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4.48 AVERAGE
4.48 AVERAGE
Got through a lot of housework listening to this… was super into the cult and storyline but I was very angry at the ending and those who have read the whole series know why. Book 8 better bring us what we’ve been looking for
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
A wealthy, British family loses their autistic son to a religious cult. Strike and Ellacott investigate. 7th book in the Cormoran Strike series.
My audio book was a 34-hour plus ear read. A dead tree copy would be a hefty 960-pages. (About average for the series.) The book had a 2023 US copyright.
Robert Galbraith is the nom de plume of British author J. K. Rowling . Under this name she has written 7-books of detective fiction in the Cormoran Strike series. I have read all the books in the series. The most recent being The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) (my review).
It is strongly recommended that readers have a background with the Cormoran Strike series before reading this. There was some prose dedicated to back story. However, backstory and advancement of long-term plot lines consumes hundreds of pages.
In this story, its 2016, with BREXIT in the news. Will Edensor, the on-the-spectrum, youngest son of a wealthy, connected, British family leaves uni and joins the very large, popular, and powerful Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC). The UHC packs him off to a Norfolk, agricultural commune for cult brainwashing and the draining of his trust fund. Ellacott goes undercover for months within the cult to bring Edensor out. At least three subordinate ‘cases’, of Strike & Ellacott are woven around the main UHC case. The will-they-or-won't-they-get-together tension between Strike and Ellacott remains thick, while bodies pile-up and assassination attempts accumulate. Ellacott’s relationship with her CID officer, boyfriend Ryan Murphy becomes complicated, but not in a good way. Meanwhile Strike has developing family and personal issues (other than Ellacott-related), including the perennial presence of his wild-child, ex-fiancé Charlotte.
Strike and Ellacott have been solving cases for 10-years now. However, the books have ballooned from the 500-pages of the first books, to the almost 1400-pages of the previous [b:The Ink Black Heart|60144955|The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike, #6)|Robert Galbraith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1658242219l/60144955._SY75_.jpg|94115574] story. Between the: multiple, parallel subordinate cases; the long, sometimes superfluous scenes; what seemed like interminable witness interviews; the exposition on coercive persuasion; a likewise interminable Summation, and the endless romantic aspect of the series—I became fatigued and needed the book to end quickly. Lots of other crime authors do a lot more with many fewer pages. ‘Galbraith’ needs an editor to put her books on a stricter page diet than Strike (and this reader) endured in this story.
Thankfully, there was the inkling that the continuing Strike/Ellacott long-term, Relationship Upgrade sub-plot has come to a head. In addition, Strike’s equally long-term Psycho Ex-Girlfriend sub-plot has been put to rest. I’ve grown really tired of these.
However, I believe the author has some good stories to tell. Her plot twists are fiendish. The Colliding Criminal Conspiracies of this story had me guessing to the end. I also found this story somewhat easier to read, by ear-reading it.
In general, this series has become too much a romantic melodrama and too long for me to be really enjoying it as a detective mystery. In the past, I’ve liked the way the author intertwined the past and personal life of the Stark and Ellacott with the case. However, 10-years is a long time to be liking The Same O'le. As book-after-book has gone by, this series appears to be firstly a romance that’s never going to end and secondly a detective mystery. Personally, I would have preferred a story where Strike and Ellicott just solved a case in 450-pages without: I Ching references, epigraphs, many jaunts out of London, with only a modest Summation at or near the end and a brief Epilogue.
My audio book was a 34-hour plus ear read. A dead tree copy would be a hefty 960-pages. (About average for the series.) The book had a 2023 US copyright.
Robert Galbraith is the nom de plume of British author J. K. Rowling . Under this name she has written 7-books of detective fiction in the Cormoran Strike series. I have read all the books in the series. The most recent being The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) (my review).
It is strongly recommended that readers have a background with the Cormoran Strike series before reading this. There was some prose dedicated to back story. However, backstory and advancement of long-term plot lines consumes hundreds of pages.
In this story, its 2016, with BREXIT in the news. Will Edensor, the on-the-spectrum, youngest son of a wealthy, connected, British family leaves uni and joins the very large, popular, and powerful Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC). The UHC packs him off to a Norfolk, agricultural commune for cult brainwashing and the draining of his trust fund. Ellacott goes undercover for months within the cult to bring Edensor out. At least three subordinate ‘cases’, of Strike & Ellacott are woven around the main UHC case. The will-they-or-won't-they-get-together tension between Strike and Ellacott remains thick, while bodies pile-up and assassination attempts accumulate. Ellacott’s relationship with her CID officer, boyfriend Ryan Murphy becomes complicated, but not in a good way. Meanwhile Strike has developing family and personal issues (other than Ellacott-related), including the perennial presence of his wild-child, ex-fiancé Charlotte.
Strike and Ellacott have been solving cases for 10-years now. However, the books have ballooned from the 500-pages of the first books, to the almost 1400-pages of the previous [b:The Ink Black Heart|60144955|The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike, #6)|Robert Galbraith|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1658242219l/60144955._SY75_.jpg|94115574] story. Between the: multiple, parallel subordinate cases; the long, sometimes superfluous scenes; what seemed like interminable witness interviews; the exposition on coercive persuasion; a likewise interminable Summation, and the endless romantic aspect of the series—I became fatigued and needed the book to end quickly. Lots of other crime authors do a lot more with many fewer pages. ‘Galbraith’ needs an editor to put her books on a stricter page diet than Strike (and this reader) endured in this story.
Thankfully, there was the inkling that the continuing Strike/Ellacott long-term, Relationship Upgrade sub-plot has come to a head. In addition, Strike’s equally long-term Psycho Ex-Girlfriend sub-plot has been put to rest. I’ve grown really tired of these.
However, I believe the author has some good stories to tell. Her plot twists are fiendish. The Colliding Criminal Conspiracies of this story had me guessing to the end. I also found this story somewhat easier to read, by ear-reading it.
In general, this series has become too much a romantic melodrama and too long for me to be really enjoying it as a detective mystery. In the past, I’ve liked the way the author intertwined the past and personal life of the Stark and Ellacott with the case. However, 10-years is a long time to be liking The Same O'le. As book-after-book has gone by, this series appears to be firstly a romance that’s never going to end and secondly a detective mystery. Personally, I would have preferred a story where Strike and Ellicott just solved a case in 450-pages without: I Ching references, epigraphs, many jaunts out of London, with only a modest Summation at or near the end and a brief Epilogue.
The lenght worried me in light of how subpar the previous novel in the series had been but this is an excellent return to form. Impossible to put down.
My favourite Christmas reading, and even better on a beach this year. My family are probably glad I'm finished as now I can talk to them again.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
After what I thought was the weakest book in the series, I thought this one was the best. A much more interesting case, a few of the side characters get to shine more, and while it still follows the formula you'd expect seven books in, I found it engaging for the thousand or so pages. 4.5 stars rounded up.