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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-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
This is the best one of the series I think, I liked it a lot. There’s a lot of disparate plots that all reach reasonably complete points by the end of the book. I enjoyed the Creed arc and the guessing game that he brought on. I liked the Morris arc surprisingly because it caused Robin to grow a bit and showed her for the BA she is. The entire allure of a cold case was fascinating and I really wasn’t sure if they would solve it - I almost wish they hadn’t for the sake of realism but I thoroughly and entirely enjoyed the conclusion. It was an excellent reveal and plot overall.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
JK Rowling, writing as Robert Galbraith, has shown herself able to create twisty knots for her series detective Cormoran Strike to solve. This book clocks in at about a zillion pages, and takes place over a bit more than a year. Earlier in the series, Cormoran’s detective agency was barely afloat, Cormoran was basically a lone wolf of the edge of bankruptcy with Robin, the latest in a series of temp workers, answering phones. But now, Robin is a partner; she has been through a short-lived marriage, survived a violent attack by a suspect, and is wrestling with affectionate feelings for Strike that she hopes to keep at “best friend” but which threaten to spark into love. Strike himself is more than solvent, free of his dramatic love life, but going through a pressure-cooker year in which a dear family member’s illness, an ex-girlfriend’s breakdown, and a reckoning with his estranged father are all straining his ability to stay on an even keel, especially as his family duties pull him away fro his work obligations.
The book sets up multiple cases, most of which are small potatoes, and a large, long-lasting case that involves a forty-year old missing-person case, which may be related to a serial killer who has been in prison for sadistic rape-murders for decades. Tracking down all of the individuals involved in the case is made particularly difficult by the lapse of time,
While Rowling/Galbraith is good at twisty plots, in this series she relies on the ice factor of deeply sadistic bad guys, letting the menace pull the plot long, as I am not a fan of graphic violence, this is always a weak point of the books for me.
Unfortunately in this book, a bad habit of British mystery writing crops up, which is to involve a middle-aged woman as a surprising villain. This is like every PBS Brit mystery of the last couple of decades.
Having just read Anita Brookner’s incisive novel, A Friend from England, a meditation on the impossibility of women’s options to be fully realized human beings without paying an unbearable price in British society, it is a bit depressing that a book written more than 30 years later puts the female protagonist in virtually the same prison, though teasing from book to book that she will yet overcome the quandary,
The book sets up multiple cases, most of which are small potatoes, and a large, long-lasting case that involves a forty-year old missing-person case, which may be related to a serial killer who has been in prison for sadistic rape-murders for decades. Tracking down all of the individuals involved in the case is made particularly difficult by the lapse of time,
While Rowling/Galbraith is good at twisty plots, in this series she relies on the ice factor of deeply sadistic bad guys, letting the menace pull the plot long, as I am not a fan of graphic violence, this is always a weak point of the books for me.
Unfortunately in this book, a bad habit of British mystery writing crops up, which is to involve a middle-aged woman as a surprising villain. This is like every PBS Brit mystery of the last couple of decades.
Having just read Anita Brookner’s incisive novel, A Friend from England, a meditation on the impossibility of women’s options to be fully realized human beings without paying an unbearable price in British society, it is a bit depressing that a book written more than 30 years later puts the female protagonist in virtually the same prison, though teasing from book to book that she will yet overcome the quandary,
Five stars. This was LONG and I almost literally didn’t put it down from the moment I picked it up. I loved it all. The intense deep dive into Creed (who I repeatedly had to remind myself is not real), the case with Shifty and his boss SB (which I knew from the start bc I saw an episode about it on CSI a billion years ago), to the heartbreak in Cornwall, Strike’s friends, Robin’s family, gross Morris- and the main mystery, which was so good. SO. GOOD. This was book amazing. #engelbrechtreads2020 #engelbrechtreads
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
I'd been looking forward to the continuation of the Cormoran Strike series, but was quite disappointed in this installment. For one thing, it needed another round of editing: it's overlong and bogs down about halfway through with endless, repetitive interviews. On the one hand, that's probably authentic to how most investigations go. On the other, by the time the killer was revealed, I just wanted the book to be done already. Also, so many trigger warnings for this (rape, torture of women). The end result, for me at least, was a feeling of "meh," with an undertone of distaste. I believe I'll wait on the reviews for book 6 before I invest any time in the rest of the series (and how I hope we are *finally* finished with Charlotte).