The Night Ferry
Written by Michael Robotham
Narrated by Clare Corbett
4/5
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About this audiobook
Michael Robotham
Michael Robotham is a former investigative journalist whose bestselling psychological thrillers have been translated into twenty-five languages. He has twice won a Ned Kelly Award for Australia’s best crime novel, for Lost in 2005 and Shatter in 2008. His recent novels include When She Was Good, winner of the UK’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller; The Secrets She Keeps; Good Girl, Bad Girl; When You Are Mine; and Lying Beside You. After living and writing all over the world, Robotham settled his family in Sydney, Australia.
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Reviews for The Night Ferry
62 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Alisha Barba is a police constable on sick leave due to the horrific injuries she received during a previous case (which took place in Robotham's Lost a.k.a. The Drowning Man. Cate Beaumont is an old friend from whom Alisha has been estranged for eight years but when she rings and asks to meet Alisha quickly agrees. On the night of the meeting the two talk only briefly before Cate and her husband are run down by a car. Alisha soon discovers that all is not what it seems and that Cate may have been embroiled in something sinister enough to warrant the attempt on her life.
I should have loved this book. I certainly expected to. In fact saved it up especially for a time when I'd want a guaranteed good read. But, alas, it was not to be.
I've really enjoyed Robotham's two earlier books (Suspect and Lost). I like the way he seems to get into the characters heads in a believable way. But, in this case, I didn't find the main character very credible at all. I don't know if it's because a white Australian male simply can't speak in the voice of an English woman of Indian descent or something else but, whatever the reason, to borrow from the advertising business, I never 'bought' Alisha. One minute she was a courageous woman overcoming adversity or fighting for justice and the next throwing a grown-up tantrum or having a sulking session. The two sides didn't gel together. And her lack of ability to understand the world is not as black and white as she would like grew tiresome.
As did the story. It was too repetitive. The first half (about 250 pages) could easily have been condensed because it went around in circles and had a whole lot of unnecessary scenes. A good book should fly by but this one flowed like mud travelling uphill. The premise was excellent and the overall themes were interesting but I lost interest in these as we went to another Dutch cafe for another pointless conversation and then had another bit of biffo with a bad guy to no apparent purpose.
Normally I'd have stopped reading long before the end. But I did keep wondering if I was missing something as I'd liked Robotham's earlier books so much. So I plodded along. And, to be fair, it got better. The last 150 or so pages offered a decent resolution and did actually entertain me although Alisha's annoyance factor only grew.
I'm glad this wasn't the first Robotham book I read because if it had been I doubt I would pick up another. As it is I'm still looking forward to reading Shatter in a couple of months and can be philosophical that this particular book just wasn't for me. I can't count the number of times a book as captured my imagination or provided me with comfort or escape. So I guess the occasional disappointment isn't too big a price to pay for all the hours of enjoyment.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Michael Robotham is a master at stories with so many levels. He lays out so many rich characters and storyline yet you feel every word is important. Love how you just never know where he will take you or how you got there. Kate wants children so much and has tried all means of conceiving with no success. Her current plan is to find a surrogate by any means possible. Alisha is a detective and Kate's former best mate. Newly returned to the force from a job related injury she is not happy with the nee placement. After running into each other after several years estranged in a moment of chaos Kate asks Alisha not to let them take her babies. The events that follow had me hanging on every twist and new substory that followed. Amazing storytelling. I have yet to read a Michael Robotham book I did not recommend.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a fascinating book even if you only look at it from the point of view of how it fits in with Robotham's other 2 books. His first was THE SUSPECT where the central character was psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin. In a sense the second book, LOST (also published as THE DROWNING MAN) was a sequel to SUSPECT, with the same two main characters, Vincent Ruiz and psychologist Joe O'Loughlin. Whereas SUSPECT focussed on O'Loughlin's predicament, LOST focusses on Ruiz. Now in THE NIGHT FERRY DC Ali Barba, a minor character in LOST emerges in her own right, with assistance and mentoring from the now retired DI Vincent Ruiz. Detective Constable Alisha Barba is still on medical leave, nearly completely recovered after a murder suspect broke her back across a brick wall a year earlier (in LOST). There is is to be a re-union of classmates at Ali's old school and she receives a note from former classmate and best friend Cate from whom she has been estranged for 8 years. Cate says she is in trouble and asks Ali to come to the reunion. When they meet briefly Alisha sees immediately that Cate is pregnant and Cate talks of people who are trying to take her baby. After the reunion Cate and her husband are knocked down by a taxi. The husband Felix is killed and Cate is critically injured. Subsequent medical examination reveals that Cate was never pregnant. From this tantalising beginning, Robotham builds a cleverly crafted story, and the character of Ali Barba grows and grows. We explore the consequences of a police force that moves too slowly, a justice system that refuses to charge criminals because it is not 'in the public interest', and the greed of those who see children as a saleable commodity. And has Robotham left the door open for another? The last line holds hope. 