Series: Cyrus Haven #3
By: Michael Robotham
Narrator: Joe Jameson
Simon & Schuster Audio ISBN: 9781982166489
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: 02/14/2023
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 5 Stars + (ARC)
Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac return in Robotham’s latest page-turning, psychological thriller in this “gripping and eerie” (Karin Slaughter) series, reaffirming why Stephen King has proclaimed this author “an absolute master.”
If I could tell you one thing about my brother, it would be this. Two days after his nineteenth birthday, he killed our parents and twin sisters because he heard voices in his head. As defining events go, nothing else comes close for Elias, or for me.
As a boy, Cyrus Haven survived a family massacre and slowly pieced his life back together. Now, after almost twenty years, his brother is applying to be released from a secure psychiatric hospital—and Cyrus is expected to forgive Elias and welcome him home.
Elias is returning to a very different world. Cyrus is now a successful psychologist, working with the police, sharing his house with Evie Cormac, a damaged and gifted teenager who can tell when someone is lying. Evie has gone back to school and is working part-time at an inner-city bar, but she continues to struggle with authority and following rules.
When a man is murdered and his daughter disappears, Cyrus is called in to profile the killer and help piece together Maya Kirk’s last hours. Police believe she was drugged and driven away from the same bar where Evie is working. Soon, a second victim is taken, and Evie is the only person who glimpsed the man behind the wheel.
But there’s a problem. Only two people believe her. One is Cyrus.
The other is the killer.
My Review
International bestselling Australian Crime Writer Michael Robotham (a favorite) returns following with his popular Cyrus Haven Series, When She Was Good (#2), Good Girl, Bad Girl (#1), with his latest multi-layered emotionally charged gripping thriller— LYING BESIDE YOU (#3)
Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac are back in one of the BEST in the series, solidifying Robotham's position as the "King of crime fiction."
Cyrus is now a successful forensic psychologist, working with the police and sharing his house with Evie Cormac, a damaged and gifted teenager who can tell when someone is lying.
It has been twenty years since the brutal murder of his parents and little twin sisters. Now Cyrus (age 33) faces the prospect of welcoming home the schizophrenic brother, Elias (age 39), who committed the crime—now being released from custody.
Elias was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and has been incarcerated at Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital for the last 20 years. It has now been assessed that Elias can safely return to the community and be trusted to manage himself and his mandatory drug regime. But can he?
At the same time, Cyrus is also involved in investigating a double murder that will affect the lives of those closest to him.
The author rewinds to take readers back to the time of the murders that left Cyrus orphaned and traumatized. Elias was 19, and Cyrus was 13. He has spent years in a psychiatric hospital and is being released.
Cyrus is unsure he can trust his older brother but wants to keep him close to protect others. He said the voices inside his head made him do it. Does he feel remorse?
If he brings him into his home, he also has to worry about Evie, who lives with him in the household. She is also emotionally damaged and troubled. Can either of them live with a psychotic killer?
Evie becomes involved in helping Cyrus with the double murder of an elderly father, and his daughter, Maya, and other young women go missing. Evie's intuitive skills prove helpful. Mental illness plays a big part in the novel as well as forgiveness, courage, and compassion.
I have read all the author's books and have been an avid fan for many years. He is the best crime writer out today!
The author has a way of expertly blending the past and present with heart and soul. His complex psychological crime thrillers are insightful, suspenseful, emotional, and heartfelt, yet full of action and a perfect blending of tragedy and humor. They are packed with suspense and tension. Readers will see some growth in Evie's progress since Book #1 as she makes her way in the world.
The well-drawn characters are strong yet vulnerable and come alive on the page. I enjoy the relationship between Cyrus and Evie, and fans will love this latest installment LYING BESIDE YOU and hoping for a #4! Not wild about this US front cover; I like the AU one better.
While this can be read as a standalone, I recommend you read the first two books in the series to fully enjoy your reading experience. Robotham is one of my favorite authors, and I anxiously await his next. I sure miss Joseph O'Loughlin!
Highly recommend!
Thanks to #Scribner and #NetGalley for a gifted e-ARC.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars +
Pub Date: Feb 14, 2023
Cyrus Haven Series
Praise
“The guy can't write a bad book. This is one of his best, suspenseful and hard to put down.”
—Stephen King
"A riveting page-turner."
—Megan Goldin, author of The Night Swim
"[An] expertly paced and psychologically acute novel . . . [with] insightfully drawn characters and [a] superb sense of place that the author conjures up with laconic ease, razor-sharp wit, and, above all, compassion. . . . Gripping and insightful."
—Kirkus (starred review)
"I loved Lying Beside You. Michael Robotham is such a wonderfully perceptive writer; rich, real characters who are constantly surprising . . . I could read about these two forever."
—Alex Marwood, author of The Wicked Girls
“Not just a cleverly constructed crime novel . . . it’s also an achingly beautiful story about trust, redemption and love that had me intermittently catching my breath.”
—Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
“Thoughtful . . . it isn’t easy to maintain a balance between two such different plot strands, but Robotham does it brilliantly.”
—Sunday Times (UK), Best Crime Books of 2022
About the Author
Michael Robotham is a former investigative journalist whose bestselling psychological thrillers have been translated into twenty-five languages. He has twice won a Ned Kelly Award for Australia’s best crime novel, for Lost in 2005 and Shatter in 2008. His recent novels include When She Was Good, winner of the UK’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller; The Secrets She Keeps; Good Girl, Bad Girl; and When You Are Mine. After living and writing all over the world, Robotham settled his family in Sydney, Australia. WEBSITE
