Watching You (#7) by Michael Robotham

4.0 out of 5 stars - "All my life I have lied...These falsehoods gave me a story more palatable than the truth."

Is someone really stalking Marnie? For years she's felt a shadow just beyond her reach. For some reason, people who make her unhappy, who hurt her, or who don't do right by her seem to get injured or killed. Now her husband's vanished -- been gone about a year now with no word. He had some gambling debts that she's now forced to settle but has no way to collect his life insurance or to access his accounts without a death certificate. Meanwhile, she's been seeing Joe as a patient twice a week to manage her stress. 

Things start to happen when a man who hurt her is found dead in the river and she becomes a suspect. It seems that Marnie has some big secrets and someone is lying. Why do people she used to know say that she "ruined their lives" and both hate and fear her? What of the "Big Red Book?"

Well, I've done it - finished all 7 of the books in the Joseph O'Loughlin series and now I'm feeling deprived already. If you love books about crime and the psychological aspects of what motivates those who commit them, then you'll want to read these novels. The cases are interesting and the writing really draws in the reader. I've grown attached to both Joe (the psychologist) and to his sidekick, Vincent Ruiz, an ex detective with London's Metropolitan Police. 

There are some characters I've grown to detest (yes, you Julianne, and I didn't like Marnie either). I've noticed that the author's women are all just amazingly beautiful and typically a little warped. The teenagers are ALL snotty, rebellious and quite annoying. No one seems to be able to have a decent relationship and it got old how obsessed Joe is with his estranged wife. Get over it already! Despite these aggravations, I read the series for the stories and for the "observations" that Joe makes about people and life. 

I'll definitely be looking for an eighth book. But, I hope Joe makes some changes in his personal life meanwhile and no, he doesn't need a love interest or a romance.