So while a great deal of this book does take place inside their heads, as they contemplate one another and their relationship, it mostly feels natural, and not a romantic tease.

Partly because the cast of recurring characters remains pretty small, and all the character development is focused on the two primaries, Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Anyone who's read a long-running detective series knows that it's almost inevitable that as the cast of characters grows, and meanwhile the author is trying to figure out a new story to tell about rich people murdering each other, the books start to become more about the characters and less about the mystery.īut 'Robert Galbraith,' aka JK Rowling, hasn't sunk into that trap yet. So I had some fears going into this book. In book three, Robin's boss, Cormoran Strike, clumsily stumbled in late, and all the unspoken romantic tension between them was revealed (to the reader) in Cormoran's grim determination to wish her well on her 'happy day,' and in Robin's gloom, which is lifted, with a smile, when Cormoran shows up. The fourth Cormoran Strike novel picks up literally where the third novel left off - at Robin Ellacott's wedding. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that. His newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott - once his assistant, now a partner in the agency - set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.Īnd during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward.

But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story.

When a troubled young man named Billy asks Cormoran Strike to help him investigate a crime he witnessed as a child, the private eye is left deeply troubled.

Lethal white cormoran strike