Joe's own family, acts on everybody in this book. Joe is as alternatively driven, bumbling, well meaning and blind stubborn as he's ever been; Ruiz is closed, measured and somewhat ruthless by comparison. Julianne is defensive sometimes, at other points she's open and caring and protective - and there's some explanation of why she has done what seemed so heartless in earlier books.
Along the way, the personal is balanced well against a story of human perversity and cruelty that is often profoundly confrontational. Perhaps it is that idea of confrontation that made Robotham step over one of those lines for some readers of crime fiction. Whilst I have struggled with, and sometimes been able to see and understand the reason for animal cruelty in some books - as a way of instigating some reaction / affecting a character or illustrating a character's flaws, in BLEED FOR ME it's not just that the depiction goes beyond cruelty and steps into explicit suffering, it's because I struggled from then on to find a context for it - a reason if you will. Despite the fact that I found this story of manipulation and cruelty balanced against understanding and care good, and the balancing of the relationship between Joe and his wife fairer and more balanced than before, since finishing the book I'm still confronted by that animal suffering incident. With the passage of time, the details have faded, but I'm still puzzled by the reactions (or lack thereof) of all the characters around that poor animal and increasingly discomforted by extrapolations of why it had to be so graphic. So confrontational. So unexplained, unnecessary. Certainly the last O'Loughlin book I read was the one that Robotham quipped his wife was worried might stop them from being invited to dinner parties. I hope that the bar didn't need to be raised.
If you've never read a Robotham book before it won't take you long to get up to speed with Joe's back story. A psychologist, he doesn't practice any more, now teaching instead. A sufferer of early onset Parkinsons, his physical frailty is something he struggles with on a daily basis. As he struggles with his separation from wife Julianne. A separation he is consistently unable to accept, his lose of close and regular contact with the woman he continues to love deeply is made even worse by his longing to be back living in the same house as his daughters - baby Emma and teenager on the verge Charlie. When Charlie's best friend Sienna is embroiled in the death of her father - ex-cop in his own right Ray Hegarty Joe is there from the very start. Searching for Sienna on the night that Ray is murdered; trying to help Sienna; trying to help his own daughter deal with the impact of the upheavals in her friends life; trying to restore his marriage; trying to stay in good with the police; trying to find the real killer. Joe seems to spend a lot of his life trying - and he tries the patience of a lot of people around him in the process. Calling in a favour from Ruiz, Joe and Victor seem to be the only people who don't believe Sienna killed her father, even when revelations of what has been going on in that family start to surface.
Joe's family have been through a lot in earlier books, and those circumstances, and his increasing Parkinson's symptoms seem to have made Joe more of a hero and Julianne, in particular, somewhat of a villain as their marriage has crumbled. BLEED FOR ME definitely is going someway towards explaining the relationship - the tensions and the difficulties between these two people. A lot of those difficulties play out as the pressure, this time albeit one removed from Joe's own family, acts on everybody in this book. Joe is as alternatively driven, bumbling, well meaning and blind stubborn as he's ever been; Ruiz is closed, measured and somewhat ruthless by comparison. Julianne is defensive sometimes, at other points she's open and caring and protective - and there's some explanation of why she has done what seemed so heartless in earlier books.
Along the way, the personal is balanced well against a story of human perversity and cruelty that is often profoundly confrontational. Perhaps it is that idea of confrontation that made Robotham step over one of those lines for some readers of crime fiction. Whilst I have struggled with, and sometimes been able to see and understand the reason for animal cruelty in some books - as a way of instigating some reaction / affecting a character or illustrating a character's flaws, in BLEED FOR ME it's not just that the depiction goes beyond cruelty and steps into explicit suffering, it's because I struggled from then on to find a context for it - a reason if you will. Despite the fact that I found this story of manipulation and cruelty balanced against understanding and care good, and the balancing of the relationship between Joe and his wife fairer and more balanced than before, since finishing the book I'm still confronted by that animal suffering incident. With the passage of time, the details have faded, but I'm still puzzled by the reactions (or lack thereof) of all the characters around that poor animal and increasingly discomforted by extrapolations of why it had to be so graphic. So confrontational. So unexplained, unnecessary. Certainly the last O'Loughlin book I read was the one that Robotham quipped his wife was worried might stop them from being invited to dinner parties. I hope that the bar didn't need to be raised.
rachhenderson's review against another edition
4.0
In the fourth book in the Joseph O'Loughlin series, Michael Robotham continues to push the bounds of what is believable. The police not only allow, but encourage, Joe to tag along for briefings, interviews, visits. And when he's in court watching his daughter's best friend being charged with murdering her father, the judge appoints Joe to do her psych report - surely they'd pick someone without a conflict of interest?
The ending is rushed and leaves a few holes. Joe was strongly threatened to stay away from the case early in the book (steer clear if you don't like animal cruelty) but receives no further threats and we never find out exactly who was responsible for that threat.
But it was still very interesting and kept me turning the pages.
The ending is rushed and leaves a few holes. Joe was strongly threatened to stay away from the case early in the book (steer clear if you don't like animal cruelty) but receives no further threats and we never find out exactly who was responsible for that threat.
But it was still very interesting and kept me turning the pages.
marilynw's review against another edition
The torture and death of a family pet put a screeching halt to my reading of this book and this series. I have no desire to continue.
sandin954's review against another edition
5.0
This is a consistently well done series featuring a psychologist who keeps getting pulled into crime investigations. The subject matter in this entry was dark but I never felt it became overly graphic and I always enjoy the supporting characters. Listened to the audio version which was narrated by Sean Barrett who did his usual excellent job.
marshaskrypuch's review against another edition
5.0
What an enjoyable novel this was! Not just your usual thriller. Nuanced characters that the reader cares about and a plot that takes turns in unexpected ways. Now I must read my second Robotham...
shane_tiernan's review against another edition
4.0
My god this guy can write. Not one dragon, ninja, alien or zombie and I still loved it!
Crime/thriller/suspense/mystery is not something I read a lot, but when I do, it's Michael Robotham. I feel like I know every character in the book personally. Like they're real people out there somewhere.
Crime/thriller/suspense/mystery is not something I read a lot, but when I do, it's Michael Robotham. I feel like I know every character in the book personally. Like they're real people out there somewhere.
threeracoonsinatrenchcoat's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0