This is a good example of my kind of "airplane book." You grab it at the airport and leave it on the plane. A solid story, dependably good writing, and a fair but somewhat underwhelming resolution. Not a masterpiece, but good at what it does.

Good Girl, Bad Girl is a solid, enjoyable return to form for Michael Robotham. While there's nothing that made me gasp (or even surprised), Robotham's writing is sharp and his characters are interesting. A good read that has me eagerly looking forward to his next!

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?

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC of Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham
Pub Date: 23 Jul 2019

Good Girl, Bad Girl is a creatively written novel interweaving two different tales that eventually tangle together. The tale is told through the eyes of two different characters, Cyrus, a psychologist who does part time work for the police department and "Angel Face" or Evie, which is the name she was given years before when she was found in a secret room in a home, where her abductor was murdered weeks before she was found. Cyrus is asked to consult on Evie's case at Langford Hall, a residential setting for troubled youth, where he meets Evie and is intrigued by her case and wants to help. At the same time, he is asked to consult on the case of a young woman who is found dead dear a path, that she would have taken to get home on the faithful night when she was murdered. Robotham provided all types of clues that makes almost every character of the book a suspect, making it hard to solve the mystery of her death, and causing the reader to turn page after page, devouring the story.

This book would be adored by anyone who loves Jonathan Kellerman or James Patterson. Extremely good novel.

I enjoy Robotham. Every book I’ve read of his is interesting g, as is this one. My hesitation in recommending this book unreservedly is that I think it went on a bit too lan and the resolution of the “ mystery” was just not that satisfying. Still, O read it in two days and it was a fun read. Just not his best.

Good Girl, Bad Girl is a cleverly written mystery that is meticulously planned out and executed! It revolves around Evie, a tortured young woman in a juvenile detention center and Cyrus, with a psychologist trying to help her. The storyline flowed, the characters were engaging and I could barely tear myself away from this book. I highly recommended it. I would like to thank Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of this book.

I had never read this author’s work before, but went looking for it after reading raves about it from online friends. Thanks go to Net Galley and Scribner for the review copy, and to Seattle Bibliocommons for the audiobook that helped catch me up when I found I’d fallen behind. This book is for sale.

Evie Cormac--whose real name is unknown--is a patient in a children’s psych ward. She was found emaciated and filthy at the scene of a violent crime; it’s believed she was kept hostage, though she won’t deny it or confirm, or talk to anyone about it. Cyrus Haven, a psychologist that looks to become a recurring series protagonist, has his own tragic past. When Evie applies for emancipation, Cyrus offers to bring her home as a foster child until she can live alone. Everyone tells him it’s a crazy thing to do.

Meanwhile, a very different girl has been murdered. Jodie Sheehan had a golden future; a championship figure skater, she was locally famous and appeared destined for great things. Instead she was found murdered not far from home. Who the heck would do such a thing? Jodie had no enemies. Police are baffled.

Throughout this tautly written novel I found myself waiting for big reveals. What connection can there be between Evie and Jodie? Who is Evie really?

The thing I admire about this story is the restraint Robotham shows. A more formulaic writer would twist things around and then hit us with all sorts of deep though wildly unlikely ties between the two cases. He doesn’t do that. I expected the big dramatic scene in which Evie spills everything; he doesn’t write that scene. I’ve probably read a few too many novels of mystery and suspense lately, and I was in the mood to roll my eyes. That eye-roll had to wait for a different book and author, because I believed most of this story, and Robotham has shown excellent taste in keeping the reveals minimal.

Here’s the one thing that makes my eyebrows twitch; it’s the same issue I sometimes have with Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware books, which I like a lot. Psychologists don’t race around conducting independent investigations, confronting possible perpetrators, and interviewing people t hat don’t want to talk to them. And sure as hell, psychologists don’t wear bulletproof vests.

But those of us that like these stories agree to suspend disbelief given half an excuse, because a psychologist’s ordinary job—interviewing truculent teens in an office, perhaps, or making hospital rounds—is not nearly as much fun to read about as is a psychologist-as-detective protagonist. There were a couple of times toward the end where I made little frowny notes in my copy, but for the most part I was on board. Robotham takes us deep inside Cyrus’s head, and the more I felt I knew the character, the more I was able to believe the narrative.

Should you read this book? Sure, why not? It held my attention quite nicely, including during my loathsome hours on my exercise bike. I would happily read this author’s work again. Recommended to those that enjoy the genre.

This review appears in Murder by the Book's (Portland, Oregon) blog:

I’ve been a big fan of Australian author Michael Robotham since forever. (We would call him “Robot-ham” at the store to remember how to spell his name, no disrespect intended.) His signature series starring psychologist Joe O’Loughlin and retired London detective Vincent Ruiz dwindled to a close, it seems, with “Close Your Eyes” (2015). Since then he has written a couple of standalones, including the new “Good Girl, Bad Girl.” However, my money is on a continuing series from “Good Girl, Bad Girl” because there were some—not cliff-hangers, exactly—hill-hangers. And, best of all, the two main characters, whose narratives take turns, psychologist Cyrus Haven and psychologically damaged maybe-teenager Evie Cormac, are truly wonderful, eccentric, interesting characters, chock-full of unrevealed past elements. And not incidentally, some of the side characters beg to be brought back again and again.

Cyrus is a consulting forensic psychologist for the Nottinghamshire police. You would think that would allow him to live a middle class life, but instead he lives with a crumbling house and a rotting car. I think you are meant to equate that with a sense that his unresolved trauma and personality also need tidying.

Here’s an aside: The action takes place in Robin Hood territory. Yes, we get the Sheriff of Nottingham(shire). (Boo!) We have “Maid Marion Way” for a road. Cyrus says, “Sometimes I’d say that my mother’s maiden name was Locksley and I had outlaw blood in my veins, which was complete bollocks but a great chat-up line.”

The idea is that Cyrus is a complex person, better thought of as a psychological patient rather than a doctor sometimes. Robotham does reveal Cyrus’ traumatic past and his relationship with a police detective who took a teenage Cyrus under her wing, Chief Inspector Lenny Parval. It is because of Parval that Cyrus becomes involved in a recent homicide. And it is because of a colleague who is at his wit’s end with a patient in a care facility that Cyrus becomes involved in a six-year-old homicide.

First the current case. Jodie Sheehan was an exemplary fifteen-year-old, it seemed. She was bound for glory as a champion ice skater. Coached to success by her mother’s brother, she maintained her grounding by staying close to relatives. When her body is discovered in the woods, it horrifies the community. The details are graphic. The police are looking for a rapist, but is it for a stranger for whom this was a crime of opportunity or is it for someone who knew her, with whom she felt comfortable and by whom she could be easily waylaid. When Cyrus is called to the scene, we realize from his first-person narrative that his take on the crime is very different from that of a detective or forensic specialist or just about anyone else.

A psychologist views a crime scene differently from a detective. Police search for physical clues and witnesses. I look at the overall picture and the salience of certain landmarks and features. Where are the obstacles and boundaries that alter behavior? How quickly does someone disappear from sight? How far can I see in each direction? What are the vantage points and the shortcuts?

Will Cyrus’ input confuse or clarify the crime?

Now the old case. Evie Cormac, a young person of indeterminate age, was discovered hiding in a house in which a gruesome torture murder had occurred. The murdered man was assumed to be her abductor, but as we can tell from Evie’s first-person narrative, he was her savior. What kind of life had Evie led? Robotham dishes some information out in drips and drabs, but she is a huge question mark. She is remarkably smart in some ways, and incredibly naive in others. The press dubbed her “the girl in the box” and nicknamed her “Angel Face,” since her real name (which isn’t Evie Cormac, by the way) was not released at the time. Cyrus is called upon to meet with her and offer aid. The first thing Cyrus notices is that Evie can tell when someone is lying. He knows she is a “truth wizard,” a human lie detector. (Is there such a thing? Don’t know. For the purpose of this book, it’s a great gimmick!)

Through some contrivances, Evie becomes Cyrus’ ward. The court has determined, in lieu of actual documentation, that Evie will not turn eighteen, the age of emancipation, until the next year. Cyrus volunteers, much to his surprise, to be her guardian until then. Two damaged people can understand each other, he supposes. She is suspicious of his motives, but soon a Holmes-Watson relationship develops. Make that Holmes-Holmes, since Evie is a bright but cantankerous bulb.

