Book Review: When You Are Mine by Michael Robotham
I love Michael Robotham, so I rushed out and snapped up his new standalone book as soon as it was available. As usual, he did not disappoint.
Phil (a woman, short for Philomena) is a young PC who is called out to a domestic violence incident which ends up with her arresting the male abuser. Although Phil follows procedures correctly on the night, the man she arrests turns out to be a highly decorated detective and she is forced to withdraw the charges by her superiors. Instead of stepping back from the case though, Phil complicates matters several times over, from befriending the victim to investigating the detective’s past by searching through the police database.
Obviously, given Phil keeps entangling herself further and further, I kept waiting for her world to come crashing down. And Robotham didn’t disappoint in this area. The plot is fast paced and tense and basically goes from one cliffhanger to the next, meaning I kept reading madly to find out just how Phil was going to sort out her career and life.
There’s plenty of themes and topical issues which are presented but the major one is [obviously] domestic abuse. I know, sadly, that there is a high rate of domestic abuse amongst police personnel, however, I do hope that police corruption to cover up the said abuse is still not such a prevalent thing. Although, I concede, there was the case that made the news when a police officer used their database to give out confidential information in the form of the address of a victim of domestic abuse to a mate (the abuser), so I guess these things could potentially still occur.
Robotham’s characterisation is also, as usual, fantastic. It’s very easy to visualise all the characters. Other than Phil, standouts included Phil’s father and uncles who also just happen to be English mafia type criminals.
The resolution and ending of the book were not what I was expecting at all; there were quite a few twists. I think the ending did sort of open up the opportunity for Robotham to bring Phil back and feature her in another book, something I for one would not be averse to. 4 ½ out of 5
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