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Cormoran Strike #7
Stromend graf
Het zevende deel van de meeslepende, veelgeprezen en internationale bestsellerserie. Ook hierin krijgt het geliefde detectiveduo Cormoran Strike en Robin Ellacott een nieuwe mysterieuze zaak voorgeschoteld.
Privédetective Cormoran Strike wordt benaderd door een bezorgde vader, wiens zoon Will zich heeft aangesloten bij een religieuze sekte op het platteland van Norfolk.
De Universal Humanitarian Church lijkt een vredelievende organisatie die campagne voert voor een betere wereld. Toch ontdekt Strike dat er meer aan de hand is en dat er onverklaarbare sterfgevallen plaatsvinden. Om Will te redden besluit Strikes zakenpartner Robin Ellacott naar Norfolk te reizen om de sekte te infiltreren. Maar ze blijkt niet voorbereid te zijn op de gevaren die haar daar te wachten staan of op de tol die het van haar zal eisen...
De boeken worden zeer succesvol verfilmd door BBC One als de Strike televisieserie, met in de hoofdrollen Tom Burke als Cormoran Strike en Holliday Grainger als Robin Ellacott. In Nederland is de serie te zien via HBO Max.
Privédetective Cormoran Strike wordt benaderd door een bezorgde vader, wiens zoon Will zich heeft aangesloten bij een religieuze sekte op het platteland van Norfolk.
De Universal Humanitarian Church lijkt een vredelievende organisatie die campagne voert voor een betere wereld. Toch ontdekt Strike dat er meer aan de hand is en dat er onverklaarbare sterfgevallen plaatsvinden. Om Will te redden besluit Strikes zakenpartner Robin Ellacott naar Norfolk te reizen om de sekte te infiltreren. Maar ze blijkt niet voorbereid te zijn op de gevaren die haar daar te wachten staan of op de tol die het van haar zal eisen...
De boeken worden zeer succesvol verfilmd door BBC One als de Strike televisieserie, met in de hoofdrollen Tom Burke als Cormoran Strike en Holliday Grainger als Robin Ellacott. In Nederland is de serie te zien via HBO Max.
1245 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 26, 2023
7320 people are currently reading
28419 people want to read
About the author
Robert Galbraith
32 books32.9k followersThis is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series and The Casual Vacancy, a novel for adults.
NOTE: There is more than one author with this name on Goodreads.
Rowling was born to Anne Rowling (née Volant) and Peter James Rowling, a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer, on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Bristol. Her mother Anne was half-French and half-Scottish. Her parents first met on a train departing from King's Cross Station bound for Arbroath in 1964. They married on 14 March 1965. Her mother's maternal grandfather, Dugald Campbell, was born in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran. Her mother's paternal grandfather, Louis Volant, was awarded the Croix de Guerre for exceptional bravery in defending the village of Courcelles-le-Comte during the First World War.
Rowling's sister Dianne was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old. The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four. She attended St Michael's Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More. Her headmaster at St Michael's, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would usually then read to her sister. She recalls that: "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee." At the age of nine, Rowling moved to Church Cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales. When she was a young teenager, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind," gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books.
Rowling has said of her teenage years, in an interview with The New Yorker, "I wasn’t particularly happy. I think it’s a dreadful time of life." She had a difficult homelife; her mother was ill and she had a difficult relationship with her father (she is no longer on speaking terms with him). She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother had worked as a technician in the science department. Rowling said of her adolescence, "Hermione [a bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." Steve Eddy, who taught Rowling English when she first arrived, remembers her as "not exceptional" but "one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English." Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books.
NOTE: There is more than one author with this name on Goodreads.
Rowling was born to Anne Rowling (née Volant) and Peter James Rowling, a Rolls-Royce aircraft engineer, on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Bristol. Her mother Anne was half-French and half-Scottish. Her parents first met on a train departing from King's Cross Station bound for Arbroath in 1964. They married on 14 March 1965. Her mother's maternal grandfather, Dugald Campbell, was born in Lamlash on the Isle of Arran. Her mother's paternal grandfather, Louis Volant, was awarded the Croix de Guerre for exceptional bravery in defending the village of Courcelles-le-Comte during the First World War.
Rowling's sister Dianne was born at their home when Rowling was 23 months old. The family moved to the nearby village Winterbourne when Rowling was four. She attended St Michael's Primary School, a school founded by abolitionist William Wilberforce and education reformer Hannah More. Her headmaster at St Michael's, Alfred Dunn, has been suggested as the inspiration for the Harry Potter headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
As a child, Rowling often wrote fantasy stories, which she would usually then read to her sister. She recalls that: "I can still remember me telling her a story in which she fell down a rabbit hole and was fed strawberries by the rabbit family inside it. Certainly the first story I ever wrote down (when I was five or six) was about a rabbit called Rabbit. He got the measles and was visited by his friends, including a giant bee called Miss Bee." At the age of nine, Rowling moved to Church Cottage in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill, close to Chepstow, Wales. When she was a young teenager, her great aunt, who Rowling said "taught classics and approved of a thirst for knowledge, even of a questionable kind," gave her a very old copy of Jessica Mitford's autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Mitford became Rowling's heroine, and Rowling subsequently read all of her books.
Rowling has said of her teenage years, in an interview with The New Yorker, "I wasn’t particularly happy. I think it’s a dreadful time of life." She had a difficult homelife; her mother was ill and she had a difficult relationship with her father (she is no longer on speaking terms with him). She attended secondary school at Wyedean School and College, where her mother had worked as a technician in the science department. Rowling said of her adolescence, "Hermione [a bookish, know-it-all Harry Potter character] is loosely based on me. She's a caricature of me when I was eleven, which I'm not particularly proud of." Steve Eddy, who taught Rowling English when she first arrived, remembers her as "not exceptional" but "one of a group of girls who were bright, and quite good at English." Sean Harris, her best friend in the Upper Sixth owned a turquoise Ford Anglia, which she says inspired the one in her books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 9,502 reviews
October 7, 2025
(A-) 83% | Very Good
Notes: Indoctrination exploration, knitting thorny threads, a startling ending (fallout pending!), weighty (dense with dread).
*Check out progress updates for detailed commentary:
Notes: Indoctrination exploration, knitting thorny threads, a startling ending (fallout pending!), weighty (dense with dread).
*Check out progress updates for detailed commentary:
October 9, 2023
E-book and Audiobook narrated by the wonderful Robert Glanister
Oh Wow, she did it again. She has written another excellent, gripping, well written, 900+ pages novel. The length does not bother me anymore. The only problem is that I have a new dilemma. Which one is her best, this one or the Ink Black Heart? I will call this a truce and say both.
Cormoran Strike series are the only books that I pre-order, both as audiobook and e-book. J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith’s is the only author who makes me drop all I am reading and most of what I am doing to read her latest installment. So, I guess, I can say I am a member of her adoring cult (as a writer).
When I first saw that The Runnin Grave is going to be about a cult, I was very excited. She is a writer who started with probably the best and the most popular fantasy series of all time. My favorite at least. I knew she had the necessary imagination and writing skills to create a new believable and terrifying religion so I was looking forward to see the results. They were better than I thought. Yes, these is a lot of info dumping, and the books stalls a bit due to excessive detailing but they were all important parts of the story, as the ending proves.
Also, she also hit home with the subject. I am strongly opposed to and enraged by the hypocrisy of our own Orthodox church so I was struck by some of the similarities. For example, the leader of the cult was driving a silver Mercedes while the believers were given no possessions (or much food either). Guess who also has a Mercedes, white this time? Yes, the leader of the orthodox church. I will not continue, because I could write my own novel about the irregularities from that institution, their greed, interference in politics and disrespect for their flock.
