A heart-pounding psychological thriller about friendship and obsession.
Despite being the daughter of a notorious London gangster, Philomena ‘Phil’ McCarthy has defied the odds and is now a promising young officer in the London Metropolitan police.
But everything changes when she is called to the scene of a domestic assault and rescues a bloodied young woman, Tempe Brown. Unbeknownst to her, Tempe’s abuser, Darren Goodall, is a decorated detective. The incident is hushed up, but Phil has unwittingly made a dangerous enemy with powerful friends, and her efforts to protect Tempe from violence result in Phil being struck from the force.
Determined to look after 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. Phil realises that Tempe is hiding deadly secrets of her own. Secrets she is willing to kill for…
Michael Robotham is an internationally bestselling author whose titles include such hits as The Secrets She Keeps, The Suspect and Good Girl, Bad Girl. His books have sold more than 6 million copies, and his many loyal fans include other big-name authors like Stephen King who said: “I always have a huge stack of books to read, but a Michael Robotham novel automatically goes to the top of the pile.”
While I’ve learnt to embrace the crime thriller genre working at Better Reading—and there are a lot of great thriller authors I now read—Robotham is in a league of his own. I wait for the weekend to read his books, because once started, I cannot put the book down. He builds tension like no one else, and his compelling characters and perfectly polished writing propels each exhilarating story along.
Once again, his protagonist—this time Phil—has multiple complex layers. She decided to become a police officer as a child, after a bus she was on was bombed. Phil’s family background also really adds to her inner conflict and desire to do good. This time it’s by arresting Darren. But she’s up against a boys’ club (the police force) with Robotham addressing the toxic masculinity many women experience in these work environments.
When You Are Mine might be Michael Robotham’s finest page-turner yet. Reading it is like taking a master class in crime writing: it’s as good as it gets.
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