Reviewed by Craig Sisterson
A girl is discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Half-starved and filthy, she won’t tell anyone her name, or her age, or where she came from. Maybe she is twelve, maybe fifteen. She doesn’t appear in any missing persons file, and her DNA can’t be matched to an identity. Six years later, still unidentified, she is living in a secure children’s home with a new name, Evie Cormac. When she initiates a court case demanding the right to be released as an adult, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must determine if Evie is ready to go free. But she is unlike anyone he’s ever met—fascinating and dangerous in equal measure. Evie knows when someone is lying, and no one around her is telling the truth.
Meanwhile, Cyrus is called in to investigate the shocking murder of a high school figure-skating champion, Jodie Sheehan, who dies on a lonely footpath close to her home. Pretty and popular, Jodie is portrayed by everyone as the ultimate girl-next-door, but as Cyrus peels back the layers, a secret life emerges—one that Evie Cormac, the girl with no past, knows something about. A man haunted by his own tragic history, Cyrus is caught between the two cases—one girl who needs saving and another who needs justice. What price will he pay for the truth? Fiendishly clever, swiftly paced, and emotionally explosive, Good Girl, Bad Girl is the perfect thrilling summer read from internationally bestselling author Michael Robotham.
Sydney author Michael Robotham has long been one of the leading lights in modern Australasian crime writing. Although due to the fact he sets his excellent thrillers overseas - most in the UK where he worked for many years - he's sometimes overlooked when people discuss the growing antipodean crime wave. But he has been on the crest of that wave as much as Jane Harper and her Outback novels, Paul Cleave and his Christchurch thrillers, and Peter Temple's Melbourne tales.
The Gold Dagger Award-winning author is a tremendous storyteller.
In recent years Robotham has interspersed his series starring Parkinson’s-afflicted psychologist Joe O’Loughlin with an array of standalones . This latest novel GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL steps away from Joe but swims in similar psychological terrain. It could, perhaps, be the start of a new series.
Six years after a traumatised adolescent dubbed ‘Angel Face’ was discovered hiding out at a brutal crime scene, the renamed Evie Cormac wants out of state care. Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven is called in to assess the unusual young woman who seems able to act as a lie detector. Meanwhile, Cyrus also consults with the police on the headline-grabbing murder of a teenage ice-skating star.
Intercutting between Evie and Cyrus’s perspectives (two fascinating characters who’ve found different ways to cope with each of their traumatic childhoods), GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL engages quickly and flows throughout It's a real page-turner, with the whodunnit of the murder bolstered by plenty of intrigue in relation to a variety of character secrets.
Overall this is yet another example that Robotham is an accomplished storyteller who knows how to draw readers in, hold their attention, and deliver an absorbing psychological thriller. I'm curious to see if we will see more of Cyrus or Evie in books to come. There's definite series potential here.
Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. You can heckle him on Twitter.
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