The trap in a series, especially for thrillers or detective stories, is always in the second book, especially if the first hit hard. Fortunately Michael Robotham has experience to spare and the second part of the forensic psychologist series Cyrus Haven and of the young woman Evie Cormac it’s even better than the first one.
Evie is “The Girl from the Dark” (Fazi, 18.50 euros, translated by Giuseppe Marano) because she was found, locked in a secret room, in the house where a man had been tortured to death, and because nothing is known about her past, she herself does not give answers. But the original title of this novel is “When she was good”, when she was good, Evie’s own belief – even her current name was ruled by a judge – that she was just damaged goods, that she was wrong, psychopathic, evil. She who, without even being able to explain it, has the poisoned gift of understanding the lies of the people in front of her. And like a kind of Cassandra not to be believed even when she tells the truth.
In this new novel, Evie is back in a structure – the cohabitation with Cyrus has gone decidedly bad, it will be because he too has a good series of ghosts and wounds that the new tattoos are not enough to cover – and she is more a prisoner than before. There are enemies in the shadows who want to silence her, people who tortured and killed that man found in the mystery house. Everyone said that he was the pedophile who held her prisoner, but the reality is different. And Evie herself to tell us about it, while she is forced to flee again, to hide in dark places that are not simple rooms but her soul and her mind.
Cyrus, for his part, has not stopped searching for the truth about Evie’s origins, so much so that he goes as far as Cornwall to look for the young agent who had found Evie “Angel Face”, also on the run. And in the meantime he slips into another investigation that starts from the death of a former police inspector, who is also on the trail of the mystery girl.
An interlocking plot, a masterfully directed suspense, a narrative in which the voices of Cyrus and Evie alternate – these parts above all are the best: Evie little more than a child, the tenderness of Terry, the man who died for her, and the fear of the “uncle”, the hands and bodies of all those men…
Was Evie good? She certainly isn’t evil now, even if her fear drives her to withdraw, if her incredible intelligence leads her to do what others cannot comprehend. Compared to Lisbeth Salander, Evie is more so much more. Michael Robotham confirms himself as a master of the genre and connoisseur of investigative techniques and dark universes – whether it’s pedophilia or the other finance – and if we really have to find a flaw, it concerns the choice – as for the first book of the series – to make the ranks of the police with the Italian counterparts. Luckily, Evie has no counterparts or counterparts.
THE GIRL WHO COMES FROM THE DARK
Author:Michael Robotham
publisher: Fazi Darkside
Gender: Thrillers
Price: 18.50 euros