Reviews with content warning for Gore - Troubled Blood

The fifth book in the series, Troubled Blood takes readers on a convoluted path that has every suspect looking like a murderer at one point, and simultaneously, the main character looking like a possible runaway instead of a possible victim. The character progression between Cormoran and Robin is intriguing also, as this is the first book in the series where I found their friendship/relationship frustrating to experience as Cormoran’s personal situation has him lashing out, making me quite frustrated in his behaviour. While I did consider deducting stars due to the fact there’s a significant focus on rape in this book which made me uncomfortable, in the end the writing was so excellent and the reveal so shocking, I had to give it 5 stars in the end regardless.

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le3713's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Update: Reread this two years after the first time; still agree with my original review.
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I couldn’t figure out why it was taking me so long to make any progress in the electronic version and then I realized the paper version is 900+ pages long. I loved every page. I think Rowling is a great writer, creating an intriguing plot and complex characters, doing a surprising amount of research on detailed locations and with complicated astrology / Zodiac info. Her pacing is great - she always adds a bit of humor when the tension is getting to be close to unbearable.

I fear I’m not articulating just how much I loved this book. I have been a big fan of the Cormoran Strike series since I read the first one.

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charlmax's review

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challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Robert Galbraith is a master at spinning a tale full of toxic and unhappy relationships.

It would easy to mistake this book for a sloooooow burn romance instead of the murder mysetery it should be. I miss the days of Cuckoo's Calling and Silkworm.

If the focus of this book was the investigation into the doctor that went missing and not the many, many relationships Strike has, it would be 400 pages and not over 900.

As far as the investigation side goes, there was plenty of time spent on discussing clues and ideas in an attempt to lead the reader on. And it also highlights the challenges that can arise during a cold case

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j_sherrill's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It took me forever to get through this book which really surprised me as I normally go through mysteries pretty quickly and I have really enjoyed this series. I think the pace of this book was just slower than I’m used to and I found all the characters and side plots a lot to keep up with. I also thought this book was unnecessarily graphic. But overall, still an enjoyable mystery in the series.

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sauvageloup's review

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Complicated feelings over this one

Pros:
- Rowling is an exceptional writer; the complicated but satisfying plot, the mixture of straightforward tone interspersed with moments of lyrical descriptions and reflection, the characterisation and development, the slowly eked out relationship development, the depth of every single side character, how each character's dialogue is made distinct and accents rendered realistically, the research that's clearly gone into it... just so much to admire in the actual writing and her skill.
- I like Robin and Strike and many of the other side characters. They feel real and Rowling puts across their emotions very well. There's a very real feeling of being as harried and pressured as Strike clearly is with everything piling up and then the release at the end.
- the plot was complex but wrapped up very neatly at the end. It was complicated by various characters' mixed motives but it didn't feel forced.

Cons:
- My only complaint about the writing was that it was *massively* confusing at the beginning. SO. MANY. NAMES. Got super confused. Also later on completely forgot who

Joanna Hammond

, which might be due to it being 3am right now, but still. Took the punch out of the revelation at the end because I couldn't remember who the hell they were talking about.
- Rowling's views... Rowling as a person... that was just in my head the whole time I was reading.
- her views then come through in this book, more than the others I think. This is the first book to come out post Rowling revealing herself as a massive transphobe and I think there's a lot of elements of that that come through in this.
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There's the killer, Creed, dressing up in women's clothes to lull his victims into a sense of security, which is the most transphobic bit. Then there's a good bit of fatphobia in there with obvious scorn and disgust angled towards fat people, including Creed being obese. A point I hated a lot was when it's made fun of that Irene has IBS. The condition is given to an already dislikeable character and it's encouraging the reader to laugh at her during that whole episode, which I thought was really cruel. No-one, however dislikeable, should be subject to mockery because of a chronic and painful medical condition. There were other bits too and I can't speak for disabled people but I wasn't sure how some of the portrayals of disabled people would come off to them. Then there's points where I felt that Rowling was hammering home other points, about women's safety, about Robin's rape, about domestic abuse, manipulative men, feminism, and about people who arguing for changing language rather than actually making a difference (the students Strike has a rant at in Max's flat over a so called 'slutwalk'). None of that was wrong, but I felt it linked back to Rowling's perception of herself within the world.

Anyway, the book was written excellently, but Rowling is a piece of shit. Unfortunately, I am also very jealous of her writing abilities and wish they'd been given to someone more worthy.

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