My current-favourite investigator Cormoran Strike is back this season in the newest installment of the Strike series by J.K. Rowling (Robert Galbraith). Like the top-fan I am, obviously I HAD to read it as soon as it came out. (More apologies for my lateness and being awol later!) After many stolen hours and furious turning of the pages later, I can say that I'm satisfied in having finished it (feels like I've done my duty and re-starting the wait for another 2 years to get the next one), but did I absolutely love it or was it mostly devotion giving me the satisfaction? I had to introspect that for 2 days straight before realizing, the Strike series has had better books than The Hallmarked Man. Trust me, once you're a hardcore fan, it is hurtful to think you may not have enjoyed something as much as you expected (total betrayal!).
Author: Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling
Pages: 1440 (about 950 for regular print)
Publisher: Mulholland Books / Little, Brown and Company
My Rating: 4/5
For context, here's the blurb from the book's cover:
A dismembered corpse is discovered in the vault of a silver shop. The police initially believe it to be that of a convicted armed robber – but not everyone agrees with that theory. One of them is Decima Mullins, who calls on the help of private detective Cormoran Strike as she’s certain the body in the silver vault was that of her boyfriend – the father of her newborn baby – who suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
The more Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott delve into the case, the more labyrinthine it gets. The silver shop is no ordinary one: it’s located beside Freemasons’ Hall and specialises in Masonic silverware. And in addition to the armed robber and Decima’s boyfriend, it becomes clear that there are other missing men who could fit the profile of the body in the vault.
As the case becomes ever more complicated and dangerous, Strike faces another quandary. Robin seems increasingly committed to her boyfriend, policeman Ryan Murphy, but the impulse to declare his own feelings for her is becoming stronger than ever.
Overall, it has all the hallmarks (tee-hee) of JKR's amazing writing and storytelling, especially characterization. We revisit Strike and Robin's past as it is entwined with the present situations, and stay with the core characters as they (slowly) evolve and make decisions to move forward in their own lives. The mystery is complex, many-layered, gradually revealing, NOT predictable, and had decent explanations once solved (which is a big miss in a lot of mysteries in general). It was a fairly long book (900 pages approx.) so I appreciated the intertwining of many stories and angles - it did feel like Strike and Robin solved 4 cases at once instead of just the one they set out for (or maybe that was the point, lol).
Having said that, it felt a bit forced and drawn for the same reason. Was it necessary to have so many "mini-mysteries" running simultaneously that needed solving to solve the bigger crime? But again, I doubt the main crime could have been solved in as many pages, which is what is characteristic of this series, so perhaps it was needed. There were a couple of side-characters that were very annoying (Kim and Murphy, for instance), and did not feel super original (Murphy was drawn as an almost-equivalent of Matthew). Moreover, we did not get much insight into their other cases, and for the one that did drag over most of the book, it seemed to have been dragged extremely longer than necessary. I thought the problem was not focusing on main sub-characters and introducing too many new ones all at once. If I picked up the book and came across a name I couldn't recall, I had to go back trying to understand what their significance was! ALSO, I have been a strong shipper of Robin and Strike throughout the series and FINALLY they're getting somewhere but could it have not been dragged SO MUCH? ALL throughout the book Strike's trying to find the right time and place to express himself, and we literally get no closure even by the end of this book. That's just cruel! C'mon - a bit of romance won't harm the vibe.
Despite everything, this series still remains one of the best I've ever read, mostly because of how memorable the characters have become to me. I recently also binge-watched the TV shows - SOOO good! (C.B. Strike Series on HBO). Plus, I read that JKR's planned a total of 10 books for this series, so yay! We have 2 more to look forward to.
Side note: The other, recent Strike series that I enjoyed VERY much include Troubled Blood (so unique), and The Running Grave (excellent story-telling and unputdownable read!).