Robotham’s psychological thriller, about a disturbed serial killer in the southwest of the UK, starts with the murderer reflecting on how he heard about his mother’s death.  She was giving oral sex to her lover while he was driving, and in the accident she bit off his penis. This sets the macabre tone for the novel, which includes some vivid descriptions of murder and mutilation.  This is balanced by the narration of the psychologist investigating the case. Joseph O’Loughlin is a classic glum middle aged man ruminating over his life’s mistakes and commenting wryly on the current predicament his finds himself in. He is moving back in with his estranged wife and daughters; he was unfaithful and he had been moping around regretting his misjudgment and yearning for his former life. His psychological expertise has made put him in a difficult position. He gets asked to look into a recent double murder that has disturbing aspects, and so he gets embroiled in very unpleasant circumstances, filling his head with the darkest aspects of life. Beyond that, he also has followers: one of his former students is using O’Loughlin’s name to promote a shameful scheme to promote himself as a media expert on crime. Then there’s O’Loughlin’s influence on his own daughters. He wants to be close to them, but that’s difficult when his whole life is immersed in such psychological darkness. 

So Close Your Eyes is a nice example of the modern noir thriller, very influenced by the Scandinavian genre. The psychological aspect to do with betrayal and vengeance is explored thoroughly although it doesn’t seem particularly realistic. It’s more interesting as an exploration of the psychopathology of everyday life: everyone turns out to have their own secrets and problems, which O’Loughlin observes with Stoic resignation. It’s done well, but the highlight of the book for me was the portrayal of the smaller towns in southwest England, which gives the book some real character.

The unabridged audiobook is performed by Sean Barrett who is appropriately subdued in his tone. The one problem I had with it was that he gives the same characterization to O’Loughlin and the murderer, which is confusing at times.

© 2016 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York