Summary: Cormoran and Robin are hired to look into a 40-year old cold case.
Cormoran Strike is a standard grumpy private eye, ex-military, ex-cop. He has had a number of high-profile cases, and his absent father is a famous rock star trying to get Cormoran to show up to an album release party for the 50th anniversary of the band’s first release. Robin, his younger partner, is still trying to process through her husband’s infidelity and divorce proceedings and her concern that Cormoran will see her as a real partner.
Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) has another book that has ballooned to an enormous size. Like the later Harry Potter books, Troubled blood has nearly doubled in size compared to earlier books and weighs in at over 900 pages. Considering the size, I read it quickly. I have listened to most of the previous books in the series, but I did not want to listen to 32 hours of audio. Also, this series pushes my boundaries with violence and sex. Troubled Blood is a thriller, and the series has always had violence and sex, but I read the series because I like the characters of Robin and Cormoran, not because I want to read about serial killers. In some ways, I am not sure I would start the series if I had known where the content would go. But I have started it, and I do like the leading characters.
Rowling writes engaging storylines, but there are a lot of traditional thriller/mystery tropes here. For example, the main characters are in love but won’t admit it to themselves or each other. They both have a history with previous relationships that makes them wary of entering new relationships. The tough guy Cormoran wants to protect Robin from danger, but that makes Robin more prone to risk-taking to prove herself, which is another reason besides their fear of intimacy with each other that keeps them from openly talking. So many things are hidden from each other that, if they would talk, would work out. I know that real people do this, but it is such an old trope in books that it can be annoying.
The plot is convoluted but fine. The daughter of a missing woman hires the agency to investigate the disappearance of her mother. This is a 40-year old cold case, and there is little chance of the case being solved. The agency is always short-staffed, and hiring good investigators is hard. The margins for the agency are thin, and everyone is always overworked. Cormoran’s aunt is dying of cancer. His absent mother has already passed away. His aunt and uncle provided the only stability in his life, even if their relationship is strained at times. Cormoran spends much of the book with family and not on the cases, which strains the agency even more. Robin’s ex is dragging his feet on the divorce to make things hard on Robin and force her to give up because she is out of money. There are a couple of new staff in the agency, but more people does not always make things easier.
As you would expect with a nearly 1000 page thriller, there are a lot of false trials. The solution is acceptable and explained in the end, but I think the tension could have been maintained at 300 fewer pages without harming the plot. I enjoyed the book. I will keep reading the series, but it is not a series that I will pre-order and read immediately (I read this one a year after it was released.)
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (or JK Rowling) from the Cormoran Strike Series Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook