Michael Robotham Reading Order: Joe O'Loughlin and Cyrus Haven

Michael Robotham is Australia’s most decorated crime writer of the past two decades. A former journalist and ghostwriter who turned to fiction in his forties, he has won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger twice — for Life or Death (2015) and Good Girl, Bad Girl (2020), making him the first Australian to win it twice — and the Ned Kelly Award twice, and is widely regarded as one of the finest psychological thriller writers working in English. His novels are distinguished by deep character work — both his series detectives are psychologists, and the psychological dimension of crime is his real subject — and by a willingness to confront the darkest aspects of human behaviour without sensationalism.

He writes two linked series and several acclaimed standalones.

The Joe O’Loughlin Series

Professor Joe O’Loughlin is a clinical psychologist in London (and later Bristol) who becomes entangled in criminal investigations through his work with police. He is also, from the first novel, managing a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease — a detail that gives the series an unusual ticking quality, as Joe’s condition progresses quietly in the background. His partner in many of the investigations is Detective Vincent Ruiz, a gruff, pragmatic London detective who becomes one of crime fiction’s better supporting characters.

Read in order — Joe’s disease progression and his personal life are ongoing threads.

1. The Suspect (2004)

A woman’s body is found in the Thames. Joe is asked to consult — and quickly becomes the prime suspect. Robotham’s debut announced a significant new voice: the psychological double-bind of a character who is both investigator and suspect is set up with precision and escalates without a false step.

2. Lost (2005)

Detective Vincent Ruiz is found floating in the Thames with a bullet wound and no memory of the past few days. Joe works to reconstruct what happened. Ruiz becomes a true co-protagonist here — the series’s second great character.

3. Shatter (2008)

A woman steps off a bridge after receiving a phone call. Joe begins investigating the caller — someone who can talk people to death. One of the darkest novels in the series and the one most frequently cited by Robotham fans as his best.

4. Bleed for Me (2010)

Joe’s friend’s teenage daughter is found covered in blood with no memory of the previous night. Her father is arrested for murder. Joe’s loyalty conflicts with the evidence. A study in how well we can ever really know the people closest to us.

5. The Wreckage (2011)

An Iraq-set prologue, a missing aid worker, and billions in cash that disappeared in the chaos of the 2003 invasion. The most geopolitically ambitious of the O’Loughlin novels, moving between London and Baghdad.

6. Say You’re Sorry (2012)

Two teenage girls disappear from a small English town. Years later, one of them reappears — traumatised and with fragmented memories. The investigation into what happened is among the series’s most disturbing.

7. Watching You (2013)

A woman is shot dead on her doorstep. Her neighbour — a profiler who watches everyone — becomes the most compelling witness. Robotham plays with the idea of surveillance and observation in a plot that keeps its cards very close.

8. Close Your Eyes (2015)

A mother and daughter are murdered in a farmhouse. The investigation takes Joe and Ruiz into a community with deep secrets. The most rural of the O’Loughlin novels, and one of the most emotionally devastating.

9. The Other Wife (2018)

Joe’s world is upended when a car accident reveals his father has been living a secret parallel life. A more personal investigation than usual, and one that forces Joe to examine his own assumptions about identity and loyalty.

The Cyrus Haven Series

Cyrus Haven is a forensic psychologist who works with Evie Cormac — a young woman who was found as a child hiding in a secret room in the house of a murdered man, with no identity and no explanation for how she got there. The series follows their professional and personal relationship across multiple investigations, with Evie’s backstory gradually revealed.

The Cyrus Haven novels are darker and more intense than the O’Loughlin series. They can be read independently of the O’Loughlin books, but chronologically come after.

1. Good Girl, Bad Girl (2019)

Cyrus Haven meets Evie Cormac, a teenager with no past and no identity who was found hiding in a secret room at a murder scene years earlier. Won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel.

2. When She Was Good (2020)

When She Was Good won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2021. Evie’s past begins to surface. One of the finest psychological crime novels of the decade.

3. Lying Beside You (2022)

4. Storm Child (2024)

The most recent Cyrus Haven novel. Evie’s origin story is finally addressed as a case involving child trafficking brings her face to face with her own past.

Standalone Novels

Robotham’s standalones are not afterthoughts. Several — Life or Death in particular — are among his best work.

The Night Ferry (2007) — A woman is killed on a bicycle in London. Her friend, an off-duty police officer, begins investigating a trafficking operation. Set between London and the Netherlands.

Life or Death (2014) — An escaped prisoner who has served 10 years of an 11-year sentence, with one day remaining. Why run now? What does he know? Won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel. One of the most propulsive crime novels of the last decade.

The Secrets She Keeps (2017) — Two women. A stolen baby. The thriller that broke through to a mainstream literary audience. Adapted for television in 2020.

When You Are Mine (2021) — A trainee police officer becomes obsessed with protecting a woman from her abusive partner — and the case spirals beyond anything she anticipated.

Where to Start

Start with The Suspect (O’Loughlin #1) if you want the full arc of Robotham’s signature character from the beginning.

Start with Shatter (O’Loughlin #3) if you want his darkest and most intense novel as a cold entry — it works largely as a standalone.

Start with When She Was Good (Cyrus Haven #2) if you want the Edgar Award winner and don’t mind coming in mid-series. The first book provides useful context but When She Was Good is the peak.

Start with Life or Death (standalone) if you want the most immediately gripping single novel he has written.

Reading Order Summary

#	Title	Year	Series
1	The Suspect	2004	O’Loughlin #1
2	Lost	2005	O’Loughlin #2
3	The Night Ferry	2007	Standalone
4	Shatter	2008	O’Loughlin #3
5	Bleed for Me	2010	O’Loughlin #4
6	The Wreckage	2011	O’Loughlin #5
7	Say You’re Sorry	2012	O’Loughlin #6
8	Watching You	2013	O’Loughlin #7
9	Life or Death	2014	Standalone
10	Close Your Eyes	2015	O’Loughlin #8
11	The Secrets She Keeps	2017	Standalone
12	The Other Wife	2018	O’Loughlin #9
13	Good Girl, Bad Girl	2019	Cyrus Haven #1
14	When She Was Good	2020	Cyrus Haven #2
15	When You Are Mine	2021	Standalone
16	Lying Beside You	2022	Cyrus Haven #3
17	Storm Child	2024	Cyrus Haven #4