The Suspect Launches a New TV Franchise for Author Michael Robotham
Joe O’Loughlin could not seem more suspicious if he tried. The title character of The Suspect, the Sundance Now and AMC+ TV series based on Michael Robotham’s novel, makes a remarkably quick transition from aiding the police in a murder investigation to being accused of the crime himself. He holds back vital information that makes him look guilty, and he flees from authorities rather than confronting them with the truth. If he weren’t the show’s protagonist, he’d be the most obvious choice for the culprit in the brutal murder of a young woman.
The Suspect is the first in Robotham’s series of mystery novels about clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, so Joe’s clearly not going to turn out to be the killer. But even definitively ruling out Joe’s guilt doesn’t make The Suspect any less suspenseful, and TV series writer Peter Berry crafts effective cliffhangers that create constant doubt as to who’s really behind the murder. Joe (Poldark’s Aidan Turner) sets his sights on his own prime suspect, a disturbed patient of his named Bobby Moran (Bobby Schofield), but Bobby’s own guilt or innocence is just as questionable as Joe’s, even as the five-episode series progresses.
Joe has a lot on his mind, even before he’s accused of murder. The first episode opens with Joe somewhat recklessly climbing out onto a building’s ledge to convince a young man not to jump, endangering his own life in the process. At just 42 years old, Joe is reeling from his recent diagnosis of early-onset Parkinson’s disease, which is confirmed by his doctor and longtime friend Gerald Owens (Adam James). He’s working through some marital issues with his wife Julianne (Camilla Beeput) and wondering how to tell his eight-year-old daughter Charlie (Uma Warner) about his condition.
At first, he’s excited to be asked to come up with a profile for a murderer who stabbed a woman 21 times and buried in her in a local cemetery, but once he sees the victim’s body, his attitude changes. Although he doesn’t admit it at first, the woman is someone from his past, a former patient who made serious but unproven allegations against him. That’s just the first piece of information that Joe initially withholds from the detectives on the case, and his connections to the victim become so numerous that it’s tough to write them off as coincidences.
They’re not coincidences, of course, even if Joe isn’t the murderer himself. The cranky DI Vincent Ruiz (Shaun Parkes) and his eager new partner DS Riya Devi (Anjli Mohindra) don’t have much patience for Joe’s increasingly convoluted explanations, and it’s hard to blame them. Viewers can trust, however, that as far-fetched as some of Joe’s hunches may be, things will add up in the end, and Robotham and Berry plant all the necessary seeds in early episodes for the eventual payoff.
As impulsive and irresponsible as Joe can be, making various ill-advised decisions in his pursuit of the truth, Turner makes him sympathetic and understandable, a man crushed under the weight of so much misfortune all at once. Joe’s Parkinson’s is never forgotten but also never defines him, and as he learns more of the facts about the case, the audience learns more about him as well.
Parkes and Mohindra provide solid supporting work as the detectives who are so determined not to be wrong that they won’t allow themselves to entertain Joe’s seemingly outlandish theories. They’re not the villains, but they’re excellent foils for Joe as he works to evade them while conducting his own investigation. The actual villains, when finally revealed, are chilling but also tragic, not generic monsters but products of terrible circumstances beyond their control, just like Joe.
It may be hard to imagine at first that the main target of a high-profile murder investigation could go on to become the protagonist of many more murder mysteries. But The Suspect makes Joe into a viable long-term character, should there be more adaptations of Robotham’s books on the way. Even under the most extraordinary pressure imaginable, Joe does what every good fictional detective does: He follows the clues, and he doesn’t stop until he finds the real answers.
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At forty-two, psychiatrist Joe O'Loughlin seems to have it all: a thriving practice, a beautiful wife, an adoring daughter. But Joe's snug, happy world is crumbling. Recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he's dreading the inevitable and all too palpable deterioration of his body and mind. Then, when the police ask for his help in solving the brutal murder of a woman they assume is a prostitute, he's horrified to recognize the victim as a nurse he once worked with, and with whom he had a bit of a past. As Joe begins to suspect that one of his patients may be responsible, the police zero in on him.
Marnie Logan often feels like she’s being watched: a warm breath on the back of her neck, or a shadow in the corner of her eye that vanishes when she turns her head.
She has reason to be frightened. Her husband Daniel has inexplicably vanished, and the police have no leads in the case. Without proof of death or evidence of foul play, she can’t access his bank accounts or his life insurance. Depressed and increasingly desperate, she seeks the help of clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin.
O’Loughlin is concerned by Marnie’s reluctance to talk about the past and anxious to uncover what Marnie is withholding that could help with her treatment. The breakthrough in Marnie’s therapy and Daniel’s disappearance arrives when Marnie shares with O’Loughlin her discovery of the Big Red Book, a collage of pictures, interviews, and anecdotes from Marnie’s friends and relatives that Daniel had been compiling as part of a surprise birthday gift.
Daniel’s explorations into Marnie’s past led him to a shocking revelation on the eve of his disappearance: Anyone who has ever gotten close to Marnie has paid an exacting price. A cold-blooded killer is eliminating the people in Marnie’s life, and now that O’Laughlin is a part of it, he is next in line.
Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz doesn’t know who wants him dead. He has no recollection of the firefight that landed him in the Thames, covered in his own blood and that of at least two other people. A photo of missing child Mickey Carlyle is found in his pocket — but Carlyle’s killer is already in jail. And Ruiz is the detective who put him there.
Accused of faking amnesia, Ruiz reaches out to psychologist Joe O’Loughlin to help him unearth his memory and clear his name. Together they battle against an internal affairs investigator convinced Ruiz is hiding the truth, and a ruthless criminal who claims Ruiz has something of his that can’t be replaced. As Ruiz’s memories begin to resurface, they offer tantalizing glimpses at a shocking discovery.
Why would a man serving a long prison sentence escape the day before he’s due to be released? Audie Palmer has spent ten years in a Texas prison after pleading guilty to a robbery in which four people died and seven million dollars went missing. During that time he has suffered repeated beatings, stabbings and threats by inmates and guards, all desperate to answer the same question: where’s the money?
On the day before Audie is due to be released, he suddenly vanishes. Now everybody is searching for him—the police, FBI, gangsters and other powerful figures—but Audie isn’t running to save his own life. Instead, he’s trying to save someone else’s.
A mother and her teenage daughter are found murdered in a remote coastal home, one defiled by multiple stab wounds and the other posed like Sleeping Beauty waiting for her prince. Joe O’Loughlin is drawn into the investigation when a former student, trading on Joe’s reputation by calling himself “the Mindhunter,” jeopardizes the police inquiry by leaking details to the media and stirring up public anger.
Joe discovers a link between the farmhouse murders and a series of vicious attacks in which the victims are choked unconscious and brutally scarred. Now, Joe must stop a ruthless and brash criminal who has apparently graduated to murder. Much to his surprise, he is ably assisted by his eldest daughter, now a keen and courageous observer of her own right. Together they must track and catch a hunter who seems to anticipates every move they make.
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Josh Bell is a freelance writer and movie/TV critic based in Las Vegas. He’s the former film editor of Las Vegas Weekly and the former TV comedies guide for About.com. He has written about movies, TV, and pop culture for Vulture, Polygon, CBR, Inverse, Crooked Marquee, and more. With comedian Jason Harris, he co-hosts the podcast Awesome Movie Year.