The Running Grave: Cormoran Strike Book 7

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Of course, Rowling is canny enough to know that her delaying her readers’ gratification is one ­reason they keep returning to the series – getting Strike and Robin into bed too soon would be akin to killing Voldemort off halfway through the Harry Potter series – but at the current rate it looks like we’ll have achieved net zero before they’ve even held hands for the first time.

Before long, it was decided that despite obvious personal risks, Robin would seek to infiltrate the cult. So we watch as she attends recruitment meetings and is eventually shipped off to Norfolk. Then, for a substantial portion of the book, we follow Robin as an insider and bear witness to the conniving, demeaning and cruel treatment meted out to members by the leaders of this group, under the ultimate stewardship of a man known as Papa J. I thought I’d tire of this element, but such is the power of the author to bring alive a varied and rich mix of characters, I eventually became captivated by this place and the lives of the sad (and also the dreadful) people caught under Papa J’s spell. The investigation begins with the Edensor family wanting their youngest son Will out of the Chapman farm and Robin being an expert in disguise, goes undercover as Rowena to unearth the skeletons hidden in the church. And this raises the tension to a crescendo as Robin to her horror undergoes physical and mental exhaustion and terrifying and traumatic experiences within the confines of the farm. I loved how the author explores Robin's psyche showing her chanting the ‘Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu’ and her partial indoctrination and her mental strength to hold on to thoughts of Strike and his reactions to regain her sanity. The mystery of the drowned girl and the goings on of the church, and its activities gave me the creeps and the characters especially Mazu with her tarantula vibes was just evil. Though, the actual outcome isn't as beguiling a twist, albeit much more elaborate, so it's a bit of a letdown.

Managed to get a copy of this early due to a glitch on my e-reader, so I was fortunate enough to finish the novel two weeks before the actual publish date! (but yes therefore there are real spoilers here, if you haven’t read the book yet) I just wish we had gotten to know more about a certain confrontation between Robin and two principal members of the cult… Sir Colin Edensor, a retired civil servant who hires Strike and Ellacott's agency to investigate the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC) and get their son out of it

A fairly clear parallel, at least to me. A window into what a potential homelife might be were they a couple. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

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There’s obviously a lot more to the tale than I’ve covered, but suffice to say by half way through I was totally held captive. I’m in awe of Galbraith/Rowling’s ability to create a such a convincing world: the scenes she sets inside the cult’s enclave are both disturbing and totally convincing. And by the end, so many theories had been espoused concerning potential concealment of deaths, outright murder and a mystery concerning an ‘accidental’ drowning that I had no idea where the truth lay. Lonely and desperate, Strike allows himself to be comforted by a randy, loopy lawyer improbably called Bijou, with unfortunate ­consequences. Sadly, he doesn’t know that Robin is detecting in Murphy an unfortunate level of similarity to Matthew, her jealous, controlling ex-husband (this is the reddest of red flags – few writers have ever shown such naked ­loathing for one of their creations as Rowling has for Matthew). Also, boy, Cormorant Strike is just an unpleasant asshole. Rowling obviously intends Strike to be part of the tradition of rumpled detectives like Horace Rumpole or Columbo. He shares a lot of their blue collar affectations, like a love of good beer, smoking, and shitty food. But part of what makes this type of character such an enduring archetype is his surprising flashes of humanity, where his sympathy for the underdog and his passion for justice break through his hard, cynical shell. How many times has a hard-boiled gumshoe reluctantly accepted an unpaying case because he can’t stand to see a dame in a fix? Strike does not seem to be driven by anything other than, well… he’s in a detective story so I guess he’s a detective. But he doesn’t really seem to enjoy or care about the work. Pat Chauncey – The agency's office manager, a chain-smoker who has also shifted to vaping, like Strike. This is riveting stuff, some of the best writing Rowling has produced. But it’s interspersed with the kind of scenes that have bedevilled the more recent Galbraith books; a seemingly endless number of seemingly endless interviews with suspects or witnesses, providing little of value to the reader except the odd veiled clue. Rowling seems keen to show off her ability to sketch a wide variety of characters, but the interviewees rarely come to life. And I could do without her attempts to render characters’ speech phonetically, whether working-class or posh.I am sure all of you who know and love the duo wants to know if the will they, won’t they gets any further? Well, I won’t tell  However, bear in mind that the focus this time is more on the case than their love story. Yes, there quite a few mentions of their feelings, Strike gets into another stupid relationship to get past the relationship between Robin and Murphy. And, there is the ending… Haha. Let’s say, if she writes another novel next year, is not soon enough. This is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series and The Casual Vacancy, a novel for adults. Taio Wace, son of Jonathan, high-status UHC member who enforces the church's rules on other members The most richly accomplished of the brothers’ pairings to date—and given Connelly’s high standards, that’s saying a lot. Lin Doherty, daughter of Deirdre, stayed on farm, and later had relations with Will Edensor resulting in a child, Qing (later renamed Sally).