21 June 2011

Review: THE WRECKAGE, Michael Robotham

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 762 KB
  • Print Length: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Hachette Digital (May 5, 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B004WJRT4K
  • Source: an ARC e-copy supplied by the publishers Mulholland Books to NetGalley.com.
Product Description (Amazon)

In London, ex-cop Vincent Ruiz rescues a young woman from a violent boyfriend but wakes next morning to find that he’s been set up and robbed. As he tracks down the thieves, he discovers the boyfriend’s tortured body and learns that powerful men are looking for the girl. What did Holly Knight steal that is so important to them?
Meanwhile in Baghdad, the bank robbery capital of the world, billions of dollars in reconstruction funds has gone missing and Pulitzer prize-winning Journalist Luca Terracini is trying to ‘follow the money’. The dangerous trail will lead him to London where he teams up with Vincent Ruiz and together they investigate the disappearance of an international banker and a mysterious ‘black hole’ in the bank’s accounts.

My take

THE WRECKAGE introduces a new character, investigative journalist Luca Terracini. In Baghdad Luca teams up with UN auditor Daniela Gardner. Someone is blowing up banks, the 18th so far for the year. Consignments of US dollars worth billions have disappeared.

In London our old friend Vincent Ruiz is mugged by a girl he took pity on in a bar. He wakes to find some of his things are gone - an iPod, his camera, his police medal, his passport, and some jewellery intended for his daughter Claire who is getting married on Saturday. His determination to locate the girl and retrieve his belongings has unexpected consequences that prove for us just how few degrees of separation there really are in modern Western society.

THE WRECKAGE is a contemporary thriller set against the background of both the world financial crisis and the attempts to build Iraq in the face of both greed and terrorism. It reflects both Robotham's meticulous research, and his ability to create great fictional characters. He describes the main characters in a way that makesd you really care about what happens to them.

Robotham seems to have begun using a crisper, more immediate, style of narrative that mostly uses the present tense. It gives a cinematic impression of events happening as you watch.

This is a great read, both for those who have been waiting for the next in this fractallated series featuring retired London detective Vincent Ruiz and clinical psychologist Professor Joe O'Loughlin, and for those new to Robotham's work.

My rating: 5.0

See Michael Robotham's site and download the first chapter.
Review by Bernadette (Reactions to Reading)

Reviews of other Robotham titles on MYSTERIES in PARADISE
BOMBPROOF
SHATTER
SHATTER (audio)
BLEED FOR ME

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

This sounds really good, even though present tense doesn't always work for me.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I have been waiting for the next Robotham. You've whetted my appetite even more :-). Excellent review, Kerrie

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