NB: Lost appears to be titled Blind Spot in the US and is not showing as available in ebook format at the present time.
This is the second book in the Dr Bloom series about brilliant psychologist Dr. Augusta Bloom, her investigative partner Marcus Jameson, and their antagonist, the psychopathic mastermind Seraphine. Seraphine doesn’t make an appearance until quite late here, though it eventually becomes apparent that she’s been pulling the strings all along. Instead the story focussed on Navy Captain Harry Peterson, who bizarrely goes missing after being injured in a bomb attack on a naval base. Harry’s partner Karene is a friend of Augusta’s and asks her for help first in finding Harry, and then when he turns up seriously injured with memory loss, figuring out what happened to him.
I really enjoyed Gone, the first book in this series. The author focussed on the nature of psychopathy and did an absolutely stellar job in educating the layperson about it without complex jargon. That got a little bit lost here - there was a certain amount of interesting medical detail about induced amnesia, but it didn’t fascinate me the way the first book did.
The other problem I had was Augusta’s apparent willingness to continue dealing with Seraphine. After her actions in the first book, Seraphine was beyond the pale as far as I was concerned, and Augusta’s decisions absolutely horrified me. Her manipulation of Marcus genuinely made me dislike her; she seemed completely unconcerned about his feelings. This is not my idea of a protagonist to root for and I’m seriously wondering where the heck this series is going. The idea was intriguing and well-written but I just don’t get the rationale behind this progression with Augusta’s character and I’m not even sure I still buy into her as a heroine.
Four stars, but to be honest? I probably won’t be looking for the next in this series.
Lost is available now... but it appears to be called Blind Spot in the US and isn’t currently showing as available in ebook format in that market.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this title via NetGalley.
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