Reviews

If Rowling hadn't made such a public bigoted scene I would have rated this 3, maybe even a 4. Her transphobia absolutely shows itself in not just her obvious characters but in some subtle cringe-y ways. There was one incredible line from the first 1/4 or 1/3 (who can tell after page 944) in which Robin is like, "wow, it's crazy that the person is not bothered by this epically awful thing" (my paraphrasing) and Strike is like, "SOMETIMES PEOPLE ARE TOO CLOSE TO A THING, IT BECOMES NORMAL TO THEM AND THEN THEY CAN'T SEE IT." It was Rowling's Self-Aware-Wolves Moment. Yes, I recognize that, Crossdressing Serial Killer is a trope. This was well beyond that. The book veered towards torture and rape porn. Yes, rape has been a theme throughout this series. Yes, I expect that characters are affected by this. Yes, it was horror for horror's sake. Her previous books handled this better, especially #2 in the series.

The book could have been better, also, if it was a 400-500 page tome. The filler was astounding. The addition of side cases barely moved along the main plot or character development. The main characters don't substantially grow. The main mystery in this plot was B-. The twist seemed incredibly urgent but it wasn't. The lack of urgency made it less interesting, but I guess that's the problem with the main plot being a cold case.