I am digressing. Let’s get back to the novel. Cormoran and Robin’s agency are contracted by a upper classe worried father to help get his son out of a strange cult, called the Universal Humanitarian Church. On the surface, they seem to be peaceful organization which gives a lot to the poor through charity work performed by its members. When the two partners dig a bit further( there is pun here), some dark and sinister details come up, including a series of unnatural deaths. (Poor) Robin decides to infiltrate the cult in order to find the truth about what is going on in its Norfolk Centre, a farm who is a lot more than it should be.
From all the series, I think it was the one which kept me on the edge the most. I was really worried about Robin and what those people were doing to her. I do not want to go into details because spoilers but, let’s say I had nightmares about this book.
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.
****
My initial middle of the night thoughts: 1:23 AM , I’m finally done. Amazing, as the last two. Hard to decide which one was better. But, bloody hell, the ending…you’d better write the next one fast, Mrs. Rowling.
Review to come at a more decent hour
Oh Wow, she did it again. She has written another excellent, gripping, well written, 900+ pages novel. The length does not bother me anymore. The only problem is that I have a new dilemma. Which one is her best, this one or the Ink Black Heart? I will call this a truce and say both.
Cormoran Strike series are the only books that I pre-order, both as audiobook and e-book. J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith’s is the only author who makes me drop all I am reading and most of what I am doing to read her latest installment. So, I guess, I can say I am a member of her adoring cult (as a writer).
When I first saw that The Runnin Grave is going to be about a cult, I was very excited. She is a writer who started with probably the best and the most popular fantasy series of all time. My favorite at least. I knew she had the necessary imagination and writing skills to create a new believable and terrifying religion so I was looking forward to see the results. They were better than I thought. Yes, these is a lot of info dumping, and the books stalls a bit due to excessive detailing but they were all important parts of the story, as the ending proves.
Also, she also hit home with the subject. I am strongly opposed to and enraged by the hypocrisy of our own Orthodox church so I was struck by some of the similarities. For example, the leader of the cult was driving a silver Mercedes while the believers were given no possessions (or much food either). Guess who also has a Mercedes, white this time? Yes, the leader of the orthodox church. I will not continue, because I could write my own novel about the irregularities from that institution, their greed, interference in politics and disrespect for their flock.
I am digressing. Let’s get back to the novel. Cormoran and Robin’s agency are contracted by a upper classe worried father to help get his son out of a strange cult, called the Universal Humanitarian Church. On the surface, they seem to be peaceful organization which gives a lot to the poor through charity work performed by its members. When the two partners dig a bit further( there is pun here), some dark and sinister details come up, including a series of unnatural deaths. (Poor) Robin decides to infiltrate the cult in order to find the truth about what is going on in its Norfolk Centre, a farm who is a lot more than it should be.
From all the series, I think it was the one which kept me on the edge the most. I was really worried about Robin and what those people were doing to her. I do not want to go into details because spoilers but, let’s say I had nightmares about this book.
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.
****
My initial middle of the night thoughts: 1:23 AM , I’m finally done. Amazing, as the last two. Hard to decide which one was better. But, bloody hell, the ending…you’d better write the next one fast, Mrs. Rowling.
Review to come at a more decent hour
October 17, 2023
If this ends up being another 1,000 pages of unresolved sexual tension I will punch someone.
September 27, 2023
How does she do it? I inhaled this massive tome rather than sleep the last few nights, marveling as always at the talent and skill this author has for weaving intricate plots and creating believable characters. I was straight up terrified for Robin for 90% of this book. A suffocating atmosphere of danger and menace is not an easy thing to conjure, but it's here in spades. JKR sure knows how to craft suspense, mostly by putting her characters through the wringer, and I am HERE for it. I hope the next book comes out quickly, because the last chapter made me gasp out loud. Talk about a cliffhanger! I think Troubled Blood is still my favorite in the series so far, but this one is probably runner-up. The amount of character growth for Strike and Robin in the last three books has been stellar to watch unfold. It's a slow burn, to be sure, but one of rare quality and believability. More, please!
September 8, 2025
Omg that ending! I'm screaming and waving my hands in the air
October 13, 2023
Please, for the love of God, can someone get this author an editor who will actually edit her books?
Leaving this review as I did for the last one, because I don’t think the star ratings on Good Reads for JK Rowling actually show anything helpful due to the ongoing controversy surrounding the author. So many of the reviews are left in advance from people on either side, and as someone who likes to read legitimate reviews I thought I’d leave this here for anyone seeking out a review based on the book and not on the persons opinion of the author.
JK Rowling is an undeniably fantastic author and world creator. She creates the world of the cult very intricately and it really does come alive. I was left feeling so tense after reading these chapters due to how vividly these were described.
However, the book is too long. There are characters that you forget who they are if you’re reading over a number of days. There are multiple instances where references are made to previous books and these things are explained to the reader. For example the same character’s relevance to Strike is mentioned in two separate chapters, yet they’re completely irrelevant to the story (do they really need to be mentioned at all?).
I get that with a huge name like Rowling there is an idea what people want is long books. And maybe I am in the minority; but the Cuckoos Calling was fantastic because it was so well plotted, tight and fast paced. These are losing their way because Rowling wants to cram absolutely everything in to them and it isn’t necessary.
Overall the book is good. It’s filled with tension, and as you’d expect from JK it’s totally immersive. I just personally feel these books are let down by their lack of proper editing. We as the reader do not need to know every single tiny detail. We do not need to be reminded Strike dated someone a few books ago. We don’t need all the subplots. It’s fluff and it slows the book down.
Should you read this book? Well, this was better than the last Strike book, which was overly complicated due to the online conversations. But if you’re not sold on the Strike books by now, honestly I’m not sure you should. There is some closure given to some of the ongoing subplots, but definitely not all.
If you’re the type of person who loves tonnes of detail then you will like this book. But if you’re like me, and find that a bit slow reading then maybe give it a miss.
Leaving this review as I did for the last one, because I don’t think the star ratings on Good Reads for JK Rowling actually show anything helpful due to the ongoing controversy surrounding the author. So many of the reviews are left in advance from people on either side, and as someone who likes to read legitimate reviews I thought I’d leave this here for anyone seeking out a review based on the book and not on the persons opinion of the author.
JK Rowling is an undeniably fantastic author and world creator. She creates the world of the cult very intricately and it really does come alive. I was left feeling so tense after reading these chapters due to how vividly these were described.
However, the book is too long. There are characters that you forget who they are if you’re reading over a number of days. There are multiple instances where references are made to previous books and these things are explained to the reader. For example the same character’s relevance to Strike is mentioned in two separate chapters, yet they’re completely irrelevant to the story (do they really need to be mentioned at all?).
I get that with a huge name like Rowling there is an idea what people want is long books. And maybe I am in the minority; but the Cuckoos Calling was fantastic because it was so well plotted, tight and fast paced. These are losing their way because Rowling wants to cram absolutely everything in to them and it isn’t necessary.
Overall the book is good. It’s filled with tension, and as you’d expect from JK it’s totally immersive. I just personally feel these books are let down by their lack of proper editing. We as the reader do not need to know every single tiny detail. We do not need to be reminded Strike dated someone a few books ago. We don’t need all the subplots. It’s fluff and it slows the book down.
Should you read this book? Well, this was better than the last Strike book, which was overly complicated due to the online conversations. But if you’re not sold on the Strike books by now, honestly I’m not sure you should. There is some closure given to some of the ongoing subplots, but definitely not all.
