Lying Beside You by Michael Robotham

This is the third book in the series about a forensic psychologist working in Nottingham. The draw, besides the fact that I know Robotham is a good writer, is that I live close to this area and my daughter is also a forensic psychologist. 

It is a fascinating premise: the psychologist has lived with a brother with schizophrenia and has experienced extreme trauma, and now shares his home with a victim of serious child abuse. And his brother is allowed home visits any day soon. All this against his day job of helping the police with missing and murdered women, possibly at the hands of a serial killer. Phew.

The story moves along at a good pace and I was surprised to find out that there are over 400 pages - they just whizzed by. The chapters are organised by two perspectives only, and such is the skill of Robotham, it is always clear whose chapter it is with the style and language used. The main characters are very well developed and have grown from previous books, although this can be read without the prior reading.

This is a book about forgiveness, justice and truth, and what exactly these concepts mean. A part of this story is definitely a thriller - the action and pace ensure that - but a fair chunk is also police procedural, while the psychological aspect is smaller than I would prefer. Which ever way it is looked at, there is no escaping the fact that this is extremely well written, structured and a very engrossing read.

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Published by Sphere on 23 June 2022.
​Advanced review copy supplied by the publisher.