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Michael Robotham books in order

Michael Robotham is an Australian international crime writer.

Born in Casino, Australia, Michael was raised in tiny rural towns which had more dogs than people. Luckily he was able to escape in 1979, becoming a cadet journalist on an afternoon newspaper in Sydney.

Michael then spent the next fourteen years writing for various newspapers and magazines in Australia, Britain and America, before quitting in 1993 to become a ghostwriter.

His books have been translated into 25 languages across the globe, winning several awards such as The Crime Writer's Association Gold Dagger and The Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel.

Michael lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia.

More about Michael Robotham

Genres: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Thriller

Born: 1960

Australia

Website: http://www.michaelrobotham.com/

Non Series

  • The Night Ferry (2007)
  • Bombproof (2009)
  • Life or Death (2014)
  • The Secrets She Keeps (2017)
  • When You Are Mine (2021)

Omnibus Books

  1. Suspect / Night Ferry (2010)
  2. The Drowning Man / Bombproof (2011)

Cyrus Haven Series

  1. Good Girl, Bad Girl (2019)
  2. When She Was Good (2020)
  3. Lying Beside You (2022)

Joseph O'Loughlin Books

  1. The Suspect (2004)
  2. Lost / The Drowning Man (2005)
  3. Shatter / The Sleep of Reason (2008)
  4. Bleed for Me (2010)
  5. The Wreckage (2011)
  6. Say You're Sorry (2012)
  7. Watching You (2013)
  8. Close Your Eyes (2015)
  9. The Other Wife (2018)

Non-fiction

  1. If I Tell You . . . I'll Have to Kill You: Australia's Leading Crime Writers Reveal Their Secrets (2013)

Detailed book overview

Non Series

The Night Ferry

Detective Alisha Barba is struggling to rebuild her life after an attack by a murder suspect nearly confined her to a wheelchair.

As soon as she gets back on her feet again, Alisha receives a desperate cry for help from an old friend from school who is eight months pregnant and in terrible danger.

But on the night of their arranged meeting, her friend is run over and killed by a car.

Determined to find the truth, Alisha begins a perilous journey that trails from the East End of London to Amsterdam’s red light district, and into the ruthless underworld of sex trafficking, slavery and exploitation.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2007
Ebook: B00LLOHKCU
Publisher: Sphere
Bombproof

He is neither a jewel thief nor a safe-cracker. He also doesn’t know anything about explosives.

Sami Macbeth is a guitarist who dreams of one day becoming a rock star.

The only problem is that he keeps getting caught up in a number of unexpected circumstances.

For instance, Sami was just released from prison fifty-four hours ago.

Some thirty-sex hours, he was in action between the sheets with a beautiful woman at the Savoy.

But an hour ago, his train was the scene of an explosion.

And now, with a bag on his back, he is running through London's West End as the most wanted terrorist in the country.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2009
ISBN: 978-0751542042
Publisher: Sphere
Life or Death

Ten years ago, an armed robbery was committed and millions were stolen.

Four people also died, two of which were Audie Palmer’s gang members.

Given how the seven million dollars has never been recovered, everybody is convinced that Audie knows exactly where the money is hidden.

For the ten years that he has spent in prison, Audie has witnessed all kinds of torture and threats by prison guards, inmates and criminal gangs, who all want to know the same thing.

Then one day, Audie mysteriously disappears.

Why would a man break out of prison on the eve of his release?
Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2014
ISBN: 978-0751552911
Publisher: Sphere
The Secrets She Keeps

Meghan may not know Agatha, but Agatha knows her.

Every day, Agatha looks forward to seeing the innately elegant customer at the grocery store where she works.

Two beautiful children, a gorgeous and accomplished husband, a happy marriage, and a popular parenting blog that Agatha reads religiously every night: Meghan seems to have it all.

Agatha on the other hand is expectant, and her absentee boyfriend isn’t returning her calls.

However, unbeknownst to her is that Meghan’s life isn’t perfect.

And their paths will entwine in the most intimate and fascinating of ways.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-1501170324
Publisher: Scribner
When You Are Mine

Philomena McCarthy is a young, ambitious police office with the elite Metropolitan Police in London. When she responds to a domestic violence call, she finds the victim, Tempe Brown, trying to protect her abuser, a married man named Darren Goodall, a decorated Scotland Yard detective afraid of no one.

As Philomena pursues the case against him, she not only encounters resistance from her police force colleagues but also becomes dangerously entangled with the victim—who is not at all whom she appears to be—much to the increasing endangerment of herself and Henry, her fiancée.

Complicating matters is Philomena’s estranged father Edward McCarthy, a powerful man who has built a criminal empire along with his brothers. Philomena has long tried to pursue her career as a police officer without her father’s involvement, but as she falls under suspicion of stalking and harassing Goodall, her father becomes involved.

As the situation escalates, Tempe’s sinister maneuvers further entangle Philomena in a web of secrets, corruption, and murder, putting Philomena’s impending marriage, career, and very survival in jeopardy…​

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2021
Ebook: B09841Y3RF
Publisher: Scribner

Omnibus Books

Suspect / Night Ferry

THE SUSPECT

Joseph O'Loughlin appears to have the perfect life - a beautiful wife, a loving daughter and a successful career as a clinical psychologist. But nothing can be taken for granted. Even the most flawless existence is only a loose thread away from unravelling. All it takes is a murdered girl, a troubled young patient and the biggest lie of his life.

THE DROWNING MAN

A lost child. A shattered past. A life going under...

Vincent Ruiz is lucky to be alive. A bullet in the leg, another through the hand, he is discovered clinging to a buoy in the River Thames, losing blood and consciousness fast. It takes six days for him to come out of his coma, and when he does, his nightmare is only just beginning. Because Vincent has no recollection of what happened, and nobody believes him.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2010
ISBN: 978-0751544268
Publisher: Sphere
The Drowning Man / Bombproof

THE DROWNING MAN

Vincent Ruiz is lucky to be alive. A bullet in the leg, another through the hand, he is discovered clinging to a buoy in the River Thames, losing blood and consciousness fast. Vincent has no recollection of what happened, and nobody believes him. The only clue is a picture in his pocket, a photograph of a young girl, Mickey Carlyle, who disappeared three years ago. And though Mickey is presumed dead, Vincent has the nagging doubt that she is alive and in terrible danger...

BOMBPROOF

Fifty-four hours ago Sami Macbeth was released from prison. Thirty-six hours ago he slept with the woman of his dreams at the Savoy. An hour ago his train blew up. Now he's carrying a rucksack through London's West End and has turned himself into the most wanted terrorist in the country...

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-0751547467
Publisher: Sphere

Cyrus Haven Series

Good Girl, Bad Girl

In the aftermath of a hideous crime, hides a girl in a secret room.

Half-starved and mucky, she’s unwilling to reveal her name, her age, or where she’s from.

She doesn’t feature in any missing persons report and her DNA can’t be traced to anyone.

Six years later, still unidentified, she’s given the name Evie Cormac.

When she launches a court case demanding for her release having become an adult, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven is given the responsibility of determining of she is fit to be released.

But Cyrus will soon learn that there's a good girl and a bad girl. One needs saving, and the other needs justice.
Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-1982103613
Publisher: Scribner
When She Was Good

In the aftermath of a hideous crime, hides a girl in a secret room.

That was six years ago.

Nobody still knows Evie Cormac’s real name or where she’s from, for everyone who tries ends up dead.

Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven believes that only the truth will set Evie free.

Determined to uncover her past, he launches his own investigation, one that only infuriates some corrupt and powerful individuals who can’t wait to silence Evie—the only remaining witness to their crimes.

Worse off is that Cyrus is taking them to her.

The truth, as it were, won’t set anyone free. It will only get them killed.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2020
Ebook: B07ZLTMRC6
Publisher: Sphere
Lying Beside You

Twenty years ago, Cyrus Haven's family was murdered and only he and his brother survived. Cyrus because he hid. Elias because he was the killer.

Now Elias is being released from a secure psychiatric hospital and Cyrus, a forensic psychologist, must decide if he can forgive the man who destroyed his childhood.

As he prepares for the homecoming, Cyrus is called to a crime scene in Nottingham. A man is dead and his daughter, Maya, is missing. Then a second woman is abducted. The only witness is Evie Cormac, a troubled teenager with a gift for knowing when people are lying.

Both missing women have dark secrets that Cyrus must unravel to find them - and he and Evie know how the past can come back to haunt you...

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2022
Ebook: B09HSJVKHM
Publisher: Sphere

Joseph O'Loughlin Books

The Suspect

A flourishing practice, a stunning sharp and committed wife, and a beautiful young daughter: celebrated psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin is living the dream life. However, even an unblemished existence is only a loose thread away from disentangling.

When the dead body of a young woman is discovered with multiple stab wounds, O'Loughlin is brought in to uncover the mystery. Upon viewing the body, he realizes that the victim was Catherine Mary McBride: a nurse and former colleague.

Was it murder or did she take her life away?

When things unravel, and the dreams of a young patient become more violent, O'Loughlin realizes that he has a deranged killer to unmask.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2004
ISBN: 978-0316252256
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Lost / The Drowning Man

Someone wants detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz dead, and the worst part is that he doesn’t know who.

He neither remembers the shooting nor how he ended up in River Thames, with the only clue being a photograph he finds in his pocket of Mickey Carlyle; one of a seven-year-old girl who mysteriously vanished three years ago. But the child’s killer is behind bars, and Ruiz is the one who put him there.

Could the police be wrong?

Now under investigation after being accused of faking amnesia, Ruiz enlists the help of clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin, with the hope of retrieving his memories.

