★★★★★ I am sleep-deprived, and it's all Jo Rowling's fault

The Running Grave

Robert Galbraith

The first thing that struck me when I began Robert Galbraith's (AKA J.K. Rowling's) The Running Grave was how readable it was. Usually when I begin reading a new book I am conscious of some effort. No matter how good it may be, it feels a little like work to make my way into a new novel. But not when Rowling is the author! I was drawn in immediately. And I remained engaged right through to the end. It was not literally unputdownable, but it was pretty darn close. 960 pages, and I finished it in just over two days. What's more, I got up at 4:00 this morning, unable to sleep for wanting to know what came next.

As always in a Cormoran Strike book, there are two plots. The first plot (which is the plot of the series, as opposed to any particular book) is the Strike/Robin romance. At the end of The Ink Black Heart each of them had come to the realization that they were secretly in love with the other. I say "secretly", but this is perhaps the world's worst-kept secret. All of Robin and Strike's good friends think they should be romantic as well as business partners, and both their Exes are convinced that they're sleeping with each other. For several books now we readers have been saying to ourselves, "For Pete's sake, would you two just TALK to each other and straighten yourselves out?" Strike is more at fault in this than Robin -- as one character tells Robin, "I’ve had a sort of impression, from what Corm’s told me, that you’re the emotionally intelligent side of the partnership." We make some progress, but I will say no more about the romance plot.

The second plot, of course, is the investigation. It is not immediately clear when the book begins whether there is actually a mystery. Will Edensor, one of the sons of a wealthy family, has joined a cult -- the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC). His parents think he is being mistreated and exploited and want to get him out, but their attempts to bring the law to bear on the UHC have been unsuccessful. Will's father hires Strike and Robin to investigate the UHC, to find means to get Will out.

Strike and Robin realize immediately that they are going to have to get someone into the UHC, and Robin volunteers -- nay, insists that it should be her. Robin's undercover investigation of the UHC occupies two-thirds of the book. This part is gripping. Point of view alternates between Robin and Strike. Strike continues the investigation of the UHC from the outside. Robin's chapters are the most harrowing -- we feel that she is in real danger throughout this time.

To my surprise, the book didn't end when Robin escaped the UHC. We still have about a third of the novel to go. At this point it has become clear that there is a real mystery to be solved. The last third of the book is a fairly conventional mystery. As always, Rowling puts a lot of balls in the air, and manages to keep them all flying with admirable virtuosity.

In the end, The Running Grave feels like a combination of a thriller (first two thirds) and a mystery novel (last third). Both parts are very well done. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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