Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Running Grave

That’s Cromer Pier on the cover. I’ve sat on that bench. In the previous novels I’d follow them around London on streetview. In Cromer and Norwich I could do it in my mind’s eye which was rather pleasing. Though the street where Strike interviews those four people doesn’t exist. Perhaps for legal reasons, Cromer being so small. Also, it wasn’t clear to me exactly where they set up the stall in Norwich. I though at first the junction of London and Castle Streets, but they don’t have stalls there, so perhaps somewhere on Gentleman’s Walk where they do. It all feels very real. There were a couple of points where Strike and Robin were speaking privately where I’d catch myself thinking ‘I shouldn’t be listening to this.’

Anyway, at one point a character gets a bit flustered and says:

‘Like, he got what it’s like, to be… what it feels like, not to be… like, to be different, you know?’

Beautifully observed. And when characters say ‘only’ with a silent l she writes it o’ny. If she’d gone for ony or on’y my eye would have seen it as a short o. We’re lucky to get this level of detail in a writer’s work. This book has been published by Hachette. There are a few typos but it’s pretty easy to work out which word is missing or substituted.

It’s not really a spoiler to say that in this one Robin goes undercover in a cult. It happens pretty early on, though this being a 1000 page book that’s a relative term. I found these chapters really tense. It was a relief when it would cut back to Strike. We’re not talking Sarah Waters levels of tense, but I’ve not seen Rowling maintain that level of danger-tension for so long before. Sexual tension, yes.

So the main theme of the novel appears to be social withdrawal. I can’t mention some of the big examples because it’d spoil the plot, but one big one would be the cult members withdrawing physically from their friends and family. Robin is in a sense withdrawing from Murphy by going undercover. Other withdrawals are via death, which is a very rude way of doing it if you ask me. Not all withdrawals are voluntary. Strike’s uncle for example cannot help his withdrawal as his mind collapses.

This brings us to the second bit theme, personal agency. To what extent are the cult members responsible for their withdrawal and actions generally when they’ve been brainwashed? It’s a very humane novel.

It’s also well balanced. In withdrawing into the cult, the members are also joining a new society, and in leaving the cult are re-entering the new one. The prime example of this social insertion, this leap of faith comes in the epilogue. Be careful what reviews you read before getting to it.

Content Warnings

jhbandcats's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I love all the Cormoran Strike books - they get better and better with increasing complexity of Strike and Robin’s characters. There are complaints that this one, at close to 1000 pages, is too long, but I found the story so riveting that I never felt the plot was unnecessarily long. The occasional dry humor is a relief from all the tension - it feels good to laugh when there’s nothing remotely laughable about the story as a whole.

This entry in the series is particularly horrific. I knew the part about Robin going undercover in a cult was going to be tense but I didn’t know it would be quite as terrifying as it was. I found myself consumed with dread as I read it and kept having to stop and pull back from the story.

I did have trouble keeping the relationships of the characters straight. There were a lot of people and parentage wasn’t always what the cult leaders claimed. The next time I read this I’ll make a cheat sheet so I can remember who’s who.

I’m already looking forward to the next in the series. I hope there are a lot more books to come.

Content Warnings