So, I had my suspicions that Rowbotham was not British, because he wrote of his protagonist running miles, where I thought they were on kms (like all right thinking countries). Turns out, he’s Australian, and we’re the odd ones out – both Brits and Americans are running miles.
I picked Good Girl, Bad Girl up because I thought I’d already read one of his books – it has a similar cover to something I’ve actually read. I’m glad I did, though, as it was a light popcorn read that suited my middle-of-the-year lack of concentration.
Cyrus is a shrink with a past, who often helps the police with their inquiries. He meets Evie, a juvenile delinquent who is essentially a human lie detector, and together they solve crimes. This is the first book in a series, so we’re learning about the characters as they’re learning about each other. Eventually Evie is released to Cyrus’ custody, so they can be a dynamic duo without impediment.
The crime of the week is the murder of a figure skater killed walking home from training. The resolution is what I would describe as… British, and also telegraphed quite loudly for more than a few pages.
And then they blew up Cyrus’ heritage listed house? How’s that going to work out (this concerned me so much more than the murder, I won’t lie)?
Regardless, I found it worthy enough to pick up Lying Beside You, which is book three, so I skipped one. It didn’t matter. Cyrus and Evie are still cohabitating, but he seems to be attempting to keep her away from crime scenes and investigations (short sighted!).
Again, there were a few places where I wanted to punch Rowbotham, but overall I was swept up in this and enjoyed it. Cyrus’ mysterious past involves his brother, who murdered every other family member, and has been in prison ever since. He’s out on weekend visitation as part of limited (?) parole (?). He is what can only be described as Fucking Creepy. He immediately causes conflict with Evie, who is fragile, and every time Cyrus was absent, I was barely reading all of the words, waiting for them to explode into violence.
The serial killer du jour was almost incidental to my enjoyment, honestly. It was a complicated revenge scheme, essentially. However, I clearly care enough about Cyrus and Evie to keep going with this series.