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LIFE OR DEATH
by Michael Robotham
Mulholland Books, March 2015
432 pages
$26.00
ISBN: 0316252050


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

A decade of torture: beatings, stabbings, and all manner of assaults. Audie Palmer has endured the threat of death on a daily basis, from inmates, guards, and prison gangs – all wanting to know what he did with the missing $7 million. A day before his long sentence for the deadly armed robbery expires, Audie escapes. Why?

Because after a decade of protecting his own life, he needs to save another's.

A decade of crime writing: awards, acclaim, and international bestseller lists. Michael Robotham has honed his storytelling skills over the course of nine novels, psychological and geopolitical thrillers, following on from a career as a London-based journalist and celebrity 'autobiography' ghostwriter. Now the man from the North Sydney beaches has turned from his usual heroes, Parkinson's-afflicted psychologist Joe O'Loughlin and tough investigator Vincent Ruiz, and his usual setting, the United Kingdom. Instead, a standalone story about a stoic and courageous convict on the run in Texas, a tale that may very well be Robotham's masterpiece.

With its examination of prison life, and murky mix of eclectic characters, crooked and kind, there is something Shawshank-esque about LIFE OR DEATH. However, Robotham elevates his novel far beyond the derivative thanks to his tight and twisting plotting, exquisite settings, and most importantly the emotional oomph of Audie's tale.

Everyone – from the reader to FBI Special Agent Desiree Furness to Audie's best prison buddy Moss – wants to know just why Audie escaped one day before release. Why risk everything for freedom, when freedom is only one day away? Now Audie's on the run, with everyone involved in the original armed robbery case, from the former prosecutor to a deputy turned sheriff, desperate to find him. He's wanted. Dead, not alive.

Those pulling the strings get Moss released in order to track Audie down. Meanwhile Robotham provides us with the perspectives of Audie and his pursuers, along with flashbacks to Audie's earlier life: his relationships with his low-life brother, and the mistress of his low-level mob boss, and the build-up to what actually happened on the day of the robbery – the events that changed everything, for so many people.

The strands entwine more and more as the pages turn. LIFE OR DEATH is an action-packed tale with plenty of intrigue, and plenty of heart. Even when we know who the bad guys are, we're on the edge of our seat about why things have turned out this way, and what will happen. Robotham makes us care.

Top notch storytelling that glues you to the page, Robotham gradually turns up the heat until things explode into a final confrontation. But this tale full of violence and corruption is at its heart about love.

LIFE OR DEATH is like fine bourbon: smooth, layered, and lingering long after the final sip.

§ Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned journalist from New Zealand who writes reviews and features for magazines, newspapers, and websites in several countries. He has interviewed more than 100 crime writers, discussed crime fiction at books and arts festivals and on radio, is the Judging Convenor of the Ngaio Marsh Award, and editor of Crime Watch: http://kiwicrime.blogspot.com.

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson, March 2015

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