'The end of one story is merely the beginning of the next'.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Something of a sequel to "Lost." Almost too many twists to keep track of, and very bloody, but exciting.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just finished this excellent book - interesting look at human trafficking... different perspective. The line of moral integrity becomes blurred and makes one think they aren't so clear on the "right" answers anymore. Loved SUSPECT, which is why I picked this one up. Not sure I enjoyed it as much at first because I was expecting something different, but in the end it was just as satisfying.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very enjoyable thriller with a credible Anglo Sikh heroine - at least as written by one middle aged white man and as read by another. Poor 'ol Paddy scapegoated again and I would have liked more detail on his (inevitable) demise. I did smile to see our heroine worry about the Police Complaints' Commission over some disciplinary matters while the little matter of stabbing a man to death with a scissors was not an issue. Article 2 ECHR how are ya'? That said, I loved the book - a page turner. I'll read more by Mr Robotham.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The plot and story itself were great. The main issue I had with the book was the main character. She was totally unlikeable. Anyone who doesn't walk on eggshells or worship her is somehow a misogynist. She throws repeated temper tantrums and paints herself as a victim at every turn. It made the entire book extremely tedious.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another good book from Robotham. I admit that I missed Joe in this one but it was still a good read. This was about trafficking people, medical rape, prostitution and so on... but the main story was about a young orphan forced into a surrogacy but when the biological parents are murdered it turns into a race to save the young girl and her pregnancy. I will definitely recommend.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A story a bout a couple that couldn't have a baby and went elsewhere to find a solution, the events that arise will stick the hairs on the back of your neck up, love, deception , greed, corruption and outright lack of human feelings brings this novel to a head. Another great read, too bad he doesn't print books as fast as James Patterson, the machine of authors.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alisha Barba is a very strong, yet vulnerable, narrator of this story re people trafficking and illegal surrogacy and adoption schemes. She's a London DC, Indian, Sikh, coming off a lengthy medical leave when she is contacted by a best friend after years of separation. The story is long, moves at a good pace, but its strength is in its characters (always well done in a Robotham novel). The only negative is that the conclusion likely rules out a future Ali novel.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I loved Robotham's previous 2 books, Lost and Suspect, and expected great things. I was very disappointed. For one thing, I thought the story was too big. One of my favorite things about both Lost and Suspect is Robotham's use of London as almost another character in the story. The international intrigue element just didn't work for me. I also felt Robotham's understanding of a woman's psyche was a bit cliched at times. As the main character, Ali, searches for answers, she literally keeps asking the same questions over and over in the narrative. It seemed like Robotham needed to fill space or something. Parts of the novel were contrived, and it definitely did not hold the suspense his other novels have.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book was a page turner. Takes place in England and starts with an on-leave police officer trying to help a pregnant friend who claims "they want to take my baby." The friend is run down in an automobile accident and we learn she wasn't pregnant. The main character, Alisha Barba, is fearless in learning who and why her friend did such a desperate act.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The evil underside of Europe is exposed in this implausible story of a female police detective who attempts to solve the mystery of a "pregnant" friend's death. Containers full of smuggled human goods are ferried from port to port, with the people in them treated with less care than a load of computers. The feisty (of course) heroine does many stupid things in the course of attempting to rescue one of these victims, a girl forced to become pregnant with the embryos of an infertile couple.Despite detective heroine's many missteps and misjudgments, and thanks to a few incredible plot turns, all ends happy-ishly. Second most annoying thing is the author's attempts to get inside the female brain, which seemed crammed full of stereotypical thoughts and a whole lot of baby-yearning. And while on the subject of annoyances, the Sikh detective-heroine's name is Alisha Barbra, aka Ali Barbra. Joke?Nonetheless, the writing is smooth and rich and I am not averse to trying another of Robotham's generally lauded books.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A taut thriller with well-drawn characters and a plot that explores the evils of criminal surrogacy and shameless exploitation of refugees - which are certainly hot topics for our time.