Michael Robotham does not give up so easily. He does, however, have an oblique take on the task of hero creation, and not chiefly because his detective is a clinical psychologist rather than a cop or private investigator. It is rather that the shrink in question, Joe O’Loughlin, suffers from multiple sclerosis: for him navigating the streets can literally be a shaky business.

The combination of MS and therapy allows Robotham to inject O’Loughlin into the narrative later, and less overwhelmingly, than is typically the case in crime fiction. The story is still his journey in search of a hidden truth, but it is not only his journey. Watching You is primarily the storyof his patient Marnie, but also of the watcher implied in the title, and Robotham deftly builds his tale by interweaving Marnie’s perspective with the watcher’s and O’Loughlin’s.

As Marnie’s Hitchcockian name suggests, part of the hidden truth is something she has forgotten – or rather repressed – about herself, and therein lies a clue to the watcher’s identity, too. Watching You is a gripping thriller, but it is not only that. This is a story about human connections: about the bonds we choose to have to others, the bonds that are chosen for us by the actions of others, and which of these, in the end, matter more.