Review: WHEN YOU ARE MINE, Michael Robotham

• 
  This edition an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08BWVTNCQ
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sphere (24 June 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1021 KB
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 375 pages
• Best Sellers Rank: 4 in Kindle Store

Synopsis (Amazon)

From the multi-million-copy bestselling author behind THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS, a major BBC series, comes a gripping new standalone thriller

Philomena McCarthy has defied the odds and become a promising young officer with the Metropolitan Police despite being the daughter of a notorious London gangster. Called to the scene of a domestic assault, she rescues a young woman, Tempe Brown, the girlfriend of a decorated detective. The incident is hushed up, but Phil has unwittingly made a dangerous enemy with powerful friends.

Determined to protect each other, the two women strike up a tentative friendship. Tempe is thoughtful and sweet and makes herself indispensable to Phil, but sinister things keep happening and something isn't quite right about the stories Tempe tells. When a journalist with links to Phil's father and to the detective is found floating in the Thames, Phil doesn't know where to turn, who to blame or who she can trust.

My take

In the Acknowledgements at the end of this novel, Robotham, after reminding us he has been publishing crime fiction for twenty years, talks about what keeps him writing. 

With each subsequent novel, I have always strived to push myself as a writer, using different tenses, new voices, and dual narratives. This is also one of the reasons that I write occasional standalone novels like WHEN YOU ARE MINE because it challenges me to come up with new characters and to explore new lives.

This is a novel about domestic abuse, toxic friendships and the baggage that all families carry with them.

 And those words so perfectly sum up what keeps me reading his novels too. I know he will always come up with something fresh, even when other writers are touching on the same topics. (I seem recently to have been read a number of novels about toxic friendships for example: GREENWICH PARK by Katherine Faulkner, THE OTHER PASSENGER by Louise Candlish) But there is much more to this novel.

A great read! Well done Michael.

After winning the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel in 2015 for LIFE OR DEATH and then in 2020 for GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL, Michael Robotham has this year (2021) won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller for WHEN SHE WAS GOOD.

If you haven't yet begun reading him, now is the time to start!

My Rating: 5.0

I've also read

BOMBPROOF
SHATTER #3
SHATTER (audio)
BLEED FOR ME #4
5.0, THE WRECKAGE #5
4.8, SAY YOU'RE SORRY #6
5.0, WATCHING YOU #7
4.8, IF I TELL YOU... I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU (edit)
5.0, LIFE OR DEATH Shortlisted for the 2015 CWA Gold Dagger
4.8, CLOSE YOUR EYES
5.0, THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS
5.0, THE SUSPECT #1 (audio)
4.8, LOST #2 (audio)
5.0, THE OTHER WIFE
4.8, GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL -#1
4.8, WHEN SHE WAS GOOD -#2