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tarotmaven 's review for:
The Running Grave
by Robert Galbraith
Weighing in at a whopping 947 pages, The Running Grave manages to be a page turner right up to the end. Charlotte Campbell rears her needy head again, Strike gets involved with Bijou Watkins - perhaps the most obnoxious Robin-substitute yet, the firm's secondary cases including the creepy stalker Frank brothers, Toy Boy and Bigfoot and, of course, Robin's burgeoning relationship with Ryan Murphy. Let's just say that no pages are wasted on background filler.
The main client is Sir Colin Ensenor who engages Strike and Robin to find out what has happened to his son, Will, who has disappeared into the World Humanitarian Church. A hybrid of the Church of Scientology and Jonestown, is it a cult or is it a church? If you've ever wondered how normal intelligent people can be taken in by these charlatans (and I certainly have), this book brings to life just how easy it is to identify and exploit people who are even marginally susceptible.
The case of the WHC becomes more than just a search for Will Ensenor. Robin's infiltration of the UHC's compound at Chapman Farm soon uncovers far more nefarious goings on - mysterious disappearances, sexual exploitation, financial malfeasance and all manner of abuse.
Many plot twists and a large cast of very interesting characters is classic Galbraith. Jonathan and Mazu Wace are probably two of the scariest characters in the series yet.
My only complaint with this book is that I am not personally a fan of writing in dialect in general and in this book, nearly everyone speaks with a dialect. Way too much. At best it interrupts the reading experience and at worst, it reinforces negative stereotypes. If you can scan over the dialogue and absorb the meaning intuitively, that's fine but if you have to stop and decipher the sentence, it's just annoying. For instance:
Oi! I fink. Is nuffing - indicates a lower class person
Nae, Wee, Lassie, I hadna dinner - Scottish
Those are pretty easy to translate but when she got into the "Norfolk Broad", I nearly had to break out my secret decoder ring, Navver, olluz and t'ampty har (taking your dog for a pee to empty her).
Finally, if you're going to use dialect, be consistent. The Ensenors are very upper class but no dialect. The Graves, also very upper class, written in dialect. Why? And why does Abigail Glover have a pronounced lower class London accent when her father is the charismatic and eloquent leader of the World Humanitarian Church. Ok, just a pet peeve of mine but by no means a deal breaker.
And finally, new developments on the horizon for Strike and Robin romantically at long last. Tune in tomorrow!
The main client is Sir Colin Ensenor who engages Strike and Robin to find out what has happened to his son, Will, who has disappeared into the World Humanitarian Church. A hybrid of the Church of Scientology and Jonestown, is it a cult or is it a church? If you've ever wondered how normal intelligent people can be taken in by these charlatans (and I certainly have), this book brings to life just how easy it is to identify and exploit people who are even marginally susceptible.
The case of the WHC becomes more than just a search for Will Ensenor. Robin's infiltration of the UHC's compound at Chapman Farm soon uncovers far more nefarious goings on - mysterious disappearances, sexual exploitation, financial malfeasance and all manner of abuse.
Many plot twists and a large cast of very interesting characters is classic Galbraith. Jonathan and Mazu Wace are probably two of the scariest characters in the series yet.
My only complaint with this book is that I am not personally a fan of writing in dialect in general and in this book, nearly everyone speaks with a dialect. Way too much. At best it interrupts the reading experience and at worst, it reinforces negative stereotypes. If you can scan over the dialogue and absorb the meaning intuitively, that's fine but if you have to stop and decipher the sentence, it's just annoying. For instance:
Oi! I fink. Is nuffing - indicates a lower class person
Nae, Wee, Lassie, I hadna dinner - Scottish
Those are pretty easy to translate but when she got into the "Norfolk Broad", I nearly had to break out my secret decoder ring, Navver, olluz and t'ampty har (taking your dog for a pee to empty her).
Finally, if you're going to use dialect, be consistent. The Ensenors are very upper class but no dialect. The Graves, also very upper class, written in dialect. Why? And why does Abigail Glover have a pronounced lower class London accent when her father is the charismatic and eloquent leader of the World Humanitarian Church. Ok, just a pet peeve of mine but by no means a deal breaker.
And finally, new developments on the horizon for Strike and Robin romantically at long last. Tune in tomorrow!