If you’re the type of person who loves tonnes of detail then you will like this book. But if you’re like me, and find that a bit slow reading then maybe give it a miss.
November 12, 2024
Read in 13 hours 38 minutes and 20 seconds. (Used a stopwatch.)
I love this series, whenever a new one comes out, it's the literary highlight of my year. Decamped with a friend to a hotel to read this in one glorious unbroken go.
The premise for this book is an extraordinarily captivating and tense one. Without an obvious murder really driving the plot, it's an interesting story challenge for the series. Aiming to free someone from a cult, the team has to do deep undercover work. While there have been very tense moments with our characters being undercover in previous books, it's nothing to the extent of what happens here. I was on the edge of my seat and worried the entire time. How does this detective agency even begin to weedle out information in an environment where everyone is so slavishly programmed to a cult? I imagine this whole stretch of the book is going to be tough on rereads (like the forest parts of Deathly Hallows or when Harry and Ron fall out in Goblet).
Pat gets some terrific lines in this, she's emerging as one of my favourite characters. Strike, despite his jealousy at Robin's new boyfriend, is such a lovable protagonist here and gets some brilliant punch the air moments similar to his interaction with Dennis Creed in Troubled Blood. I was reminded a lot of Troubled Blood while reading as the investigation flirts with potential cold cases that orbit the cult.
There are also some huge moments that had the hairs on my arms prickling up and making me gasp in shock.
Loved it, and love that gap between this and the last book was a lot shorter. I hope that book 8 comes out even quicker!
P.S. I can also confirm a character in this is correct when they say that Il Portico does the best pasta in London.
I love this series, whenever a new one comes out, it's the literary highlight of my year. Decamped with a friend to a hotel to read this in one glorious unbroken go.
The premise for this book is an extraordinarily captivating and tense one. Without an obvious murder really driving the plot, it's an interesting story challenge for the series. Aiming to free someone from a cult, the team has to do deep undercover work. While there have been very tense moments with our characters being undercover in previous books, it's nothing to the extent of what happens here. I was on the edge of my seat and worried the entire time. How does this detective agency even begin to weedle out information in an environment where everyone is so slavishly programmed to a cult? I imagine this whole stretch of the book is going to be tough on rereads (like the forest parts of Deathly Hallows or when Harry and Ron fall out in Goblet).
Pat gets some terrific lines in this, she's emerging as one of my favourite characters. Strike, despite his jealousy at Robin's new boyfriend, is such a lovable protagonist here and gets some brilliant punch the air moments similar to his interaction with Dennis Creed in Troubled Blood. I was reminded a lot of Troubled Blood while reading as the investigation flirts with potential cold cases that orbit the cult.
There are also some huge moments that had the hairs on my arms prickling up and making me gasp in shock.
Loved it, and love that gap between this and the last book was a lot shorter. I hope that book 8 comes out even quicker!
P.S. I can also confirm a character in this is correct when they say that Il Portico does the best pasta in London.
July 25, 2025
I am sleep-deprived, and it's all Jo Rowling's fault
The first thing that struck me when I began Robert Galbraith's (AKA J.K. Rowling's) The Running Grave was how readable it was. Usually when I begin reading a new book I am conscious of some effort. No matter how good it may be, it feels a little like work to make my way into a new novel. But not when Rowling is the author! I was drawn in immediately. And I remained engaged right through to the end. It was not literally unputdownable, but it was pretty darn close. 960 pages, and I finished it in just over two days. What's more, I got up at 4:00 this morning, unable to sleep for wanting to know what came next.
As always in a Cormoran Strike book, there are two plots. The first plot (which is the plot of the series, as opposed to any particular book) is the Strike/Robin romance. At the end of The Ink Black Heart each of them had come to the realization that they were secretly in love with the other. I say "secretly", but this is perhaps the world's worst-kept secret. All of Robin and Strike's good friends think they should be romantic as well as business partners, and both their Exes are convinced that they're sleeping with each other. For several books now we readers have been saying to ourselves, "For Pete's sake, would you two just TALK to each other and straighten yourselves out?" Strike is more at fault in this than Robin -- as one character tells Robin, "I’ve had a sort of impression, from what Corm’s told me, that you’re the emotionally intelligent side of the partnership." We make some progress, but I will say no more about the romance plot.
The second plot, of course, is the investigation. It is not immediately clear when the book begins whether there is actually a mystery. Will Edensor, one of the sons of a wealthy family, has joined a cult -- the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC). His parents think he is being mistreated and exploited and want to get him out, but their attempts to bring the law to bear on the UHC have been unsuccessful. Will's father hires Strike and Robin to investigate the UHC, to find means to get Will out.
Strike and Robin realize immediately that they are going to have to get someone into the UHC, and Robin volunteers -- nay, insists that it should be her. Robin's undercover investigation of the UHC occupies two-thirds of the book. This part is gripping. Point of view alternates between Robin and Strike. Strike continues the investigation of the UHC from the outside. Robin's chapters are the most harrowing -- we feel that she is in real danger throughout this time.
To my surprise, the book didn't end when Robin escaped the UHC. We still have about a third of the novel to go. At this point it has become clear that there is a real mystery to be solved. The last third of the book is a fairly conventional mystery. As always, Rowling puts a lot of balls in the air, and manages to keep them all flying with admirable virtuosity.
In the end, The Running Grave feels like a combination of a thriller (first two thirds) and a mystery novel (last third). Both parts are very well done. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Blog review.
The first thing that struck me when I began Robert Galbraith's (AKA J.K. Rowling's) The Running Grave was how readable it was. Usually when I begin reading a new book I am conscious of some effort. No matter how good it may be, it feels a little like work to make my way into a new novel. But not when Rowling is the author! I was drawn in immediately. And I remained engaged right through to the end. It was not literally unputdownable, but it was pretty darn close. 960 pages, and I finished it in just over two days. What's more, I got up at 4:00 this morning, unable to sleep for wanting to know what came next.
As always in a Cormoran Strike book, there are two plots. The first plot (which is the plot of the series, as opposed to any particular book) is the Strike/Robin romance. At the end of The Ink Black Heart each of them had come to the realization that they were secretly in love with the other. I say "secretly", but this is perhaps the world's worst-kept secret. All of Robin and Strike's good friends think they should be romantic as well as business partners, and both their Exes are convinced that they're sleeping with each other. For several books now we readers have been saying to ourselves, "For Pete's sake, would you two just TALK to each other and straighten yourselves out?" Strike is more at fault in this than Robin -- as one character tells Robin, "I’ve had a sort of impression, from what Corm’s told me, that you’re the emotionally intelligent side of the partnership." We make some progress, but I will say no more about the romance plot.
The second plot, of course, is the investigation. It is not immediately clear when the book begins whether there is actually a mystery. Will Edensor, one of the sons of a wealthy family, has joined a cult -- the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC). His parents think he is being mistreated and exploited and want to get him out, but their attempts to bring the law to bear on the UHC have been unsuccessful. Will's father hires Strike and Robin to investigate the UHC, to find means to get Will out.
Strike and Robin realize immediately that they are going to have to get someone into the UHC, and Robin volunteers -- nay, insists that it should be her. Robin's undercover investigation of the UHC occupies two-thirds of the book. This part is gripping. Point of view alternates between Robin and Strike. Strike continues the investigation of the UHC from the outside. Robin's chapters are the most harrowing -- we feel that she is in real danger throughout this time.
