*Spoilers spoilers spoilers* the running grave spoilers thread.. (Content warning - mentions suicide)

[EggTheParrot]

Just as the title says really.. spoilers ok in this thread. Let's keep the other one spoiler free??

Oh my god why is Robyn going undercover!

I wonder what the next relationship barrier will be… wonder if Robin will get her share of the save-me-please dynamic from Murphy, I don’t know how she would react if he had a relapse.

In a way this could work out quite happily - Bijou is awful but not evil, she might get her act together enough to be a decent parent, then Strike could do weekends and Robin can be a caring part-time stepmother who can still throw herself into danger..

I finished!

I guessed early on someone was going to have been eaten by pigs. I’ve read Hannibal (as well as the other Lecter novels) and as soon as I saw the mention of pigs I thought that was going to feature.

was completely wrong about who though. I thought Daiyu had lived, and was Becca, and another child had been killed in her place. And that dead bodies were being fed to pigs 🤣. Wildly wildly wrong.

loved the ending though. That one single comment by Strike. I really fancy Strike as a character

I would love a brainstorm of possible threads started by Strike on Mumsnet, and the ensuring rancour that scares him off.

Two weeks after The Running Grave*

Strike: "AIBU to be angry that she hasn't left her boyfriend yet?"

---

On a separate note, I'm glad JKR didn't go down the easy route this book of having Murphy relapse into alcoholism, be aggressively flirtatious with other women, etc - things that were indicated at the start of the book. I think so far, he's clearly flawed, but decent enough. Matthew was just kind of irredeemable fairly early on, and it got worse, but that's not quite the case with Ryan. Sure, he was obnoxious in the way he dealt with her parents while she was in the cult (riling them up), and there was that comment about missing having a 'hot female detective' on a case, which is just...smarmy. And that aside about her looking good with a baby early on in the book.

Conversely, we're told he's kind and considerate, good in bed, clearly enjoyable company for Robin, he values her job and doesn't niggle about it (too much). Yes, he has Matthew's suspicions towards Strike and deploys subsequent guilt tripping - but when Robin uses Strike as her emotional crutch every. single. time. I don't really blame him here. That's absolutely not fair on him.

Parting from Matthew was a no-brainer - he made it so easy for Robin. I don't want that to be the case here. I want Robin to have to make that hard decision for herself, without Murphy morphing into a villain.

Loved it and was completely misdirected. Poor Emily and Louise. Enjoyed it much more than IBH.

Oh, I just remembered when Robin was being shown that interview by Murphy and he kept getting annoyed at her interruptions…omg that was so annoying

The only think wrong with Ryan is that he's 'not Strike'

Matthew was a cock, but she can't keep getting shirty every time her bf gets jealous of her partner when they have every reason to be.

I think various people will have to point this out to her.

My money's on Pat.

Not sure about that. Pat would be a wonderful relationship guru and clearly kissed a few frogs before getting the bloke who lets you being a cult escapee and his kid home from work and lets them stay. I could see her telling Robin not to string nice Mr Murphy along…

Pat needs to tell the pair of them not to string people along! I felt really sorry for Lorelei.

Does anyone else have an ominous feeling that Bijou’s baby is actually Strike’s? And she just really wants it to belong to the QC so he’ll leave his wife?

@Runningoutofusernamestochange that's what I meant. She is not one to mince her words.

I couldn't work this one out.

I'm presuming Strike wasn't having unprotected sex, and Ilsa made a big deal out of her taking condoms out of the bin etc.

But I can't see her risking getting pregnant with Strike when the QC was still her plan A.

I really really hope you’re right. But Bijou was so desperate to get pregnant by the QC that she probably didn’t care who’s baby it was as long as it got him to leave his wife.

Hope she doesn’t come up in the next book

So much storytelling potential there, though. I’m sure Strike has some very strong opinions on absent fathers.

Urgh I really hope not. Strike is so very anti kids and condoms aren't fool proof, should have got the snip, Cormoran!

I don't think Bijou would go to the extreme lengths to get pregnant by Strike though. He wasn't her prime target and she's smart enough to know that the QC would be well motivated to order a paternity test.

It would definitely be a good plot device to keep the 'will they, won't they ' tension going for another book though!

I have a vision of Bijou showing off a very, (very) hairy baby to her friends…ominous

Lucy has the Mumsnet scarf.

One bit I found hard to believe was Abigail ringing up Jordan and Cherie. Wasn’t Cherie hard to find with all the name changes? It would take detective work to find her and Abigail didn’t seem the patient type. And how did she know which prison Jordan was in, did Strike tell her?

God, that was good, literally just finished it. You somehow don’t expect the 7th book in the series to be the best, but then we should learn to trust JKR and how well she knows her characters.

I was expecting something BIG for getting Robin off the farm but in the end preferred that sudden mad escape with no build up, it landed better than pages and pages of her planning. I didn’t even mind her “knowing” that Strike was there - it was dark and she’d missed a drop so there was a logic to knowing someone, probably Strike, would be watching and waiting.

The scenes in the church were unbearably tense at times and I also worried that Robin would get too sucked in; the brainwashing was so horrific you trusted that even the most intelligent and cynical person would start to want to go along because they were so overwhelmed and scared.

And that ending! Again, so much better for not being a drunken or angsty snog or anything with build up, so much truer to Strike’s character for him to think, fuck it, just say it, and to do it calmly once he’d made his decision. I liked the change in the will they, won’t they storyline as well, them both admitting that they love the other one but being too scared and too practical to do anything about it.

They’re great characters - neither is perfect but you trust they are good people and you believe in what they do.

Navy cunts was great, but the fan girl in me also loved Strike getting all manly and threatening to burn the church to the fucking ground.

Also, it was a bit of a relief that Strike has finally decided to get healthy and his leg is therefore more manageable, because she’d slipped a little into his health and leg causing issues at the most awkward of times. But good to see some more focus on the elements of trauma he carries from the explosion.

And Strike is the ‘hairy baby maker’ arf.

Navy cunts was great, but the fan girl in me also loved Strike getting all manly and threatening to burn the church to the fucking ground.

Yes I also had a little swoon at this point. Added to the image of Strike shagging Bijou up against the wall, my crush level has definitely increased during this book.

That Bijou on a wall but certainly did something. 🤤

I’m sure I read somewhere that there were to be nine books in the series?
So number eight can be Strike and Robin finally getting together. Please please can number nine be solving his mum's murder.

Yes I think it's meant to be 9? So long as it's not book 8 to get them together and book 9 to break them up!