Robert Galbraith’s “The Running Grave”: The Latest Cormoran Strike Book
I absolutely love the “Cormoran Strike” detective series by J.K. Rowling, who is writing these books under the pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. I own all of them and ever so often, I re-read them starting from the very first book in the series, The Cuckoo’s Calling, immersing myself completely in the Strike-Robin universe that Rowling has created. There were six books up until the publication of the latest one, and with a length of over 600 pages on average, that’s a whole lot of immersion. It has especially been a godsend when I am feeling down — I am able to lose myself so completely in these books that I can forget about myself and my problems for a while.
While I am also a big fan of Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books and own them all, I have not found re-reading them to be as completely riveting as the “Cormoran Strike” series. In this, I am likely in the minority, as “Cormoran Strike” is hardly a household name. In fact, the real-life setting of these books — Strike’s detective agency is located in Denmark Street in London — is hardly visited let alone deluged by throngs of fans. On a recent trip to London, I actually made it a point to visit the exact address — 6 Denmark St — and had the opportunity to chat with the owner of the guitar shop on the ground floor. (In the book, the agency is on the second floor of the building.) He told me that he gets only a few visitors who are fans — and even these are fans of the TV series that the books are being made into rather than of the books themselves. He was surprised to learn that I had never watched the TV series and emphatically did not want to do so. I have such a vivid picture of Strike and Robin in my head that I don’t want them to be overwritten by actors playing their parts.
(For those who don’t know about these books at all, Cormoran Strike is an ex-military man with an prosthetic leg — his leg was injured in a blast and had to be amputated, forcing him to leave the army — who has started a detective agency. Robin Ellacott comes to the agency in the first book as a temp but soon proves to be indispensable, works her way up solving the cases with Strike, and eventually becomes a partner in the agency. The books are as much about the cases that the agency tackles as it is about their mutual relationship. I have written about this in more detail in my write-up of the fourth book, Lethal White.)
Which brings me to the new book in the series, The Running Grave. Surprisingly, I was not even aware that it had been published this time, in contrast to previous years where it garnered at least some press from publications like the New York Times and Goodreads. (I know J.K. Rowling has been in some hot water in the last few years because of some controversial remarks/tweets, but still?) Anyway, it was only when I was in London a few weeks ago and thought of visiting 6 Denmark Street, the real-life location of Strike’s detective agency, that I looked up the series and found, to my delight, that the seventh book had already been published. I ordered it as soon as I was back home from my travels and once it had arrived, I waited with great anticipation till the weekend, which I had cleared of all commitments, to read it. I even re-read the 6th book, The Ink Black Heart, as prep, which is something I typically do before reading a new book in the series, so I can just pick up from where the previous book left off. (While the cases in each book are always resolved by the end, the relationship between Strike and Robin remains open-ended, continuing to evolve with each book but without the romantic resolution that would seem to be where it is headed.)
The main case in The Running Grave is the investigation into a religious/spiritual cult called UHC (Universal Humanitarian Church). The agency is hired by a retired civil servant whose son, Will, was lured into joining the UHC and has all but disappeared — he no longer responds to any letters and did not even acknowledge the death of his mother, who died broken-hearted that he had disappeared from their lives. The case requires Robin to go undercover and join the cult, and it ends up being not just a case to find and rescue Will from the clutches of the UHC but an investigation into the entire organization, which turns out to be not just corrupt but also criminal. It is a familiar story in relation to any cult — helmed by a very charismatic leader, the organization attracts a lot of followers who willingly sign over all their money to the organization and subject themselves to terrible abuse and trauma in the name of “spiritual cleansing.” The misdeeds of the UHC in The Running Grave also include sexual assault, unreported deaths, and child trafficking, as are uncovered by Strike and Robin by the end of the book. In addition to exposing and bringing down the UHC, they are also able to save Will from its clutches and restore him to his family.
It pains me so much to acknowledge this, given what a huge fan I am of this series, but I was so disappointed by this book. Even ignoring the clichéd storyline about a cult and how bad it actually was when exposed, a lot of the considerable length of this book — it is over 900 pages — was devoted to Robin being undercover at the cult and the abuse she was subjected to. Not only was it very painful to read, but it also meant that she and Strike were not working together for much of the book. Therefore, most of the charm of these books — which, to me, comes from Strike’s and Robin’s interaction with each other in light of their undeniable chemistry and mutual attraction, which both of them are fighting very hard to resist — is simply lost. No doubt, now that I know the storyline, I can go back and selectively re-read only those parts that are interesting to me, but it means that for this book, I will be skipping over more than half of it.
The owner of the guitar shop at 9 Denmark St that I visited told me that there were nine books in all. (He is in the know as the TV series is being filmed there.) I do hope that the last two books have more of Strike and Robin together and that the cases are more interesting and less clichéd. The seventh book ends with Strike finally admitting to Robin that he is in love with her, so there is at least the promise of some progress in their relationship in the next book.
Notwithstanding my disappointment in this latest book in the “Cormoran Strike” series, I am so appreciative of the talent of J.K. Rowling who has created a world that has provided me with so much of delight. As I concluded in my writeup of The Ink Black Heart, the sixth book in the series, I am so lucky that she is still writing these books and that I enjoy them as much as I do.
