Product Description

Vincent Ruiz is lucky to be alive. A bullet in the leg, another through the hand, he is discovered clinging to a buoy in the River Thames, losing blood and consciousness fast. It takes six days for him to come out of his coma, and when he does, his nightmare is only just beginning. Because Vincent has no recollection of what happened, and nobody believes him. A mile away from his body, a boat was found covered in blood - Vincent's and that of three others. Forensics say at least one of them must be dead. Vincent, a police detective, had signed his service pistol out of the station armoury, despite being on leave. Many murder suspects fake amnesia, and the investigating team are not sure this case is any different...The only clue is a picture in his pocket, a photograph of a young girl, Mickey Carlyle, who disappeared three years ago. And though Mickey is presumed dead, Vincent has the nagging doubt that she is alive and in terrible danger...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #374626 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Det. Insp. Vincent Ruiz (a supporting character in Robotham's debut, Suspect) is hauled out of the Thames with a bullet wound in his leg and no memory of a shooting, let alone how he wound up in the water in Robotham's fine, moody second thriller. Keebal, a nasty cop from internal affairs, hounds Ruiz from the start, and everyone seems to know something Ruiz doesn't. When psychologist Joe O'Loughlin (the protagonist of Suspect) shows Ruiz a picture of young Mickey Carlyle—a seven-year-old girl kidnapped three years earlier whom everyone but Ruiz thinks is dead—he figures there must be some connection between her case and his shooting. Despite his injuries, Ruiz retraces this investigation with the help of his partner, a young Sikh woman named Ali. The past returns in dribs and drabs and none too gently. Mickey is the daughter of a Russian-born crime lord, Aleksei Kuznet; a cache of diamonds and a man known as a "grooming paedophile" also figure prominently in the splintered plot. The warm relationship between Ruiz and Joe, who suffers from Parkinson's, counterpoints the main story line's grit. Robotham works some good wrinkles into Ruiz's relationship with Ali and an empathetic nurse, too. The result is a thoughtful and subtle thriller, with convincing, three-dimensional characters. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School Robotham's second mystery features some of the cast from Suspect (Doubleday, 2005), including Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz and clinical psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin. The fast-paced action opens with a half-dead Ruiz being fished out of the Thames. When he awakens from his coma, he has no memory of why he was in the river, almost dead from a bullet wound to his leg, nor can he remember anything from the week leading up to his injury. With the help of O'Loughlin, Ruiz begins piecing together details that show he was following up on the disappearance of eight-year-old Mickey Carlyle. The only problem? Mickey disappeared three years earlier, and a sexual predator has been convicted of her murder. As Ruiz retraces his steps, he relives several incidents from his past that are linked to his need to investigate a closed case. This is a fast-paced thriller with plenty of adventure; Ruiz's hunt for answers takes him deep into the sewers below London and into the cold waters of the Thames. The characters are complex; Ruiz, the son of a Gypsy woman raped by German soldiers in World War II, is haunted by the childhood drowning of his half-brother, even though he's estranged from his own children. Robotham understands that some quests are worth any sacrifice no matter how long the odds of success might be. This is a subtle and taut thriller with convincing characters and strong psychological components. Erin Dennington, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Detective Vincent Ruiz comes to as he is pulled from the Thames; he has a bullet in his thigh and no memory of his activities in recent days. But from the clues that surface, he soon believes he had been trying to recover a child whose presumed murder he had investigated three years earlier. Ray Lonnen's delivery is full of a snap that reflects both Ruiz's regrets as husband, father, and police officer, and his contempt for his superiors' anger when he raises doubts over a case they would prefer remain closed. Those who relish earthy accents from London's most hardscrabble sections will find plenty of entertainment in Lonnen's performance. M.O. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Ruiz is London's very own Harry Bosch!
Michael Robotham is definitely an author who bears watching!

DI Vincent Ruiz, debuted as a supporting cast member in Robotham's first novel, "Suspect", is rescued from the Thames wounded, bleeding, hypothermic and a good deal more dead than alive. Suffering from transient global amnesia brought on by the trauma of the night's events, Ruiz is initially unable to recall anything at all about what he was doing on a motor launch cruising the Thames in the middle of the night. But it's clear that something very important was going down as he is immediately harassed by Internal Affairs who are treating him more like a criminal than a police officer wounded in the line of duty. With what few clues are available about the shooting and with the help of psychiatrist Joe O'Loughlin, Ruiz begins to painstakingly reconstruct his memories and to pick up the threads of his search for the truth about the kidnapping of seven year old Mickey Carlyle.

Ruiz quickly discovers he is the only detective who believes in the possibility that Mickey Carlyle is still alive despite the conviction and imprisonment of Harlan Wavell, a sexual predator convicted three years earlier for the kidnapping and murder. A blue wall of official obstruction is erected in the path of Ruiz's investigation as the department believes that Ruiz's efforts may lead to the possibility of the killer's release on a technicality. The painful Byzantine process of re-constructing the investigation and filling in the blanks of his memory loss piece by painful piece leads Ruiz on a tortuous path through London and Europe - down through the sewers of London and back into the river Thames; into the repulsive thoughts of a "grooming pedophile"; into a confrontation with Russian crime-lord, Alexei Kuznet, who is looking to recover a cache of diamonds worth over two million pounds; and even to London and Thailand's drug and sex sub-cultures.

Despite a plot with lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending that very few readers will suspect before it actually arrives, much of the quality of Robotham's "Lost" is cerebral - atmosphere, characterization, dialogue and psychology - the scion of a loving marriage between a police procedural and a psychological thriller. Those readers searching for comparisons need look no further than Michael Connelly's successful Harry Bosch novels. Like Bosch, Ruiz is a dark, brooding, mature hero with an in-your-face attitude who's toting lots of mental baggage! But I was also pleased to find that Robotham did not neglect to fill in the story with some very interesting technical asides - transient global amnesia; the complex engineering of London's vast and ancient sewer system; the police treatment of kidnapping and ransom demands; some peeks into Sikh family culture, and more.

Most enjoyable and definitely recommended. One tiny tip - if you haven't yet read "Suspect", go find it first and enjoy both!

Paul Weiss