To my surprise, the book didn't end when Robin escaped the UHC. We still have about a third of the novel to go. At this point it has become clear that there is a real mystery to be solved. The last third of the book is a fairly conventional mystery. As always, Rowling puts a lot of balls in the air, and manages to keep them all flying with admirable virtuosity.
In the end, The Running Grave feels like a combination of a thriller (first two thirds) and a mystery novel (last third). Both parts are very well done. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Blog review.
October 2, 2023
This was much easier to read than The Ink Black Heart. A true thumping good read and page turner. I read it while recuperating from jet lag. Good medicine.
Definitely a few things outside my comfort zone but nothing gratuitous, in my opinion.
Definitely a few things outside my comfort zone but nothing gratuitous, in my opinion.
November 18, 2023
“I admit the possibility” – the words that somehow embody the spirit of human beings, irrespective of the kind of belief that drives you, irrespective of the fact that you can be an atheist or a skeptic, there comes a time in everyone’s life that you want to hold on to something, some kind of HOPE to live on.
JK Rowling is a stellar storyteller, and I don’t mean that just coz of her massive success through Harry Potter but simply for the fact that she created this masterpiece of a story, an investigative thriller around a CULT. Of course, there are countless books out there on this subject but to construct something so rooted in the 21st century and make it appealing to anyone who hears about the church across all age groups, is just mind blowing.
The Universal Humanitarian Church at first glance is just that, a service based group committed to doing good for the world and the author’s masterclass touch includes Hinduism and the symbolic use of LOTUS and the chants that I am so used to hearing around me honestly gave me the shivers which kind of reinforces the belief that I have always had, that it doesn’t matter how sane one is, sucked into a vortex like a cult, there would be never an escape.
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.
Unlike the other books in the series, the focus is more on the case even though the readers are made to sense the yearning of both partners for each other. As the saying goes, distance makes the heart grow fonder, Strike finally accepts his feelings for Robin as he misses her presence around him and is kind of depressed that he let Robin move further away from him due to his foolishness to maintain the status quo. Robin being already aware of her feelings for her partner is however more into the “falling out of love” phase and has a boyfriend in place and how cheeky of the author to lob a grenade at the end of the story getting the readers to crave for the next one immediately.
The are several plots explored in the story in addition to the central plot, Strike’s relationship with his sister Prudence and his acceptance of the flighty Lucy seeing her truly without any misconceptions, and of course Charlotte and the arc of that enigmatic character drawing to a close giving Strike the clarity of what he wants in his future, the sub contractors, Midge, Barclay and Dev and the newest Littlejohn who has another mystery to be unveiled, and of course, the most efficient Pat and her quips. There are also several characters to sift through, as Strike on the outside and Robin on the inside get to the bottom of the UHC and its web.
Another exemplary work by the author even though there was many a time where I felt the details were way too exhaustive to the point of boring for me, especially the parts inside the Chapman farm, Yes, Strike series is not your typical adrenaline racing thrillers, we all know that and the description does get the imagination running on all tangents but I would have loved it equally with a story more tightly wound and bound.
Mind boggling as always!
This review is published in my blog Rain'n'Books, ##Goodreads, ##Amazon India, ##Book Bub, ##Medium.com, ##Facebook, ##Twitter.
**********************************************************************
'Crisp', JK, please me begging for my poor wrists, not that I mind another 1000 page head spinner, LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!
and the title oh my just freaky!
***********************************************************************
JK Rowling is a stellar storyteller, and I don’t mean that just coz of her massive success through Harry Potter but simply for the fact that she created this masterpiece of a story, an investigative thriller around a CULT. Of course, there are countless books out there on this subject but to construct something so rooted in the 21st century and make it appealing to anyone who hears about the church across all age groups, is just mind blowing.
The Universal Humanitarian Church at first glance is just that, a service based group committed to doing good for the world and the author’s masterclass touch includes Hinduism and the symbolic use of LOTUS and the chants that I am so used to hearing around me honestly gave me the shivers which kind of reinforces the belief that I have always had, that it doesn’t matter how sane one is, sucked into a vortex like a cult, there would be never an escape.
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.
Unlike the other books in the series, the focus is more on the case even though the readers are made to sense the yearning of both partners for each other. As the saying goes, distance makes the heart grow fonder, Strike finally accepts his feelings for Robin as he misses her presence around him and is kind of depressed that he let Robin move further away from him due to his foolishness to maintain the status quo. Robin being already aware of her feelings for her partner is however more into the “falling out of love” phase and has a boyfriend in place and how cheeky of the author to lob a grenade at the end of the story getting the readers to crave for the next one immediately.
The are several plots explored in the story in addition to the central plot, Strike’s relationship with his sister Prudence and his acceptance of the flighty Lucy seeing her truly without any misconceptions, and of course Charlotte and the arc of that enigmatic character drawing to a close giving Strike the clarity of what he wants in his future, the sub contractors, Midge, Barclay and Dev and the newest Littlejohn who has another mystery to be unveiled, and of course, the most efficient Pat and her quips. There are also several characters to sift through, as Strike on the outside and Robin on the inside get to the bottom of the UHC and its web.
Another exemplary work by the author even though there was many a time where I felt the details were way too exhaustive to the point of boring for me, especially the parts inside the Chapman farm, Yes, Strike series is not your typical adrenaline racing thrillers, we all know that and the description does get the imagination running on all tangents but I would have loved it equally with a story more tightly wound and bound.
Mind boggling as always!
This review is published in my blog Rain'n'Books, ##Goodreads, ##Amazon India, ##Book Bub, ##Medium.com, ##Facebook, ##Twitter.
**********************************************************************
'Crisp', JK, please me begging for my poor wrists, not that I mind another 1000 page head spinner, LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!
and the title oh my just freaky!
***********************************************************************
January 29, 2024
Oh, this was fantastic. It brought back all the scary memories of documentaries based on different cults that I have seen. How innocent people are lured into this crazy factions and then brainwashed into doing things that even when they know are not right. This kept me on the edge after a certain point and it was all rewarded in the end with that climax.
The other thing that I liked about this book was the relationship between the two detectives as it was grating in the last few books. It was not going nowhere, so I was happy to see both of them moving in a new direction.
I want that next book right now.
The other thing that I liked about this book was the relationship between the two detectives as it was grating in the last few books. It was not going nowhere, so I was happy to see both of them moving in a new direction.
I want that next book right now.
October 4, 2023
Like a lot of millennials, I enjoyed Harry Potter. I was way too old for those books when I read them, sure, but they were entertaining, quick reads and, even when the later books ballooned up to over 700 pages, they were still brisk page-turners. Characters did stuff, events happened, the plot moved forward. That stands in stark contrast to the Cormorant Strike books, which are bloated with irrelevant details and dawdle on the minutia of running a detective agency for up to 20 chapters before even introducing the main plot. What happened? It’s fascinating.
The obvious answer seems to be that, while her publisher gave its star writer more leeway to meander in later Harry Potter books, they were still exercising relatively strict editorial control behind the scenes. They knew Harry Potter was the golden goose and they needed to deliver a readable book. But in the case of Cormorant Strike, no one is minding the store. It’s a vanity project, published purely as a sop to Rowling so that she’ll allow her publisher to continue profiting off of Potter, and no one at Hachette Book Group really cares if it’s a mess. It's unconscionable that they would allow their star author to embarrass herself like this.
