Lost

 

Lost  by Michael Robotham

The title of this book, sadly, describes precisely how I felt the majority of the time that I was reading it. Author Michael Robotham recently became highly recommended to me, and the first book that I read by him “The Secrets That She Keeps” was highly enjoyable.  I wish I could say the same for this effort.

This is a book where the author tries a unique way of telling his tale. Underneath the intended labyrinth, what we have is a pretty straight-forward detective story. Vincent Ruiz worked on a case several years ago concerning an abducted child.  All the evidence seemed to point to a somewhat-loner that lived in the same building as the girl and her family.  A trial was conducted, and the man was found guilty and sent to prison. Case closed.  Or was it?  It seems as though there are quite a few unanswered questions, and Vincent, against the advice of his superiors, unofficially opens back up the case.

Now, here’s where the “twist” comes into play.  As this story opens, we don’t really know any of this, and the comings and goings of the renewed case are a mystery to us. It’s a mystery to us because it’s a mystery to Ruiz.  We first meet Ruiz drowning in the Thames river after being shot. What was he doing in the Thames? Why was he shot?  Ruiz doesn’t know, and neither do we.  So Ruiz has to somehow figure out the missing pieces to the puzzle of this case that has been completely wiped from his brain.  So along with Ruiz, we try to reconstruct exactly what happened to him and why.

All of this seemed a bit unnecessary to me. I guess it COULD make an interesting twist, but it never really felt that way. Instead, I felt either lost (there’s that word) or a bit cheated when it seemed that the protagonist would “suddenly regain” a portion of his memory when it seemed necessary and/or it was time to move the plot forward. It doesn’t really help when Ruiz becomes your standard rebellious detective who never “follows the rules” and of course, it’s only a matter of time when he’s fired and “off the force”. Whatever.

A big part of this novel involves the complex sewer system under the city of London that flows into the Thames River, and we get far too much detail about just how disgusting this place is that’s filled with rats, garbage, and human waste.  This is not a book that you really want to read if you have a queasy stomach.  If you don’t have one, you may just get one.

I really stopped caring about the story during the last 75 pages or so, and became a bit too disgusted with all the “sewage” descriptions. I was also a bit overwhelmed with too many characters.  Had I not been so anal about finishing a book once I start, I would have easily given up on this one.  It’s a good thing I didn’t read this for school because I would have failed the quiz about what actually happened at the end. My level of interest simply wasn’t there.

Note: This book is advertised as a “Joe O’Loughlin” book. Supposedly he shows up in several Robotham novels. He’s not really even a major character in this book, but he does serve a purpose and keeps the novel moving forward. I guess.