Michael Robotham has become one of the most well-known, respected, and esteemed authors in the crime fiction genre since publishing his debut novel, The Suspect, back in 2004.
Known for his serpentine storytelling and perfectly flawed characters, fans of the genre have become obsessed with the suspenseful stories that Robotham has carefully crafted. But if you’re a new fan looking to start reading Robotham’s novels, you might be confused about where to start.
No worries! In this article, we’ll be taking a look at each of Robotham’s books–particularly his popular series –to see which order they should be read in!
About Michael Robotham
Michael Robotham is an Australian author who was born in 1960. He began his career in 1979, as a newspaper journalist, court reporter, sub-editor, and feature writer. In 1993, he accepted his very first ghostwriting job and would go on to collaborate on fifteen autobiographies–twelve of which became Sunday Times bestsellers.
He published his first novel, The Suspect, in 2004 and has since seen major success in the crime fiction genre. Six of his Joseph O’Loughlin novels have been turned into TV movies in Germany, and an English-language television series based on The Suspect began filming in 2021.
His standalone novel, The Secrets She Keeps, was turned into a television series in Australia and became one of the most-watched TV shows on BBC1 in 2020. Another standalone, Life or Death, has been optioned for film in the US.
While he has written numerous standalone novels and a nonfiction book, his most popular works by far are his Joseph O’Loughlin and Cyrus Haven series’.
Both series contain all the elements that Robotham has become known for including in his novels. Thrilling suspense, mystery, complex characters with skeletons in their closets, and plenty of twists and turns along the way of successfully solving crimes!
Sounds like your cup of tea? Great! Here are all the Michael Robotham books in order!
Standalone Novels and Nonfiction Books
Robotham’s standalone novels and other books can be read in any order but are listed below in order of publication.
The Night Ferry explores dark themes such as sex trafficking, slavery, and exploitation while
Bombproof is a fast and funny yet violent non-stop adventure with a lovable hero you’ll root for from start to finish.
If I Tell You…I’ll Have to Kill You is a nonfiction book that contains an informative yet amusing collection of essays written by a large group of Australia’s most infamous crime writers.
Life or Death is actually the first of Robotham’s books not to feature any characters previously seen in his other books. This mystery-heavy novel has an underdog for a hero–who happens to go missing just one day before he’s supposed to be released from prison!
The Secrets She Keeps is a darkly disturbing thriller that follows two women–Agatha and Meghan–and alternates between their perspectives as their secrets are slowly unraveled.
When You Are Mine tells the intense story of Philomena McCarthy, a young policewoman with a mobster father. She takes on a domestic violence case which leads to a life-threatening friendship with the shifty Tempe Brown.
The Joseph O’Loughlin series
The Joseph O’Loughlin series’ novels should be read in order of publication as this is the chronological order of events. There are currently nine books in the series, and each of them follows Joseph, a clinical psychologist who works with police to solve crimes.
Most commonly, Joseph is trying to get inside the minds of the various killers he must work with while also dealing with family drama due to his strained relationship with his wife and child. He also tries to overcome a troubled past and his struggle with Parkinson’s disease while seeking justice.
The Suspect (2004)
In book #1 of the series, Joseph is forty-two years old, and his happy life is beginning to crumble into bits and pieces. He’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and is becoming more and more closed off because of it.
Then he ends up in the middle of a homicide investigation when one of his former patients is found brutally murdered. Joe and the woman had a history–after he rejected her sexual advances, she claimed that he raped her–and Joe hid this information while citing doctor/patient confidentiality.
But when the truth comes out, Joe becomes the prime suspect in the case and is determined to clear his name by solving the murder himself.
The DI, Ruiz, seems to want Joe to be guilty, but Joe is convinced that one of his particularly disturbed patients is the one behind the murder, yet he can’t come up with enough evidence to prove it, and no one believes him.
Will a string of bad decisions and one little white lie ruin Joseph’s life forever?
Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz is lucky to be alive after being discovered in the River Thames clinging to a buoy with a bullet in his hand and another in his leg. Just a mile away from him, a boat is drenched in his blood and the blood of three other people.
He enters a coma and wakes up six days later, unsure of what happened to him and met with skepticism regarding his lack of memory. It’s common for murder suspects to fake amnesia, and Vincent is the number one suspect in this case.
Despite having been on leave, he’d signed his service pistol out of the station armory right before the incident.
The only clue he has is a photograph of a young girl, Mickey Carlyle, that he found in his pocket.
Mickey disappeared three years ago and was presumed dead, and Mickey’s supposed killer is already in jail–Vincent is the one who put him there–but Vincent now believes that she is alive and in significant danger.
With both the internal affairs investigator convinced that Vincent is hiding the truth about what really happened and a ruthless criminal who claims Vincent has something of his that can’t be replaced on his back, Vincent reaches out to Joe for help with recovering his memories and cracking the case.
On the edge of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, a naked woman wearing only a pair of red high heels is perched with her back pressed to the safety fence as she sobs into a cell phone.
When Joe–only a few feet away from her–tries to talk her down, she turns to him, whispers, ‘you don’t understand,’ and then jumps.
Having devoted his career to repairing damaged minds, Joe is completely shattered by the suicide and haunted by his failure to save the woman’s life.
But then, her teenage daughter shows up to call foul play. Her mother would never commit suicide–especially not like that. She was terrified of heights.
Joe soon becomes obsessed with discovering what kind of evil could have caused her to do something so out of character–and who was the voice on the other end of the phone?
In book #4 of the series, fourteen-year-old Sienna is the troubled friend of Joseph’s daughter.
Joe’s watched her grow up, and he’s seen the troubled look in her eyes over the years, but he’s surprised when she shows up on his doorstep one night, covered in blood.
Sienna’s father, the highly respected former detective Ray Hegarty, is found dead in her room, and tests confirm that it’s his blood on Sienna. Sienna claims she doesn’t remember anything, and investigators are convinced that she’s the obvious killer, but Joe isn’t so sure.
With his marriage coming to an end and his daughter refusing to speak to him, he decides to try to help Sienna, hoping that if he succeeds, he’ll win back his daughter’s affection.
But Sienna is an impenetrable brick wall and can’t process her father’s death or explain how it happened.
To the dismay of the police, Joe launches his own investigation and follows a long trail–from a predatory schoolteacher to a race-hate trial that is captivating the nation–in an attempt to discover the truth.
This gripping political thriller is based on one of the biggest bank heists in history!
Billions of dollars are missing from Iraqi banks, and journalist Luca Terracini is willing to risk anything and everything to find out where it is, but he’s about to make some powerful enemies in the process.
UN representative, Daniela Garner, seems to know more about the heist than anyone else.
She’s a valuable asset to him in Baghdad, but over in London, an international banker and the one person who might be able to explain where the money has gone suddenly disappears.
The manhunt for him will get Luca evicted from Iraq, separated from Daniela, and possibly put an end to his life, but he doesn’t care as long as it means finding out the truth.
Meanwhile, ex-cop Vincent Ruiz rescues a young woman, Holly Knight, from a violent boyfriend. But when he wakes up the next morning, he discovers that she’s robbed him. It was all just an elaborate scam.
Popular teenagers Piper Hadley and Tash McBain went missing on the last Saturday of the summer holidays three years ago. The investigation into their disappearance captured the whole nation’s attention, but the girls were never found.
Now Tash–having finally reached a breaking point due to the abuse their captor has inflicted on them–has managed to escape and promised to come back for Piper as soon as possible.
Three years after their disappearance, during the worst blizzard in a century, a husband and wife are brutally murdered in the farmhouse where Tash McBain once lived. A troubled young man who’s convinced that he saw a girl being chased by a snowman on the night of the murder is already in custody.
And Joe now suspects that Piper and Tash are still out there somewhere, alive and waiting to be found. He and Vincent Ruiz persuade the police to reopen the investigation, but they must race against time if they want to save the girls from a sick and twisted individual.
This mystery thriller introduces readers to a ruthless, psychopathic serial killer who has destroyed countless lives and is determined to claim one final victim before all is said and done. The book’s summary tells you everything you need to know about this immensely fascinating read!
“Marnie Logan often feels like she’s being watched: a warm breath on the back of her neck or a shadow in the corner of her eye that vanishes when she turns her head. She has reason to be frightened.
Her husband, Daniel, has inexplicably vanished, and the police have no leads in the case.
Without proof of death or evidence of foul play, she can’t access his bank accounts or his life insurance. Depressed and increasingly desperate, she seeks the help of clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin.
O’Loughlin is concerned by Marnie’s reluctance to talk about the past and anxious to uncover what Marnie is withholding that could help with her treatment.
The breakthrough in Marnie’s therapy and Daniel’s disappearance arrives when Marnie shares with O’Loughlin her discovery of the Big Red Book, a collage of pictures, interviews, and anecdotes from Marnie’s friends and relatives that Daniel had been compiling as part of a surprise birthday gift.
Daniel’s explorations into Marnie’s past led him to a shocking revelation on the eve of his disappearance: Anyone who has ever gotten close to Marnie has paid an exacting price.
A cold-blooded killer is eliminating the people in Marnie’s life, and now that O’Laughlin is a part of it, he is next in line.”
In book #8 of the series, a mother and her teenage daughter are found murdered in a remote farmhouse. One of them is defiled by multiple stab wounds, and the other is posed like Sleeping Beauty waiting for her Prince.
Joe is drawn into the investigation when a former student jeopardizes the police inquiry by leaking details to the media and stirring up public outrage.
Assisted by his eldest daughter–now a keen and courageous observer following in his footsteps–Joe attempts to track and catch a ruthless killer who seems to anticipate every move they make.
He soon discovers a link between the farmhouse murders and a series of vicious attacks in which the victims are choked unconscious, and the letter ‘A’ is carved into their foreheads.
When the case becomes even more complex, Joe and his loved ones’ fates become intertwined with that of an unpredictable killer.
In the final book of the series, childhood sweethearts William and Mary have been married for sixty years. William is a celebrated surgeon, and Mary is a devoted wife. Both have a strong sense of right and wrong–or so Joe always believed.
But then Joe is called to the hospital with the news that his father was brutally attacked. His head has been bashed in, and he’s been placed in a medically induced coma.
When Joe arrives, the woman who’s covered in blood and sitting by the well-respected surgeon’s bedside isn’t Joe’s mother but some unknown woman he’s never met before who’s claiming to be his father’s wife.
Joe’s entire life and everything he ever believed to be true is turned upside down as he sets out to search for answers. Could it really be possible that his father had led a double life all these years? And what will be the price of discovering the truth?
The Cyrus Haven series’ novels should be read in order of publication, which is the chronological order. There are currently three novels in the popular series, with a fourth set to be published in 2024.
The series revolves around forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven, who works closely with the police to solve crimes and seek justice.
The books explore themes of trauma, tragedy, abuse, and secrets. They also introduce a colorful cast of layered characters with complicated relationships and allow readers to take an in-depth look at police procedurals.
Good Girl, Bad Girl (2019)
In the first novel, a young girl is found in a secret room of a home where her kidnapper has been tortured and murdered.
No one knows who she is or how old she is–her DNA can’t be matched to an identity–nor do they know the exact details of what happened to her.
She’s still unidentified six years later, now going by the name of Evie Cormac, and hoping to be released from the secure home for children she’s been living in for the past few years.
Cyrus Haven is a psychologist with a horrid past.
He’s asked to lend a helping hand in the investigation of the murder of a fifteen-year-old star figure skater right around the same time a former college classmate has asked him to interview Evie and determine whether she is ready to live in the real world.
He decides to foster her, and the two set out on a journey to discover the answers they’re both looking for regarding their pasts.
Evie’s spectacular ability to know when someone is lying helped Cyrus crack an impenetrable case in Good Girl, Bad Girl. Now, in When She Was Good, the search for answers about Evie’s dark history continues.
The more Cyrus manages to uncover, the more he exposes Evie to danger, giving her no choice but to run. Soon, they both will have to decide if some secrets are better left buried.
As a boy, Cyrus Haven survived a family massacre, but when the killer applies to be released from the secure psychiatric hospital he’s been in for the past twenty years, Cyrus is expected to just forgive him.
On top of his family issues, Cyrus has a new case to focus on. When a man is murdered, and his daughter disappears, Cyrus is called in to profile the killer and help piece together the victim’s last hours.
Meanwhile, the police suspect foul play when a second victim is taken, and Evie is the only person who got a look at the man behind the wheel. Only two people believe Evie’s story.
Michael Robotham’s enthralling novels are filled with unforgettable characters, highly emotional plotlines, and incredibly intricate storytelling. If you’re a new fan of the esteemed crime fiction author, then hopefully, this list will make it easier for you to dive into his canon!
FAQs
Will there be another Cyrus and Evie book?
Yes. It won’t be out until next year at the earliest, but it’s coming!
What made Michael Robotham decide to write psychological thrillers?
His fascination with the human mind. He never intended to write in the crime fiction genre, but after creating the first book of the Joseph O’Loughlin series, The Suspect, that was the label his novel was given.
Does Michael Robotham plan out his books in advance?
No. He comes up with a general idea and creates the characters first. Then, he lets the story play out in whatever way feels right.
Does Michael Robotham have Parkinson’s disease?
No, but the main character of his Joseph O’Loughlin series does. Robotham wrote Joseph as having Parkinson’s because one of his real-life friends’ sons had it.
Tia has been writing since she first learned how to spell. A shy kid turned introverted adult, she’s been using books as a way to express herself for as long as she can remember. Whether building her own intricate worlds and crafting kooky characters of her own or diving into the captivating universes created by other authors, Tia’s passion for books always manifests itself in some way. When she isn’t reading or writing, she can be found studying Korean, watching anime, maladaptive daydreaming, or losing her mind over BTS with her best friends.
