Review: When She Was Good (2020) by Michael Robotham

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 When She Was Good is the second book in the Cyrus Haven series. The the first series book, Good Girl, Bad Girl is reviewed here. As with the previous book, the tory is told in first person narratives from the viewpoints of Evie and Cyrus.

I need to warn potential readers upfront, if you can't take novels that portray violence against children then this isn't your book. Robotham handles the topic very well but it does get rough.

Evie Cormac is still in Langford Hall, the secure facility for troubled youth, still disrupting things and provoking reactions. This time she might have gone too far and case worker Adam Gutherie is determined to have her sectioned and sent to a mental hospital. In large part this is because he has been victim of Evie's (justified?) ire. Oddly, Gutherie seems to have forgotten that Evie was the little girl known as Angel Face, found in a house where a horrific murder had taken place, who was given a new identity by the Home Office. He's the one who told Cyrus who she is. I would have thought he would have been a bit more accountable to the Home Office.

I don't know what it would be like to be around someone like Evie all the time but as a reader I can't help but like her, She has a dry, sarcastic wit that appeals to me. But Evie is a "truth wizard" someone who can spot lies nearly 100% of the time which causes trust issues; if people lie to her, why should she tell the truth.

Where Good Girl, Bad Girl was psychological suspense with Cyrus attempting to get through to Evie, Robotham moves into full on thriller territory with When She Was Good with Cyrus assuming the role of detective, trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Evie, hoping he can fix her. What he begins to uncover takes him to a very dark place.

In his effort to find out more about Evie's origins, Cyrus tracks down Sacha Hopewell, the special constable who found Evie in the murder house. She dropped out of sight because of the publicity and reactions against her personally after finding Evie. But Evie has never been out of her mind and she finds herself pulled into Cyrus's investigations. Meanwhile, Evie is determined to keep her secrets fearing that revealing anything would put others is grave danger, particularly Cyrus.

Cyrus' police boss, Lenore (Lenny) Parvel calls him to the scene of the suicide of a retired. police detective Hamish Whitmore. But it's obvious to Cyrus that it's murder, not suicide. When they start looking into the detective, they find out that he was making an in depth review of his investigation and capture of a child molester and child murderer, Eugene Green. Green was killed in prison but Whitmore didn't think he was working alone. Cyrus is alarmed when he sees that Whitmore had written Angel Face on a white board. How is Evie connected to Whitmore's unofficial investigation. And what about the unknown, shadowy, very dangerous figures working to thwart this reinvestigation of Green.

As Cyrus begins to uncover connection the danger begins to ramp up and the unseen forces will go to any lengths to preserve their secrets. I hate to use review cliches like heart racing action but Robotham knows how to keep raising the tension the Cyrus gets in his investigation.

When She Was Good answers a lot of the questions we were left with at the end of Good Girl, Bad Girl. Evie is a heartbreaking character, someone who is not likely to ever be made whole, someone who has been left feeling dirty inside and out, unworthy of love. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing where Robotham takes this series in the next two books.

Keywords: crime fiction, psychological thrillers, child abuse, childhood trauma