And it must be said: Without an editor, it becomes obvious that Rowling has abysmal instincts as a writer. Important plot and character moments are glossed over with a single paragraph summary from the narrator, but the story slows to a crawl to deliver blow-by-blow details whenever something “funny” happens — like the chapter where Robin interviews a senile old woman who constantly repeats herself. Rowling reveals new information in massive data dumps, full of comically implausible names that are impossible to remember. We rarely see Strike or Robin engage in real detective work — they’re the heads of the agency, so most of that is done by a rotating cadre of freelancers. (This may be more true to how an actual real-life detective agency works, but it’s dull reading) On the rare occasion that they do detective work, it happens off screen so that they can meet afterwards, in a fancy pub or restaurant, to tell each other (and the reader) what happened. People print out Internet conversations or blog posts on long reams of paper (Has no one in the Strike universe ever heard of a flash drive?) and spend chapters sitting in fancy pubs or restaurants and reading them. Everyone is constantly going to fancy pubs and restaurants. Rowling lards up the narrative with pointless details about random things in the room. Robin gets distracted in the middle of a conversation by the random appearance of an American in a funny hat, because Rowling seems to think it's amusing but the reader is left wondering if this walk-on American is going to figure into the narrative somewhere later.
That’s not to say anything of the elephant in the room, the fact that Rowling uses these books as manifestos to drag people that she doesn’t like — which generally turns out to be people that argue with her online. There is a lot if disdain for autistic people in this book. A young autistic man joins a cult because, his father tells Strike, he simply can’t be trusted to make his own decisions; Strike nods along approvingly as the father explains his attempts to get his adult autistic son declared mentally incompetent for his own good. A good writer could put detestable words into her characters’ mouths and it doesn’t necessarily mean that the author agrees, of course, but all of these sentiments line up exactly with Rowling’s real life views as expressed on Twitter. So it’s extremely fair, I think, to assume Rowling agrees.
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.
Strike oozes with barely disguised contempt for everyone in his life. His employees at the detective agency are just that — employees — and, by the way that Strike complains about them, they’re not very dedicated to their work. There’s no sense of friendship or comradery among Strike’s underlings nor do they seem to have any particular trust or affection for their boss. Strike meets a growing list of half-siblings (his dad was a famously promiscuous rock star, the narrator constantly informs us) but he seems to resent having to spend time with them. He hates Robin’s boyfriend with the seething passion of a friend-zoned high school dork. Women are constantly throwing themselves at Strike’s feet — despite the fact that Rowling likes to remind us that he’s ugly, rude, reeks of cigarettes, and has chronic flatulence from his diet of take-away curry — but Strike can barely think of them as human even as he’s having sex with them. Yes, Strike will use them for sex, but he doesn’t respect them because they’re dumb sluts. Rowling seems to think that this casual misogyny makes him a lovable curmudgeon, but it really just makes him seems like a dour, unpleasant jerk. When Strike can find the energy to be civil, it’s generally only to his high-paying clients, almost exclusively polished, clean, upper-class dudes who don’t speak in comical regional accents. (Pick up a book from 1890 and you’ll see that transcribing a country bumpkin’s drawl was once considered the height of hilarity, but modern readers will probably find Rowling’s constant “‘ere now, wot i fink” dialogue distracting). He’s the opposite of a Rumpole or a Columbo, a man obsequious to power and openly disdainful of the underdog. “Why would anyone join a cult?” he snorts when Robin tells him about her research into the cult in The Running Grave. He doesn’t ask because he’s curious, he only asks to show his contempt for those more weak-minded than himself.
Speaking of dumb sluts, every woman, with the exception of the virginal unattainable Robin, is characterized as a dumb slut. One such slut even goes so far as to impregnate herself with semen out of a used condom she found in the trash in order to trap a man into marriage, a move so ridiculous it’s hard to believe that an ostensibly feminist writer wrote it and not an angry 14-year old chud from Wizard chan. Rowling likes to style herself a feminist but she oozes even more contempt for women than does Strike and the average “she breasted boobily” horny dude bro author has more nuance in his female characters than Rowling.
Ultimately, this book just isn't pleasant to read. It's about unpleasant people forced to spend time together but who are too British to ever articulate their boiling resentment. Strike always feels like he’s mad that someone somewhere might be having fun, and that’s really the most British vibe ever.
January 8, 2025
The seventh book in this series is a big one: over nine hundred pages or thirty-four hours of audio, the option I went for. In truth, the previous episode was even bigger – nearly fourteen hundred pages – and I'd loved that one, so I wasn’t daunted. I also chose the audio format again, which I knew would be brilliantly narrated by British actor Robert Glenister.
The givens were that the story would be a complex one with many characters and that the unfulfilled romance between Cornish detective Cormoran Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott would be a continuing theme throughout. This time, the pair are hired by a concerned father whose son, Will, had joined a religious cult, situated in rural Norfolk. Will’s substantial trust fund was now being drained by the Universal Humanitarian Church, as the cult has badged itself.
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.
Outside of the farm, Strike was dealing with a pressing family issue whilst the 2016 Brexit referendum played out in the background. There were a couple of minor cases he and his team were investigating, too, but in all honesty, the book wasn’t enriched by their inclusion. There was also the ongoing saga of Strike’s ex-girlfriend, Charlotte, occupying Strike’s mind, as she naggingly called him with distressing messages, which he did his very best to ignore. In addition, a dalliance with an obnoxious and attention seeking woman allowed him some diversion from his thoughts concerning Robin’s ongoing romance with Ryan Murphy, a good-looking cop.
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 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.
It’s a fantastic addition to what is already one of my ‘must read’ series. I really can't wait for the next one.
NB: Each chapter is preceded by extracts from an ancient Chinese divination text (this translation being called The I Ching or Book of Changes) and even these snippets grabbed my attention, strange as they were. In fact, so much that I eventually found myself looking forward to the next.
The givens were that the story would be a complex one with many characters and that the unfulfilled romance between Cornish detective Cormoran Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott would be a continuing theme throughout. This time, the pair are hired by a concerned father whose son, Will, had joined a religious cult, situated in rural Norfolk. Will’s substantial trust fund was now being drained by the Universal Humanitarian Church, as the cult has badged itself.
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.
Outside of the farm, Strike was dealing with a pressing family issue whilst the 2016 Brexit referendum played out in the background. There were a couple of minor cases he and his team were investigating, too, but in all honesty, the book wasn’t enriched by their inclusion. There was also the ongoing saga of Strike’s ex-girlfriend, Charlotte, occupying Strike’s mind, as she naggingly called him with distressing messages, which he did his very best to ignore. In addition, a dalliance with an obnoxious and attention seeking woman allowed him some diversion from his thoughts concerning Robin’s ongoing romance with Ryan Murphy, a good-looking cop.
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 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.
It’s a fantastic addition to what is already one of my ‘must read’ series. I really can't wait for the next one.
NB: Each chapter is preceded by extracts from an ancient Chinese divination text (this translation being called The I Ching or Book of Changes) and even these snippets grabbed my attention, strange as they were. In fact, so much that I eventually found myself looking forward to the next.
September 29, 2023
me, doing deep lunges and high kicks and shouting about what happened in this book at 9:30 pm on a thursday: you don't get it! you don't even fucking get it!
my husband, calm and fully laughing at me: i don't, i've never enjoyed something this much.
my husband, calm and fully laughing at me: i don't, i've never enjoyed something this much.
October 12, 2023
Update 11.10.2023. Let me explain my 5star rating
I am very enthusiastic about the book because of its well thought-out case, which had a shocking ending that I didn't expect. As a fan of documentaries on cults, I appreciate how the author explored what drives them and how they can manipulate people's beliefs on a large scale.