Red herrings, blind alleys, everyone-is-a-suspect. Name a mystery trope and it’s here. In other words, these days, it’s not so much what the story is as how it is told. Robotham is a very good story teller. He excels at characterization. He flicks his pen in a literary fashion. He brandishes philosophical writing skills. Here are a few choice quotes:

"As a forensic psychologist, I have met killers and psychopaths and sociopaths, but I refuse to define people as being good or evil. Wrongdoing is an absence of something good rather than something fated or written in our DNA or forced upon us by shitty parents or careless teachers or cruel friendships. Evil is not a state; it is a ‘property,’ and when a person is in possession of enough ‘property,’ it sometimes begins to define them."

And

"In reality, there isn’t some shooter in the grassy knoll or child sex ring in the pizza shop or secret group controlling the world. To misquote Mark Twain: It isn’t what we don’t know that gets us into trouble. It’s what we know for sure that just isn’t so."


There’s a lot a reader can learn about humanity from Michael Robotham’s books. He brings thought and caring to his books. Well done, sir!

I didn’t get to this before it came out but I’m so glad that NetGalley put this on my radar. I thought this was going to be a stand-alone, with an intersecting mystery that would be concluded at the end. I’m relieved that that isn’t the case.

"Good Girl, Bad Girl" is a thriller by Michael Robotham that includes two mysteries . The "main" character is a psychologist who is helping to solve the crime of a murdered teenager and also ends up fostering a young woman with an interesting yet traumatizing past. The story felt long and drawn out at times but managed to keep my interest. I don't think it's a very memorable story but still worth a read.
*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Scribner and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Good Girl, Bad Girl. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Because this novel reminded me of the British television series Wire in the Blood, I spent much of the book comparing Cyrus Haven to Tony Hill. An eccentric psychologist working with the police to solve crimes, Cyrus ends up involved in a case that ultimately hits very close to home. In his attempt to help a young woman in need of a little love and guidance, will Cyrus end up doing more harm than good? Will Evie's disturbing past lead her to make poor choices, jeopardizing her shot at happiness?

As the investigation continues into the suspicious death of a teenager, the author does a good job of compiling the details that lead the police to the truth. I wish that there were more details regarding the main character, however, as I feel his backstory is more intricate than the brief explanation implies. Overall, Good Girl, Bad Girl is a good police procedural thriller with a psychologically based emphasis.

I have so many unanswered questions!!! This book sucked me in. I don’t even know where to start. This book has two mysteries going on.

Cyrus is a psychologist, is working on the murder of a high school girl named Jodie. Jodie was a well-known ice skater - and was found murdered beside a pond. There are several suspects - and the police have charged one person, but Cyrus is not sure the police have it right. Cyrus is also helping a young girl named Evie. Evie has quite a history herself.

I am looking forward to the next book and am intrigued by these characters.

This thriller was fun because it had 2 mysteries. The reader follows a psychologist who is helping to solve the crime of a murdered teenage ice skater. He also comes comes into contact with a girl with a traumatizing past. The story kept me guessing and I was surprised by the ending. Although this wasn't a particularly memorable or unputdownable thriller, I still enjoyed the journey. It felt a bit long and drawn out at times and some parts seemed a bit too convenient and unrealistic. Overall, a solid thriller worth reading.

I received an arc of this book from NetGalley to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book it was a wonderful start to the series and I can't wait to get my hands on the next one! It dealt with a few uncomfortable issues which you expect from a thriller. A great 4 star book will definetly be waiting on the next one!

I absolutely loved this book. It had all the things that keep me turning pages. This is my first book by this author and will definitely not be my last. The way he writes is spot on and the characters come to life for me.
It was a quick read for me as I could not hardly put it down. I loved it. I can’t wait for the next book
A huge 4.5 stars and a high recommendation.
Thank you to #NetGalley for this book for my honest review.

3.5 stars. I am so glad this is the start of a new series as I want to know more about Cyrus and Evie. And actually that is probably what I didn't like the most about the story is that we never really found out much about Evie. I would have liked a little more information. I also didn't understand why time was spent on the police officer that found Evie and then that storyline was just dropped. I did really like Evie and her special ability. It made the story interesting.

