Close Your Eyes

In Robotham’s gripping 10th thriller featuring British psychologist Joe O’Loughlin and retired detective Vincent Ruiz (after 2014’s Watching You), brusque Det. Chief Supt. Veronica Cray wants Joe’s opinion on the murders of Elizabeth Crowe and her university-bound daughter, Harper, in their West Country home. Elizabeth’s death was from a frenzied knife attack, while Harper was asphyxiated in her bed and laid out like Sleeping Beauty. Joe is dismayed to learn that another psychologist has already leapt in to offer his so-called expertise on the case. Calling himself “the Mindhunter,” Milo Coleman, a former graduate student of Joe’s, is more stage performer than asset, jeopardizing the investigation at every turn by revealing key details to a public salivating for answers. Joe and Vincent dig into Elizabeth’s background and discover her predilection for unconventional sexual exploits, even before more bodies start turning up. Robotham’s tightly plotted whodunit meshes beautifully with a truly emotional family saga involving Joe’s former wife, Julianne. [em]Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Apr.) [/em]