I felt that this is the best of the series so far - I wasn’t particularly keen that the novel was focused on cults at first (I get a bit squeamish tbh), but this book was far better in terms of pacing and coherence of the plot than the previous two. JKR sure knows how to craft suspense, mostly by putting her characters through the wringer, and I am HERE for it. Alison Flood, writing for The Guardian, expressed similar views, arguing that people who have not read the book were making wrong assumptions based on a single review.

Clare Clark, writing for The Guardian, gave the novel a positive review, pointing out its plot full of "simmering emotional tension" and "terrific fun", while acknowledging that it was excessively long and "hardly a hair-raising ride". 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. Er hält sich zu viel raus und scheint nur so im Hintergrund zu agieren und von vielem nichts zu wissen. Deshalb ist es natürlich auch nicht so überraschend gewesen, als Robin undercover eingeschleust wurde und genau die Sachen erlebt hat, die schon im Vorfeld von vielen bestätigt wurden.

I am very enthusiastic about the book because of its well thought-out case, which had a shocking ending that I didn't expect. Robin has a policeman boyfriend and Strike has a series of disastrous encounters with toxic women, including his ex-wife. 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.

Notwithstanding my disappointment in this latest book in the “Cormoran Strike” series, I am so appreciative of the talent of J. Please familiarise yourself with our community guidelines to ensure that our community remains a safe and inclusive space for all. Mostly, when I read this series, I think of it as being mostly focused on Robin and her evolution as a character³, but this book seems to talk about Strike’s own inner landscape much more than previously.

However, Pirbright is very soon found dead, and though initially it seems to be treated as a suicide by the authorities, Strike has very strong hunches this may not be the case, and begins pulling at strings to piece together connections between ex-members in an attempt to explain why.