Who's got their copy of Robert Galbraith's (JKR) latest?

[ParmaVioletTea]

Just picked mine up from my local bookshop. And my local Waterstone's had a whole window full of the book, with a special half-price offer.

I have started reading it; slipping into another story of characters who feel like old friends.

(Heretical opinion: I think Ms Rowling is a better writer in the Strike series than Harry Potter, but she still needs an editor.)

It was funny because I too have short hair, and multiple piercings. 😂 Oh well she can cry me a river!

I’m loving the book so far, of course, although to be honest, I want Robin to end up with Murphy at the moment. He seems like a stand up guy.

Looool is it too much to hope she'll have an peaking moment?!

yes Strike being a liar and working through all the ladies of London is far from ideal. If get together, would they just lie continuously to each other?! I have a bit of a soft spot for Shanker, seems like a family guy 😂

Yes, totally awful. Matthew reminded me of my first, absolutely horrible, boyfriend. Ryan Murphy makes me skin crawl, and I feel so sad for Robin that her internal monologue keeps insisting that he's a good, good man. He's really not. As for Strike's women: I think Rowling is brilliant at making them unattractive to the reader. Madeline was vile (hugely self involved and rude to waiters) and whatshername, the one who ran the vintage shop, seemed perfectly nice...except that she lived in a flat that sounded like a Cath Kidston showroom, which was just very not Strike. And then that long recriminatory email she wrote him after the breakup! I mean, I don't altogether blame her, and I think probably lots of us have written That Email (but hopefully not actually sent it), but seen from Strike's perspective it was awful. I think JKR's great strength (other than outstanding plotting) is how real her characters and their relationships seen, and how good she is at making every character messy and rounded and complex.

I’d like to know her IQ it must be genius level surely?! Just the vocab she uses, not to mention all the research that goes into one book

i've sussed why Temple Ewell and not another Kentish village. It actually had a Templar place in the Middle Ages, nothing to do with Freemasons, but it echoes the references to the craft, and the place next to the silver shop.

I don’t know, and I’m not sure it’s an IQ thing, exactly. But to me she’s the closest thing we have to a modern Shakespeare. People always talk about how remarkably well Shakespeare saw into the heart of man, and so does JK. But she also manipulates genre (as did WS) and writes utterly accessible and popular texts in an extraordinarily intelligent way without ever bothering about whether or not people will think she’s ‘literary’. There’s a touch of Milton about her too, in her resolute commitment to freedom and truth, regardless of the personal cost. I think she’s the absolute bees knees.

Am I imagining it, or are there a lot of similarities between this instalment and the later potter books. Nothing specific exactly, but there’s been a few points where I’ve thought, “oh that reminds me of another book… wait a second!”

Yes I love her characters. You could see them as ridiculous (I mean Strike being war hero AND famous father AND ex of famous women), caricatures (bitchy women, camp men, and accountants - is it me or does she have something against accountants?! maybe I'm just being over-sensitive due to my profession 😂), but she somehow blends them into a believable people you love (or love to hate).

In the belief that nothing is chosen by accident, I've got a few trivia occurring to me.
The choice of Temple Ewell, perhaps only because the masons use Temple, but maybe because of the supposed link between them and the Templars.
The Bullen family's link with the Boleyns, a Frenchified version of the name. Source - a Kentish Bullen fellow student at college. Can't see how it would be important, and is probably not widely known.
The name Tyler is associated with some functionary in masonic doings. Source - a novel by Katherine Kurtz, which I don't much like. (She attributes the failure of the Nazis to invade solely to the mystical activities of masons and witches, discounting all the people praying in ond out of churches. Also the death of one of the royals. She also goes for the Templar/mason link, and associates them with the Peasants Revolt, since peasants couldn't organise themselves, and of course, Wat Tyler was obviously a mason. And they camped at Temple Hill in Dartford - though she unaccountably missed that.) I went right off her after that book. Fantasy set in fantasyland is one thing, but with real people and the real world, not on. Bit of a rant there, but Tyler's name may be important.
In the Running Grave, I thought JKR had missed something well known about piga, and I spent time thinking that - but she hadn't. It came up at the end. So I'm not going to rule anything out now.

What does piga mean?

This is bugging me - can someone please explain??

It's a typo for pigs, grunty animals, vital to the plot.

😂😂 of course! Lucky I'm not the detective 🤣 🤣

Wow, that was amazing! I just finished it today. Personally I didn’t find it to be overly complicated. I’m bemused as to why people say she doesn’t have an editor when she thanks him in the acknowledgment?

I feel bereft.
I eeked it out on audible for 10 days but have just finished it.
That was fantastic. As good as The Running Grave, and that really was gripping.

I am loving it!
Halfway through and really don’t want it to end.
I couldn’t give a monkey’s about the body in the vault…..Strike and Robin all the way!!

Just finished. I think I understand why only half the Tunnocks was eaten - he didn't deserve it.

The next book is certainly going to be juicy isn't it 😆

I’m listening to it but keep falling asleep so end up listening to the same chapter over again. Which is just as well really as there are so many different people in it. I do fancy Strike I must admit. I don’t want them to get together.

any tips on how to listen to a meaty audio book besides bed time? I don’t drive you see.

any tips on how to listen to a meaty audio book besides bed time? I don’t drive you see

I got a dog so I could get take it for walks and listen to podcasts in peace 🤣

It’s how I get myself to do the cleaning.

I must say I’m surprised Robin and Murphy can afford to rent on their own in London on their salaries.

I’ve just started reading these (currently on The Silkworm) and I wondered about the famous father. Then I realised it’s plot purposed. There is no way an ex army investigator would’ve got to interview all the famous people in the first book - unless he’s somehow part of that world.

He’s Somebody’s Son, so you take him seriously and help him out, because you never know if you might need a favour from Somebody.

Likewise in the second book he’s developing a well-heeled clientele- and it’s partly because he’s now famous himself, but also because he’s seen as being part of their world. Again, he’s Somebody’s Son.

Really well-observed.

I listen while working out at the gym, or when I’m doing housework / crochet.

It’s just me & the cat though, which probably makes it easier!

It occurred to me when reading the bit about Leda’s original name being Peggy that she’s quite unlikely to have called her daughter something as ordinary as Lucy.

I wonder if it’s short for something, or if Lucy renamed herself?

finished the book a couple of weeks ago but still mulling it over. I have been trying to put my finger on what bothers me about Linda, Robin's mum. I get that she worries about Robin, but it's the fact that she never says she's even a little bit proud of her. What Robin did in The Running Grave, pretty much single handedly bringing down that cult...if that wouldn't make you proud of your daughter then what the heck would?

Robin is an extraordinary person. she's overcome so much and then gone onto achieve so much. would it blinking well kill her mum just once to say 'well done'?