Finalist for the 2020 Edgar Award for Best Novel
From the internationally bestselling author who Stephen King calls âan absolute master,â a fiendishly clever thriller about a dangerous young woman with the ability to know when someone is lyingâand the criminal psychologist who must outwit her to survive.
A girl is discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Half-starved and filthy, she wonât tell anyone her name, or her age, or where she came from. Maybe she is twelve, maybe fifteen. She doesnât appear in any missing persons file, and her DNA canât be matched to an identity. Six years later, still unidentified, she is living in a secure childrenâs home with a new name, Evie Cormac. When she initiates a court case demanding the right to be released as an adult, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must determine if Evie is ready to go free. But she is unlike anyone heâs ever metâfascinating and dangerous in equal measure. Evie knows when someone is lying, and no one around her is telling the truth.
Meanwhile, Cyrus is called in to investigate the shocking murder of a high school figure-skating champion, Jodie Sheehan, who died on a lonely footpath close to her home. Pretty and popular, Jodie is portrayed by everyone as the ultimate girl-next-door, but as Cyrus peels back the layers, a secret life emergesâone that Evie Cormac, the girl with no past, knows something about. A man haunted by his own tragic history, Cyrus is caught between the two casesâone girl who needs saving and another who needs justice. What price will he pay for the truth?
Emotionally explosive, swiftly paced, and âhauntingâŠRobotham expertly raises the tension as the action hurtles toward the devastating climaxâ (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
