Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another riveting page-turner from Michael Robotham; I’m really a fan of the clipped and stripped-down tone of his storytelling; it brings a kind of spare and forlorn feeling, a loneliness, that works well amid the harsh circumstances and tragedies that are the backdrops to his narratives. This novel really contains two parallel stories that eventually intersect more obviously. First, our antihero is Cyrus Haven, a solitary psychologist with his own tragic backstory. We briefly met him in one of Robotham’s other novels. This book launches his own series.
Cyrus is asked to help learn more about Evie. Evie is maybe 18, and has been a ward of England in a high-security facility since she was discovered several years earlier, malnourished and abused and living in the secret room of an old house, where a man’s corpse was fund decomposing after a torturous death. She has refused to tell anyone her name, her birthday, who her parents are, where she is from — but she insists she is 18 and she wants to be set free. Caregivers are concerned she’s a danger to herself and others due to her suppressed trauma and occasional violent outbursts.
Meanwhile, Cyrus is called to support a murder investigation: a body is found of a teenage girl, an up-and-coming figure skater. She’s apparently been sexually assaulted, her body partially covered with foliage on a dark footpath. What was she doing out, alone, at night? At first glance, she’s a blameless, high-performing and disciplined athlete. But there’s more here than meets the eye.
As Cyrus tries to connect with Evie and learn the truth about the murder, this book raises questions of how damaging it can be to apply assumptions to the people around us, the danger of filling in blanks and how quickly that can lead to misunderstanding, and desperate things people will do and suffer to protect people they love. It’s a story in itself but leaves just enough on the table for the next Cyrus book. Can’t wait!
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