Also in London, Richard North, a compliance officer for Mersey Fidelity, is in trouble. He is having second thoughts about not reporting financial inconsistencies to the proper authorities.

As the story evolves it becomes clear that all of the heretofore described events are connected. North is the key that will make sense of the disparate tales. North’s wife, Elizabeth, suspects that her husband is having an affair and hires a private investigator to either confirm or allay her fears. Ruiz is hot on the trail of his suspected burglars and Luca and Daniela are hoping for the journalistic coup of the decade. The deeper they dig the more extensive the money laundering scheme seems to be and, of course, the harder written confirmation of what they suspect is elusive.

Vincent Ruiz is a familiar figure to those fans of Michael Robotham, having appeared in Robotham’s earlier novels set in Britain. He is a tortured soul having endured the untimely death of his first wife Laura, the mother of his twins, Claudia and Michael. Two other unsuccessful forays into marriage have left him bitter and cynical. His career is over and his only close friend, Joe O’Loughlin has his own litany of problems. In The Wreckage, Ruiz’s problems are part of a much larger complex scenario which involves the creative use of money on a global scale.

The story seems disjointed at the beginning of the book as the author sets up the various pieces in his game. Just what sort of financial shenanigans are being arranged and which governments are actively participating in the scheme is gradually spelled out in language even the financially impaired can understand. There is also a political and journalistic angle to the story that needs to be taken into account. The broad scope of these subplots contrasts with the troubles that plague the personal lives of Vincent Ruiz and Richard North. Both men, though their individual problems are quite different, have difficulty adjusting their professional persona with their personal one with the question of ethics playing a key role.

Befitting his background in journalism, Robotham writes economical terse prose which fits well into the thriller subgenre. Within that framework, he manages to force his readers to look at situations a little differently. To wit as Luca explains his background to Daniela he mentions that he speaks Arabic and knows Iraq because his mother grew up there and thus considers himself in some measure to be from Iraq. She counters with a jibe that perhaps that is because he doesn’t belong anywhere else. He later is apprising Daniela’s body in all its perfection and then notes his own hands covered in gun oil.

Underlying the plot are the different agendas that journalists, politicians and police personnel have in addressing a problem on a global scale. Obviously the journalists want to sell papers or video or digital information, the police (hopefully) are interested in apprehending those responsible for criminal behavior, and politicians want to be politicians. Thus the conversations that take place in the novel between these factions make for lively reading.

Because Iraq figures prominently in the plot, the reader is treated to a bit of local color. With as much press as this part of the world has gotten of late, these bits may or may not be of great interest to readers. Ditto asides on how the CIA works or the United States State Department carries out its business.

The Wreckage is quite a lengthy tome. It takes the author more than a few pages to get all the disparate parts identified and described. The last one hundred pages neatly fit together all the pieces in a carefully constructed puzzle leaving no question to the relevancy of the extensive set up. Initially I thought The Wreckage was one of Robotham’s weaker efforts but he very soundly proved me wrong. Do not quit partway through this book. You will be sorry if you do.

--Andy Plonka