At the start of Michael Robotham's return to his series character psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin (after the standalone Life or Death), Joe's estranged wife invites him to move back in with her and their daughters for the summer. Joe is happy--until Detective Chief Superintendent Veronica Cray asks him to consult on a double-murder case. Joe's involvement marks the beginning of yet another nightmare for him.
The mystery in Close Your Eyes surrounds a mother and her teenage daughter who were killed in their farmhouse, but with remarkably different methods. The girl was suffocated and her body rearranged almost reverently after death, while the mother was mutilated by multiple stab wounds that indicate extreme rage. The community is demanding answers and an arrest. Complicating matters is a former student of Joe's, who's using Joe's name to insinuate himself into the investigation, releasing details to the media while anointing himself the Mindhunter--a new and improved version of Joe, the one who best knows the mind of the killer. Joe doesn't care about publicity--he just wants to solve the case, though he has no idea of the cost he'll have to pay.
The killer's motivation is well-trodden territory, and italicized chapters from the perp's point of view are a familiar M.O., but Robotham skillfully keeps the murderer's identity hidden until almost the very end. He writes with sharp insight into the tangled psychological webs formed from love and loathing and fear; the subplots involving Joe's family give Close Your Eyes emotional resonance and make this a series changer. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd