Many good and faithful Christians have struggled with these kinds of questions, or at the very least, with sufficiently answering them, when prompted by inquiring unbelievers.
In Evil and Suffering in a Sovereign God's World, Marc Grimaldi seeks to get to the root of this dilemma, while coming to the necessary conclusion that God must be good all the time. In the process of doing this, he addresses such topics as God's sovereignty and man's accountability, the existence of evil, fatalism, how the cross of Christ sheds light on these issues, and the practical relevance of knowing these things.