It’s her treatment of most any character Strike and Ellacott meet as they seek the truth about Dr. the real abomination in Rowling’s writing is not her treatment of a trans character, at least not in this book. It’s the characterizations, however, that sink the story and for the opposite reason: They lack the texture of reality. That might be why what could have been a suspenseful mystery congeals into a 900-odd page slog. Galbraith/Rowling spends far too much time on the inner workings of office birthday gifts and the inner workings of almost everything else, from the types of biscuits served in witnesses’ homes to Ellacott’s feelings about her brothers’ friends these are not details that move the plot along.

dismaying is that the cross-dressing psychopath is among the least egregious stereotypes in this deeply troubled new entry in the Cormoran Strike series.

He felt he owed her that information, but was afraid that saying it might move this conversation into territory from which it would be difficult to retreat.īut from second to second, sitting here, now with more than half a bottle of neat whisky inside him, a different spirit seemed to move inside him, asking himself for the first time whether determined solitude was what he really wanted, for evermore. If only she could come inside his head and see what was there, Strike thought, she'd understand that she occupied a unique place in his thoughts and in his affections.

And when it goes wrong, I'll lose you for good, and this thing we've built together, which is literally the only good part of my life, my vocation, my pride, my greatest achievement, will be forever fucked, because I won't find anyone I enjoy running things with, the way I enjoy running them with you, and everything afterward will be tainted by the memory of you. Įxcept, it'll go wrong, of course, because it always goes wrong, because if I were the type for permanence, I'd already be married. I like knowing the possibility's there, for us to, maybe. I don't want some other bastard to persuade you into a second marriage. I want to be alone, and unburdened, and free.īut I don't want you to be with anyone else. I try not to give names to what I feel for you, because I already know it's too much, and I want peace from the shit that love brings in its wake. “How could he say, look, I've tried not to fancy you since you first took your coat off in this office.

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith