Good Girl, Bad Girl

January 1, 2019

Found skulking in a hidden room in a house being renovated after a terrible crime, a teenage girl won't reveal anything about herself, even her name. Six years later, going by Evie Cormac, she sues to leave the children's home where she is still staying. With a 75,000-copy first printing; from a Gold Dagger and two-time Ned Kelly Award winner.

Starred review from May 27, 2019
Two major cases preoccupy forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven, the hero of this haunting psychological thriller from Edgar finalist Robotham (The Secrets She Keeps). First, the Nottingham, England, police have enlisted him in their effort to catch the killer of 15-year-old Jodie Sheehan, British junior figure skating champion. Second, Cyrus has to assess the fitness of a troubled but achingly vulnerable teenage girl for release from a high-security children’s home. Six years earlier, the media dubbed her Angel Face when she was discovered abused and malnourished hiding inside a north London house, where the body of a murder victim had been found a few weeks before. She now goes by the court-given alias of Evie Cormac, since she has steadfastly refused to reveal her true identity or age. Despite Jodie and Evie’s obvious differences, they are sisters under the skin in many respects. Beneath Jodie’s sparkly princess persona, Cyrus learns, were a host of very adult problems. To succeed, Cyrus must tease out the secrets Jodie may have died for—as well as some of those that could still get Evie killed. Robotham expertly raises the tension as the action hurtles toward the devastating climax. Readers will hope the complex Cyrus will return for an encore. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management.

June 1, 2019
Troubled psychologist Cyrus Haven has to evaluate a girl without a past while finding out who killed a rising young figure skater. Evie Cormac is an enigma. No one knew who she was when she was found in a secret room in a north London home, weighing less than a child half her age, which was determined to be 11 or 12. Only a few feet from her hiding place was the decomposing body of a man who had been tortured to death. Given a new name, she ended up in Nottingham's Langford Hall, a high security children's home, after a series of foster homes. Now, six years later, she's eager to be declared an adult, so Cyrus must evaluate her for possible release. Evie is rude, unruly, self-destructive, prone to occasional violence, heartbreakingly naïve, and very, very broken. She also seems to be able to tell, with remarkable consistency, when someone is lying. This intrigues Cyrus, who wrote a thesis on human lie detectors, aka "truth wizards." When Cyrus makes an impulsive choice to temporarily foster Evie, it brings a basket of challenges to his already complicated life. Meanwhile, Cyrus is assisting his mentor, Chief Inspector Lenny Parvel, in the investigation of the suspicious death and possible rape of 15-year-old Jodie Sheehan, who was called the "golden girl of British skating." Some shocking revelations lead Cyrus and the police down a rabbit hole of dark family secrets, and Evie can't help but involve herself in the investigation. It's the careful and often poignant interplay between Cyrus and Evie that elevates this consistently stellar yarn. Cyrus' parents and sisters were murdered when he was just a boy, and by all accounts Evie's childhood was nothing short of a hellscape. Trauma unites them, but Robotham (The Secrets She Keeps, 2017, etc.) seeks to show that together, they might begin to heal. Readers will adore the brilliant hot mess that is Evie, and more than a few moments are breathtakingly sad, such as Evie's confusion about her wrinkly fingers during a long bath...because she's never in her life had one. Robotham is a master plotter at the top of his form, and readers will surely hope to see more of his complicated new characters.

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Starred review from June 1, 2019
Evie Cormac, in her late teens, has been in a child-care institution for six years after being found hiding in a house with the corpse of a brutally murdered man; she's now considered a danger to herself and others. Jodie Sheehan, 15, a golden girl and a British junior figure-skating champion, is found dead in the Nottingham woods, partially undressed with semen on her leg and in her hair. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is asked by a colleague to look at Evie's case, then called to consult with police on Jodie's murder, as the question of which is the good girl and which the bad starts to shift. Trying to unearth Evie's past, Haven verifies that the girl is a truth wizard, able to tell when someone is lying, a gift that she considers a curse. (Haven has his own tragic past: at the age of 13, he was the sole survivor when his mentally ill older brother killed their parents and two sisters.) Meanwhile, the Sheehan family investigation points the way to deceit and dysfunction, as finally revealed in an explosive conclusion. This sensitive, suspenseful mystery firmly establishes Robotham (The Secrets She Keeps, 2017) in the top ranks of psychological-thriller writers. And it cries out for a sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)