While some readers may complain about the length of a book, I personally enjoy it. A successful TV series, based on these books, brelies on having multiple books with additional plotlines for each one, which ensures that the story remains interesting and engaging. If they were to cut out everything but the main plot, there wouldn't be enough material for many episodes. Therefore, I appreciate the length of the book and see it as necessary for a well-crafted series.
The writing style is engaging, making it easy to immerse oneself in the story. The character development is excellent, giving me a deep understanding of their motives and perspectives.
Overall, it's an excellent read, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in mystery and cults.
Update:
It’s without a doubt my favourite in the series so far. Page-turning, skilfully plotted and executed. This series gets better and better and I can’t wait for book #8!
Yes, I can't wait! 👏🎉
I am very enthusiastic about the book because of its well thought-out case, which had a shocking ending that I didn't expect. As a fan of documentaries on cults, I appreciate how the author explored what drives them and how they can manipulate people's beliefs on a large scale.
While some readers may complain about the length of a book, I personally enjoy it. A successful TV series, based on these books, brelies on having multiple books with additional plotlines for each one, which ensures that the story remains interesting and engaging. If they were to cut out everything but the main plot, there wouldn't be enough material for many episodes. Therefore, I appreciate the length of the book and see it as necessary for a well-crafted series.
The writing style is engaging, making it easy to immerse oneself in the story. The character development is excellent, giving me a deep understanding of their motives and perspectives.
Overall, it's an excellent read, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in mystery and cults.
Update:
It’s without a doubt my favourite in the series so far. Page-turning, skilfully plotted and executed. This series gets better and better and I can’t wait for book #8!
Yes, I can't wait! 👏🎉
September 27, 2023
I just finished it. Total page turner. I could not put it down. You would think more than 1000 pages would be enough, and it is, the book is good maybe that it is the problem, so good that I want more…is it wrong that it came out yesterday and I am already craving the next one?
I love this series, I totally recommend these books.
I love this series, I totally recommend these books.
August 23, 2025
I think this is my favourite novel in the series so far. Insanely good. Rowling/Galbraith never fails to amaze me.
October 19, 2023
Whatever the words are it’s going to be a 5 Star read!!!
5.
Yep agreed 5 stars. Exactly what I expected.
Spoilers below:
Robin infiltrates the universal humanitarian church cult Mr goes undercover for 4 months. Stands up for herald in the retreat rooms and almost by Taio the icky groody son of Wace. But puts up good story for him to keep hands off.
More crap happens at cult. She finds Will Edensor their clients son. And turns out he is father to Qing who is two with Lin Doherty who is Waces daughter. She had her at 14 bc all females are required to mate with whoever and no birth control. Bc they are baby trafficking and illegal adoptions.
But Waces older daughter Abigail from his first wife actually killed Daiyu and had her cronies Paul Draper -Dopey and Jordan are Andy who overs slept. When Daiyu want Cherie went out on the vegetable run. Had her penned up in woods and liked some how and then cut her up and fed her to the pigs. Bloody machete found in tree and buried thigh bone found in the field.
Turns out Daiyu the spoiled brat of Mazu and Alexander Graves. Killed above. Her likeness was made in straw for all the straw Dollie’s all the cult members made. And Cheri fittings carried the likeness out to sea and let her drowned.
But we never found out who the jogger was.
We never found out what really happened to Jennifer Wace.
Nicholas and PHILLIpa should have had some repercussions. Etc.
Prediction at end. Robin makes Ryan turn the car around. As too much traffic. But within the hour is back at office and in Strikes arms. Paralleling The wedding scene where she runs out of first dance to hug Strike
5.
Yep agreed 5 stars. Exactly what I expected.
Spoilers below:
Robin infiltrates the universal humanitarian church cult Mr goes undercover for 4 months. Stands up for herald in the retreat rooms and almost by Taio the icky groody son of Wace. But puts up good story for him to keep hands off.
More crap happens at cult. She finds Will Edensor their clients son. And turns out he is father to Qing who is two with Lin Doherty who is Waces daughter. She had her at 14 bc all females are required to mate with whoever and no birth control. Bc they are baby trafficking and illegal adoptions.
But Waces older daughter Abigail from his first wife actually killed Daiyu and had her cronies Paul Draper -Dopey and Jordan are Andy who overs slept. When Daiyu want Cherie went out on the vegetable run. Had her penned up in woods and liked some how and then cut her up and fed her to the pigs. Bloody machete found in tree and buried thigh bone found in the field.
Turns out Daiyu the spoiled brat of Mazu and Alexander Graves. Killed above. Her likeness was made in straw for all the straw Dollie’s all the cult members made. And Cheri fittings carried the likeness out to sea and let her drowned.
But we never found out who the jogger was.
We never found out what really happened to Jennifer Wace.
Nicholas and PHILLIpa should have had some repercussions. Etc.
Prediction at end. Robin makes Ryan turn the car around. As too much traffic. But within the hour is back at office and in Strikes arms. Paralleling The wedding scene where she runs out of first dance to hug Strike
January 19, 2025
Першого грубасика цього року подолано! Поки я читала сьому книгу, я встигла подивитися 5-ий сезон серіалу, який у 2022-му якось пропустила (мабуть, голова іншим була забита чи що), і сіла передивлятися 1-ий сезон, бо уже сюжет достатньо вивітрився з голови.
У «Стрімкій могилі» у нас буде розслідування про діяльність секти і приготуйтеся, що від деталей буде некомфортно. А от закінчення має сподобатися😌
У «Стрімкій могилі» у нас буде розслідування про діяльність секти і приготуйтеся, що від деталей буде некомфортно. А от закінчення має сподобатися😌
March 10, 2025
Вибух мозку, а не книга! Дуже важко було відволікатися на будь-що, вже хотілося дізнатися чим все закінчиться 🫣
Цю частину мені емоційно читати було найважче, бо ж основне розслідування про секти 🥲really crazy stuff 🤯
Всім хто ще чомусь не познайомився з цією серію розслідувань- дуже раджу! Той момент, коли кожна наступна частина реально краща за попередню 🤝
Вже чекаю на продовження, бо cliffhanger наприкінці звісно ж був
Цю частину мені емоційно читати було найважче, бо ж основне розслідування про секти 🥲really crazy stuff 🤯
Всім хто ще чомусь не познайомився з цією серію розслідувань- дуже раджу! Той момент, коли кожна наступна частина реально краща за попередню 🤝
Вже чекаю на продовження, бо cliffhanger наприкінці звісно ж був
October 21, 2023
Still excellent even though I think it is too long.
October 16, 2023
I quite enjoyed the early strike novels and after being disappointed by The Ink Black Heart, I was looking forward to this one, hoping for a return to form. Unfortunately, I was disappointed again. The book is terribly slow. 200 pages of suspense crammed into a 945 page novel. While it got off to an interesting start, the pace is destroyed by a tedious amount of detail, which a good editor should have trimmed down. And like The Ink Black Heart, the text is littered with typographical errors that a competent copy editor would have picked up - missing words, repeated words, misspellings and characters who change gender in mid-sentence. I must say I resent a publisher asking me to read a book that they obviously haven’t read themselves.
I’m also not thrilled with the increasing change of focus from Strike to Robin. The cover says “A Strike Novel” but it’s mostly about Robin. The only untrained investigator in the agency, Robin’s achievements are becoming increasingly far-fetched. She’s so attractive men are smitten the moment they see her. She’s so insightful she knows better than a therapist what would be good for her patient, leaving the therapist gushing with praise. She’s so clever, she thinks rings around Strike while he can only express his admiration. He finally gets a decent amount of page-time when finally confronting the killer, but the balance is definitely skewed in Robin’s favour.