But as his memories begin to unlock, a terrible discovery begins to unravel.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2005
ISBN: 978-0316252270
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Shatter / The Sleep of Reason

Clinical psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin is a matter of feet away from a naked woman wearing red high-heeled shoes. The devastated woman is on the edge of Clifton Suspension Bridge, weeping into a mobile phone and about to jump on a flooded gorge.

O'Loughlin’s efforts to talk her down fail, as the woman whispers, “You don't understand,” before jumping.

Later on, Joe is visited by the victim’s teenage daughter who has just runaway from boarding school.

She reveals that her mother was afraid of heights and would never take her life away—not like that.

So what could have driven her to such desperation?

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2008
ISBN: 978-0316187428
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Bleed for Me

The lifeless body of Ray Hegarty, a retired detective, lies in his daughter's bedroom.

When Sienna is found covered in his blood, all signs point to the fact that she may have killed her father.

Clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin however has his reservations.

Fourteen-year-old Sienna is the best friend to Joe's daughter. Having watched her grow, he knows she couldn’t have killed her father.

Going against the advice of the police, Joe embarks on his own investigation which leads him to Sienna’s charismatic yet predatory schoolteacher, Gordon Ellis.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2010
ISBN: 978-0316126373
Publisher: Mulholland Books
The Wreckage

Former cop Vincent Ruiz rescues a youthful woman from an abusive boyfriend in London, only to discover the following morning that he has been set up and robbed.

Upon launching a mission to find the thieves, he comes across the tortured body of the boyfriend, finding out that dangerous and powerful men are looking for the girl.

What exactly did Holly Knight steal from them?

Elsewhere in Baghdad, billions of dollars have mysteriously vanished, and Luca Terracini—a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist—is on a quest to find the thieves.

But it’s only until he joins forces with Vincent Ruiz in London that things will begin to unravel.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-0316126397
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Say You're Sorry

Teenage girls and best friends Piper and Tash mysteriously disappear one Sunday morning, never to be seen again.

Three years later, during the worst snowstorm in a hundred years, a couple is ruthlessly murdered in the farmhouse where Tash McBain used to live.

In custody is a young unstable man who claims that he can hear voices. He also maintains that he saw a girl, on the same night, being chased by a snowman.

Assured that the girls could still be alive, clinical psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin coaxes police to reopen the investigation.

However, the closer he gets to the truth, the deadlier things become.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2012
ISBN: 978-0316221238
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Watching You

Marnie Logan is convinced that someone is watching her.

She has been depressed since her husband mysteriously vanished more than a year, unable to access his bank accounts or his life insurance without proof of death or evidence of foul play.

Desperate, she turns to clinical psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin for help.

Right before Daniel disappeared, he had made shocking discovery about Marnie’s past.

Anyone who has ever gotten close to Marnie has paid the ultimate price.

And now that that O'Laughlin has become a part of her life, he is now on the radar of a ruthless killer.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-0316252010
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Close Your Eyes

The lifeless bodies of a mother and her teenage daughter are discovered in a remote farmhouse.

One body has multiple stab wounds while the other is left lying as though it were Sleeping Beauty waiting for her Prince.

Reservedly joining the investigation after a former student of his leaks details to the media, clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin comes across links between the killings and a string of ferocious attacks; one where victims were choked unconscious before being carved with the letter 'A' on their foreheads.

Working hand-in-hand with his eldest daughter, Joe must hunt down a killer who is seemingly one step ahead.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-0316267953
Publisher: Mulholland Books
The Other Wife

Childhood sweethearts William and Mary have been blissfully married for six decades.

William is an accomplished surgeon while Mary is a committed wife.

The couple has a strong sense of right and wrong, something that their son, Joseph O’Loughlin, learnt from them.

When Joe however receives news that his father has been hospitalized after being viciously attacked, his world turns on its head.

Who is the unidentified bloodstained woman weeping by William’s bedside?

Could she be a friend, a mistress, or a killer?

Determined to find his own answers, Joe launches an investigation which leads him to uncovering another side of William O’Loughlin.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-0751562804
Publisher: Sphere

Non-fiction

If I Tell You . . . I'll Have to Kill You: Australia's Leading Crime Writers Reveal Their Secrets

Crime fiction is hands down the most popular genre in international publishing, and Australia has produced some of the best practitioners when it comes to hunting down the bad guys.

So what do you need to know to become a good crime writer?

In this guide, both suited for fans and writers, Australia's leading crime writers—Michael Robotham, Kerry Greenwood, Peter Corris, Tara Moss, and many others—provide humorous and insightful ideas and advice on how to become an exceptional crime writer.

From Shane Maloney's brush with death in a freezer, to Leigh Redhead's exploits as a stripper, and Tara Moss’s polygraph test, this collection of essays—which highlight on both struggle and triumph—offer exclusive secrets by the writers like never before.

Nonetheless, beware—they will have to kill you.

Author: Michael Robotham
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-1743313480
Publisher: Allen & Unwin