Storm Child

Sometimes you read a book that you just want to keep reading until the end. Storm Child by Michael Robotham is one of those books. Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac both experienced trauma when children and are both coming to terms with past events in their lives. Cyrus is now a forensic psychologist working with the police as well as lecturing at a university. Evie has blocked out many of the events that occurred in her childhood but Cyrus attempts to help her to remember the past so that she can regain control of her life and her future.

A relaxing stroll along the beach turns into tragedy when bodies from a boat that has crossed from France to England are washed up on to the shore. Cyrus attempts to save some of the refugees and then discovers that Evie has disappeared. The sight of the bodies in the water has stirred up memories from her past. 

When Cyrus finds Evie she is eventually able to tell him more, but not all, of her story about how she and her mother and sister attempted to come to England many years ago. Cyrus decides that Evie learning more about these boat people may help to unlock her missing memories.

A major theme of the book is about boat people and people smuggling, an issue creating concern throughout the world. Cyrus meets a woman who has received text messages from one of the men who was on the boat stating that the refugee's boat was rammed by another vessel. When this information is passed on to the police, Cyrus becomes involved in finding the boat and crew. Another theme is the decline of the fishing industry, especially in Scotland. 

The first part of the book is set in England and the second part in Scotland.  The story is revealed through the eyes of Cyrus and of Evie. A strength of the book is the emphasis on the development of the characters as the story progresses. The build up of tension makes the reader want to keep reading making this novel a great addition to the Cyrus Haven series.

Lying beside you

Lying Beside You is another excellent crime novel in the Cyrus Haven series by Australian author, Michael Robotham. 

Cyrus, a forensic psychologist, is called in to assist in a police investigation when an older man is murdered and his daughter disappears. Her body is later found in a drain. A short time later another woman disappears from a hotel where Evie is working. Investigations show that the two women once worked together as nurses with a third woman who was attacked eight years previously. The man arrested for that attack has just been released from prison but the nurse who was originally attacked is beginning to doubt that Mitch was the person who attacked her.

Elias, Cyrus' brother is given occasional day release from the psychiatric home where he was imprisoned twenty years earlier after mudering his and Cyrus' parents and two sisters. Cyrus has agreed to allow Elias to stay with him with some misgivings. He is also concerned as to how the presence of Elias will affect Evie who also lives at the house.

Evie continues to have problems relating to other people, especially people her age, and continues to have flashbacks to events in her past. However she does strive, sometimes reluctantly, to follow Cyrus' advice and also uses her ability to be able to identify when someone is lying to assist Cyrus in his investigations.

How events from the past affect the thinking and reasoning of people in the present is one of the book's themes as well as providing a study as to how some people attempt to cope with grief many years after the event.

When She Was Good

The sequel to Good Girl Bad Girl, When She Was Good by Michael Robotham sheds more light on the previous life of Evie Cormac revealing why she is the way she is and why those who try to help her are in danger. 

Evie is back in Langdon Hall, the secure children's home where she will supposedly be kept safe. However it is soon obvious that those who want her dead in order to protect information about their crimes have discovered her location. 

In this gripping story we learn more about Evie's background explaining the trauma she has been through and to some extent why she behaves as she does. Cyrus Haven manages to trace Sacha Hopewell, who had found Evie in a deserted house seven years earlier. Reluctantly Sacha shares the information that she knows about Evie and they decide to work together to try to locate the people who had physically and mentally harmed Evie and other young children. It soon becomes clear that the members of a paedophile ring are being protected by people in power and that anyone who becomes close to discovering the truth will be murdered.

I enjoyed reading Good Girl Bad Girl but thought that When She Was Good was even better.

Good Girl Bad Girl

Award winning Australian author, Michael Robotham, published his first crime novel in 2004. There are nine books in the Joseph O'Loughlin series, five stand alone books and most recently two books in the new Cyrus Haven series, the first one being Good Girl Bad Girl. 

The novel is set in Nottingham, England where Cyrus Haven works as a pychologist, including part-time for the police. An associate makes him aware of a young girl who six years earlier was found alone in a house where a murder had recently taken place. As Evie Cormac appeared to have no family and was unable or unwilling to reveal any information about herself, including her age, she had been placed in a home for troubled children. When Evie applied to leave the home Cyrus was called in to make an assessment and ended up attending the court session that was to determine her fate. To everyone's surprise, including his own, Cyrus volunteered to be her foster parent until Evie reached the date that the judge decided should be classified as her eighteenth birthday.

The plot is revealed via the view point of Cyrus and Evie as they attempt to live together under the same roof of, fortunately, a large house. But as Evie attempts to gain some independence she once again finds herself in danger. 

Cyrus is also helping the police to investigate a case to discover the murderer of sixteen year old Jodie Sheehan, a promising ice skater, whose body was discovered in a park. As the investigation continues it is obvious that Jodie had a number of secrets. As Evie has the skill to judge whether a person is telling a lie or the truth she occasionally provides information to Cyrus that assists in the case. Cyrus does not want others to be aware of Evie's gift for fear that it might lead to more difficulties for Evie.

This is a fast moving psychological thriller that really is difficult to put down. I have placed a reservation for the second book in the series.

Book series in order - Michael Robotham