And the thing we’re all here for, their relationship? There’s some progress in the last chapter, but it is left unresolved.
Overall, a frustrating and tedious read.
I’m also not thrilled with the increasing change of focus from Strike to Robin. The cover says “A Strike Novel” but it’s mostly about Robin. The only untrained investigator in the agency, Robin’s achievements are becoming increasingly far-fetched. She’s so attractive men are smitten the moment they see her. She’s so insightful she knows better than a therapist what would be good for her patient, leaving the therapist gushing with praise. She’s so clever, she thinks rings around Strike while he can only express his admiration. He finally gets a decent amount of page-time when finally confronting the killer, but the balance is definitely skewed in Robin’s favour.
And the thing we’re all here for, their relationship? There’s some progress in the last chapter, but it is left unresolved.
Overall, a frustrating and tedious read.
January 9, 2024
Listening to this story I felt I was stuck in the cult with no way out. 900 pages of misery. The whole Strike scene is morose and as dead as this title. I don't need anymore. No stars
July 16, 2025
3.5 stars
This is the 7th book in Robert Galbraith's (aka J.K. Rowling) series about grizzled private detective Cormoran Strike, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who lost his leg during the hostilities.....
......and his pretty, strawberry blonde partner Robin Ellacott.
The book can be read as a standalone, but I'd strongly suggest starting with the first book in the series, The Cuckoo's Calling, and going on from there.
*****
Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott run the Strike and Ellacott Detective Agency, which is currently doing well after solving several high profile cases. Presently, the agency's work includes surveilling spouses suspected of cheating; getting evidence against a stalker; exposing a toy boy taking advantage of an older woman; and more.
The agency's most important case revolves around the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC), a cult run by a man called Jonathan Wace (aka Papa J) and his wife Mazu Wace. The church is allegedly dedicated to helping the homeless; giving needy kids a holiday; aiding survivors of sexual abuse; helping starving orphans; and other such good works.
In reality, however, the UHC lures people in, isolates them from friends and family, and then milks them for money and exploits them physically and sexually. An escapee from the cult named Kevin Pirbright accused the UHC of serious criminal activity and wrote an exposé.....
......but publication was stopped by the UHC's powerful lawyers.
Strike and Robin get involved with the UHC when they're hired by Sir Colin Edensor....
..... whose son Will dropped out of university several years ago and joined the UHC. On the one occasion Will's mother and father were allowed to see their son (who was accompanied by a UHC minder), Will looked thin and glassy-eyed.
Since then, Will has not responded to letters and has given the UHC a big chunk of money from his trust fund.
Sir Colin is desperate to extract Will from the cult, and hires Strike and Ellacott to assist in the endeavor. Thus Robin goes undercover, joins the cult, and tries to discover information to be used against the organization.
Robin learns that the UHC worships five prophets, the most important of whom is 'The Drowned Prophet.' The Drowned Prophet is a child called Daiyu Wace who accidently drowned at the age of seven, then (supposedly) came back as a wraith. Phantom Daiyu periodically appears at church services, and is said to haunt people who leave the church and make them commit suicide.
Robin's experiences in the UHC are TERRIBLY HARROWING and take up a good portion of the book (too much in my view).
On the upside, Robin discovers skullduggery in the church, and once Robin gets out, she and Strike try to disclose criminal activity in the UHC and expose the phoniness of The Drowned Prophet. Like Robin's time in the UHC, these activities - which involve finding and interviewing a lot of people with connections to the UHC - take up a good bit of the novel.
As always in this series, some of the narrative concerns the personal lives of Robin and Strike. The duo have been in love with each other for years, but neither one has had the courage to admit it.
So Robin is dating a handsome police detective called Ryan Murphy.....
......and Strike is dallying with a man-hungry bombshell named Bijou.
In addition, Strike's former fiancée Charlotte, a gorgeous but troubled woman, is trying to inveigle herself into Strike's life once again.
Strike is the son of a hippy-dippy mother named Leda and a rock star called Jonny Rokeby, who fathered children with a number of women. So Strike has a bunch of half-siblings, most of whom he doesn't know. In this book, Strike meets his half-sister Prudence - a psychologist, and helps his favorite half-sister Lucy take care of their Uncle Ted, who's starting to suffer from dementia.
The book also focuses a bit on people who work for the Strike and Ellacott Detective Agency. For example, newly hired detective Clive Littlejohn is acting squirrelly; office manager Pat is troubled about something; detective Midge is getting too friendly with a client; and so on.
I'm a big fan of the series, but the book, which has almost 950 pages, is much too long. I hope the author edits the next Strike and Ellacott novel more judiciously. Still, the book is a must read for fans of the series.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com
November 3, 2023
I finished reading this novel about five minutes ago. I’m sitting at my desk to write this review but I don't know how. I want to sing its praises because the latest instalment of the Cormoran Strike novels is by far the best one in the series.
This time, Strike and Robin deal with a religious cult, its charismatic leader and everything surrounding these. I will not mention any more plot details because it’s probably best to go into this novel without too much knowledge or ideas…
I will say, though, “The Running Grave” is without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most suspenseful novels I’ve ever read. Not in a cheap, flashy, and/or sensationalist way, but subtly and almost elegantly. The feeling of a permanent latent danger is omnipresent and mercilessly tugs at the nerves of the reader.
I felt like biting my nails (which I don’t do) and it triggered the worst of my nervous habits and yet I felt like devouring this novel. I was reluctant to put it down and there were times I actually considered calling in sick (which I didn’t) to be able to keep reading. I read it feverishly and while I usually highlight passages and take notes, I quickly found myself unable and unwilling to do so because it would have broken my immersion.
This novel is so readable and the subject matter so horrifyingly believable (cf. Scientology and similarly despicable cults) that reading “Grave” felt like entering the world of Strike and Robin. This was enhanced by the level of empathy especially Robin shows during crucial situations in the investigation.
I just wish we had gotten to know more about a certain confrontation between Robin and two principal members of the cult…
Strike, too, grows as a person during the course of the investigation. Especially when dealing with a major change and its aftermath.
Despite its length (more than 1200 pages on my Kindle), “Grave” never felt long but found a near-perfect balance between the usual personal issues between Robin and Strike, secondary cases and the main mystery.
And that ending...
Rowling created a masterpiece of a detective novel and a marvellous piece of literary art.
Rowling is also still very much openly transphobic and, thus, I encourage you not to buy her books but rather get them in a library so that at the very least she won’t profit anymore than she already has.
If you’re one of those people who don’t believe who and what she is, here’s an excellent article (permanently updated) that collects Rowling’s disgusting statements and actions:
https://www.glamour.com/story/a-compl...
Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Joanne K. Rowling - they are different kinds of monsters and yet monsters they all are. I recoil whenever I’m confronted with their depravity. And, yet, I cannot break from their art. I can keep calling them out, though.
And yet, despite this, “The Running Grave” easily garners five stars out of five and a place among my favourite books.
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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam
This time, Strike and Robin deal with a religious cult, its charismatic leader and everything surrounding these. I will not mention any more plot details because it’s probably best to go into this novel without too much knowledge or ideas…
I will say, though, “The Running Grave” is without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most suspenseful novels I’ve ever read. Not in a cheap, flashy, and/or sensationalist way, but subtly and almost elegantly. The feeling of a permanent latent danger is omnipresent and mercilessly tugs at the nerves of the reader.
