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The Other Wife by Michael Robotham
4★
Childhood sweethearts William and Mary have been married for sixty years. William is a celebrated surgeon, Mary a devoted wife. Both have a strong sense of right and wrong. This is what their son, Joe O'Loughlin, has always believed. But when Joe is summoned to the hospital with news that his father has been brutally attacked, his world is turned upside down. Who is the strange woman crying at William's bedside, covered in his blood - a friend, a mistress, a fantasist or a killer? Against the advice of the police, Joe launches his own investigation. As he learns more, he discovers sides to his father he never knew - and is forcibly reminded that the truth comes at a price.Michael Robotham is a writer with a great deal of talent for telling a story. His books have such inventive plots and memorable characters. His character of Joe O’Laughlin, is a clinical psychologist who struggles with Parkinson’s and the death of his wife. He reminds me a great deal of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch. Joe learns some unpleasant truths about his parents when a woman he knows nothing about enters the picture claiming to have been married to his father. The only problem I had with the story was the ending seemed to have little to do with the way the story began. Still a very good, 4 star worthy, read.