I am always impressed by authors who do more showing than telling. Mr. Robotham is that kind of writer. There was no extraneous description or excessive self-talk. The narrative was so well written that it almost felt like I was watching, rather than reading, the scenes play out in front of me.

The characters of Cyrus and Evie were very well developed and I found myself liking and rooting for the both of them. Their similar childhood traumas bonded Evie to Cyrus as no other human being possibly could.

I'm happy to find a new author to follow, and I thank NetGalley for helping me to discover him.

3.5 stars
I’ve read five books (four of the Joseph O’Loughlin series) by Michael Robotham and was so excited to read his next new novel! He is one of my go to authors for a good mystery/thriller.

Our main character Cyrus Haven is a psychologist. Same occupation as the O’Loughlin series, but they are very different characters altogether, and the entire theme of the book felt very different from that series. I loved the O’Loughlin series that I have read four so far. Can't wait to listen to more in that series, as I have purchased some of the audible versions.

The writing was good and the story interesting. From the description of the book from the publisher I knew I wanted to read this one. Here is part of the description from the publisher:
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?

From the very beginning I was sucked in and didn’t want to put the book down, so I purchased the audible version. When I couldn’t read I could listen to it being read. Great narrator. The entire book I found to be fast paced, if even a little over dramatic, especially at the end. I liked the character of Cyrus, and found Evie’s character a little problematic (over the top drama for me I think). You really want to feel sympathy for this teenager, but the things she does drove me a little crazy.
There were a lot of twists and turns in this one, and you had to keep guessing who actually killed Jodie Sheehan. I did enjoy this book, and thought it was a good start to a new series.
I recommend this book or audio book (definitely one credit worthy) to anyone who enjoys a good mystery/thriller.

*A very special thank you to the author Michael Robotham and Scribner via NetGalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

Trauma Overload

A forensic psychologist with a dark past meets an enigmatic and traumatized teen as he is investigating another teen's murder. First in the Cyrus Haven series

Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven is investigating a fifteen year old’s shocking murder when he meets Evie Cormac, a teenage girl of indeterminate age who has endured unspeakable torture. Evie currently resides in a juvenile lock-up facility where she is endlessly studied and remarked upon, usually in a disparaging manner by those “experts” who feel they know best. Cyrus is different and after Evie’s latest trial for emancipation, Cyrus unexpectedly petitions to foster the young girl.

Cyrus is a wholly decent man who has suffered his own unspeakable past trauma. Together, he and Evie are the walking wounded, trying hard to make sense of a life that has unfailingly let them down in the worst of ways. They are also two protagonists who are nothing but heart but have learned to do whatever is necessary to protect themselves. Nicknamed “Angel Face”, Evie has a unique talent where she can read faces and knows absolutely when a person is lying. The two make a fascinating team.

As Cyrus gets closer to solving the murder, Evie becomes an unwitting bridge between her own story and the one of a promising young skater whose life was snuffed out by an unsuspected killer yet to be revealed. The story ends with many eagerly anticipated, unanswered questions Good Girl, Bad Girl is the first book in the Cyrus Haven series and I cannot wait for the next installment.

BRB Rating: Read It.

Evie Cormac is being observed by Adam Guthrie at Langford Hall, a high-security children’s home in Nottingham. Adam has brought Cyrus Haven with him today. Cyrus is a psychologist. The room has a number of young girls with severe psychological problems.

Evie is known as Angel Face. or the Girl in the Box. When she was found some years ago in a secret room, no one knew who she was or even how old she was. Tests done on her revealed nothing and she was made a ward of the court. Evie is smart, sassy, and can hold her own in a conversation or confrontation. Cyrus is taken with the young woman and truly wants to help her.

Cyrus has now been summoned by the police to help investigate the body of a woman they have just found. Cyrus’s friend, Lenny. is a police officer and had requested that Cyrus help with the investigation.

Years ago, Cyrus’s brother murdered their parents and twin sisters.

Now, a young teen who had gone missing has been found murdered and sexually assaulted. She was an up and coming champion skater. When her body is found, questions arise as there appears to have been more than one person involved with her death.

This is a book that incorporates two cases. I found that Evie is capable of some good, snarky humor, but I found it a bit hard to believe that she is as intelligent as she is supposed to be. All and all a pretty good mystery but not a favorite.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.