I felt like biting my nails (which I don’t do) and it triggered the worst of my nervous habits and yet I felt like devouring this novel. I was reluctant to put it down and there were times I actually considered calling in sick (which I didn’t) to be able to keep reading. I read it feverishly and while I usually highlight passages and take notes, I quickly found myself unable and unwilling to do so because it would have broken my immersion.
This novel is so readable and the subject matter so horrifyingly believable (cf. Scientology and similarly despicable cults) that reading “Grave” felt like entering the world of Strike and Robin. This was enhanced by the level of empathy especially Robin shows during crucial situations in the investigation.
I just wish we had gotten to know more about a certain confrontation between Robin and two principal members of the cult…
Strike, too, grows as a person during the course of the investigation. Especially when dealing with a major change and its aftermath.
Despite its length (more than 1200 pages on my Kindle), “Grave” never felt long but found a near-perfect balance between the usual personal issues between Robin and Strike, secondary cases and the main mystery.
And that ending...
Rowling created a masterpiece of a detective novel and a marvellous piece of literary art.
Rowling is also still very much openly transphobic and, thus, I encourage you not to buy her books but rather get them in a library so that at the very least she won’t profit anymore than she already has.
If you’re one of those people who don’t believe who and what she is, here’s an excellent article (permanently updated) that collects Rowling’s disgusting statements and actions:
https://www.glamour.com/story/a-compl...
Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Joanne K. Rowling - they are different kinds of monsters and yet monsters they all are. I recoil whenever I’m confronted with their depravity. And, yet, I cannot break from their art. I can keep calling them out, though.
And yet, despite this, “The Running Grave” easily garners five stars out of five and a place among my favourite books.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Mastodon | Instagram | Pinterest | Medium | Matrix | Tumblr
Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam
January 16, 2024
„Опасно е да въздигаш в култ собственото си нещастие.“
„Не всичко е мнения и спомени. Съществува истина.“
Един от редките случаи, в които си блъскам главата върху механиката на книга. Как е успяла Роулинг да включи толкова много герои и сюжетни разклонения, да ги подреди като блокчета в сложна архитектурна конструкция, без нищо да стърчи, виси или седи празно? Как цялата тази сложност просто съществува като една смислена, логична и монолитна цялост, как всеки детайл има своето оправдание и всеки герой – своето място. Наистина изумително.
Не бях чела нищо по темата за сектите и контрола над ума и ако това не беше поредната книга от поредицата (дано никога не приключва!), така и нямаше да навляза в нея чрез друга книга. Този път Страйк и Робин не се изправят пред индивидуален престъпник, а пред огромно колективно зло – въпросната секта, която всъщност е благовиден параван, зад който се вършат от десетилетия гнусни престъпления. Тук Роулинг наистина е навлязла в дълбокия мрак, там където е дъното на човешкото. На жесток подбив са взети така наречените духовни практики и мистицизъм, с които шарлатаните оплитат маса наивници – ехо от това се долавяше и в предните книги от поредицата чрез скептичния мироглед на Страйк, но в настоящата е постигнато истинско славно разобличаване.
На моменти книгата е плашеща, но не заради смразяващите епизоди, все пак такива присъстват в цялата поредица, а заради личното усещане на читателя, че сам бива засмукан в сектантската реалност като ежедневие и практики.
Роулинг все още ни държи в сладко мъчение спрямо чувствата между двамата детективи, бавно и сигурно нещата се придвижват напред
„Не всичко е мнения и спомени. Съществува истина.“
Един от редките случаи, в които си блъскам главата върху механиката на книга. Как е успяла Роулинг да включи толкова много герои и сюжетни разклонения, да ги подреди като блокчета в сложна архитектурна конструкция, без нищо да стърчи, виси или седи празно? Как цялата тази сложност просто съществува като една смислена, логична и монолитна цялост, как всеки детайл има своето оправдание и всеки герой – своето място. Наистина изумително.
Не бях чела нищо по темата за сектите и контрола над ума и ако това не беше поредната книга от поредицата (дано никога не приключва!), така и нямаше да навляза в нея чрез друга книга. Този път Страйк и Робин не се изправят пред индивидуален престъпник, а пред огромно колективно зло – въпросната секта, която всъщност е благовиден параван, зад който се вършат от десетилетия гнусни престъпления. Тук Роулинг наистина е навлязла в дълбокия мрак, там където е дъното на човешкото. На жесток подбив са взети така наречените духовни практики и мистицизъм, с които шарлатаните оплитат маса наивници – ехо от това се долавяше и в предните книги от поредицата чрез скептичния мироглед на Страйк, но в настоящата е постигнато истинско славно разобличаване.
На моменти книгата е плашеща, но не заради смразяващите епизоди, все пак такива присъстват в цялата поредица, а заради личното усещане на читателя, че сам бива засмукан в сектантската реалност като ежедневие и практики.
Роулинг все още ни държи в сладко мъчение спрямо чувствата между двамата детективи, бавно и сигурно нещата се придвижват напред
May 22, 2024
Мама Ро, Страйк і Робін, секти - мій улюблений коктейль, дайте два.
100/10, як і всі книги Роулінг/Ґелбрайта. Моя особиста любоу це шоста в серії, але вони всі неймовірні й чудові, сорі за банальні епітети. Обожнюю до місяця й назад, читала б тільки ці книжки (але це не точно)))
Книжка затягує з перших сторінок і не відпускає зовсім, мене тільки вимкнення світла зупиняли. На відміну від попередньої частини, тут дещо слоубернер, але воно так треба. Робін впроваджується у секту під прикриттям, і це так заворожуюче й лякаюче, що відірватися неможливо. Напруга відчувається фізично, за героїню переживаєш як за себе. А фінал, який тут фінал, ну просто НАРЕШТІ ^___^
100/10, як і всі книги Роулінг/Ґелбрайта. Моя особиста любоу це шоста в серії, але вони всі неймовірні й чудові, сорі за банальні епітети. Обожнюю до місяця й назад, читала б тільки ці книжки (але це не точно)))
Книжка затягує з перших сторінок і не відпускає зовсім, мене тільки вимкнення світла зупиняли. На відміну від попередньої частини, тут дещо слоубернер, але воно так треба. Робін впроваджується у секту під прикриттям, і це так заворожуюче й лякаюче, що відірватися неможливо. Напруга відчувається фізично, за героїню переживаєш як за себе. А фінал, який тут фінал, ну просто НАРЕШТІ ^___^
October 4, 2023
Absolutely brilliant. I stayed awake through several nights listening to Robert Glenister read it. The best yet. I loved every moment of it. Yes it is long and I am a fan of editing but I really didn’t feel this needed editing. Everything added to the characters and to the story. It unsettled me - cults rely on coercive control which is never easy to read about and the length of the novel allowed for a kind of immersive relationship with this cult which was disturbing.
I am sorry it is over because I loved it all but also slightly relieved because I haven’t slept well for the last few nights!
Six stars.
I am sorry it is over because I loved it all but also slightly relieved because I haven’t slept well for the last few nights!
Six stars.
October 4, 2023
*0.5
No better than the last 2. Bloated, repetitive and riddled with grammatical errors, with the now all too familiar JKR bigotry sprinkled in. For someone who claims to be an advocate for women, she certainly doesn't portray them very charitably in this series
Don't know why I keep doing this to myself; at least no one can accuse me of slagging off books I haven't actually read
No better than the last 2. Bloated, repetitive and riddled with grammatical errors, with the now all too familiar JKR bigotry sprinkled in. For someone who claims to be an advocate for women, she certainly doesn't portray them very charitably in this series
Don't know why I keep doing this to myself; at least no one can accuse me of slagging off books I haven't actually read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 9,502 reviews