The Running Grave is the seventh book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym of JK Rowling. I have really liked these books and thought The Ink Black Heart was a real tour de force.
So, the last book I read was Grave Mercy, so I have read TWO books in a row with the word "Grave" in the title and that seems like a weird coincidence. Will the next book I read also have it in the title? (No, no it will not.)
In this book, Strike and Robin are hired to investigate the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC), which is essentially a cult. Robin goes undercover, as she has been begging for in the last six books. But will Strike and Robin be able to get evidence that the UHC has committed crimes?
The Good: I'm so glad that Strike is finally taking care of himself and losing weight and trying to get his shit together. Yes, sometimes he eats terribly, but don't we all? He should stop drinking, but you all know that I think there's altogether too much drinking in this world, so I'll just step back from that conversation. I really liked the last part of the book, once Robin has escaped from the compound, and all the repercussions of their activities come crumbling down upon them.
The Bad: The first six hundred pages of this book are a real slog. I thought the very beginning pages, which were correspondence between a father and his son in the cult, were so so so good. And as soon as the epistolary part of the book ended, it was just back to the regular sort of boring stuff around Strike and Robin's agency. Trouble finding contractors, each of them jealous about who the other is dating (*huge sigh*), and so many scenes of Strike thinking and vaping.
Once Robin infiltrates the cult, it got WORSE. We get one sort of exciting scene when Robin is trying to make it to the drop off for her weekly letter to the crew, but then it's just endless scene of Robin doing chores and trying to eavesdrop. I found myself just snoozing away half the time. There were things that could have been exciting, but the way it was written just made it all seem sort of mundane.
The Ugly: This book needs an editor. For real. I know JKR has a lot of sway and maybe they just let her do whatever she wants, but this book is just based on exposition dump after exposition dump (let's meet at the office/bar/café to tell each other what we found) and a lot of action happens off page so that we can have Robin telling Strike about it instead of actually reading it happening and then assuming somehow Strike finds out.
I think this is the worst book in the series, outside of maaaybe the first book. I will read more because I have thought some of these books were brilliant, but I thought this was a disappointing read. I expected more. 3/5 stars
Lines of note:
"What's she like?
"Very polished and chirpy. Perfect teeth - she looks American." (page 125)
Burn, Americans, burn. (Also, my teeth are hardly perfect. Perhaps I look British?)
Viscount Jago Ross, Charlotte's ex-husband, looking as ever like a dissolute arctic fox...(page 512)
I always like to note animal metaphors to describe people.
"Hearty blondes in pearls all blur into one to me. Dunno how their husbands tell them apart."
"Pheromones?" suggested Robin.
"Maybe. Or some kind of special call. Like penguins." (page 814)
There were glimpses of occasional humor in this book, but, like in this example, that humor often struck me as rather unkind.
Hat mentions (for more on why I keep track of hats, see here):
Robin could see a couple of teenagers in bee-keeping hats and gloves, tending to the hives. (page 212)
I always thought bee-keeping sounded romantic and we do eat A LOT of honey, but it's gear-intensive, isn't it?
From what Strike could see through the thick black veil on her hat, her once-beautiful features had been severely distorted by what looked like overuse of cosmetic fillers. (page 513)
I would love to talk with someone about JKR's really cruel descriptions of women, particularly from Strike's POV. I get that Robin is perfection to Strike, but he's so mean when he describes women and it is unsettling and I've started to disklike spending time with someone who can't see beyond the one type of person he enjoys.
All showed different angels of the same woman, who was wearing a beanie hat and baggy jeans, and standing on the corner of Denmark Street nearest the office. (page 514)
Another criticism here was that the word hat didn't actually appear in this book all that often, but here it came up TWICE in TWO PAGES.
...perhaps Ed would make it a hat trick before she left the house...(page 757)
This is a reference to casual violence against women in this book. I don't know. I found JKR's writing to be terribly off putting in this book.
I haven't read this series, so I'm sort of off-topic here, but I noticed a similar she's-so-perfect thing in the Spencer mysteries by Robert Parker: he introduced the character of Susan and suddenly half the books are about her and how amazing she is, and yeah, okay, that's not why I'm here, moving on.
ReplyDeleteI mean, the Strike/Robin relationship has been a thing since the first book, but I think most readers are super sick of it. As you say, that's not why we're here.
DeleteI loved this book, and I couldn't get enough of the cult portions. Even though your description of it just being Robin doing chores made me giggle. But I agree WHOLEHEARTEDLY about this book's need for an editor. Not only were there a lot of parts (and soooo much vaping) that could have been cut, but there were multiple examples of sloppy writing and a few plain old errors. It was very distracting to me!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I didn't notice any actual errors, but the writing doesn't seem as notable as it has been in previous books. Or maybe I was just grumpy about it. I don't know. I will read the next book, obviously, but I'm sort of wondering when/if she's going to wrap up this series.
DeleteOh, despite my complaints, I hope she never wraps up the series! Maybe one of them will die and then we'll get several books about the grief of the remaining person, and then there will be a hunt for a new partner, and then a will they/won't they thing with that person... My ideal is a longterm relationship with a fictional detective like I had with Kinsey Millhone. But Kinsey didn't have this pesky partnership to deal with.
DeleteKinsey is the PERFECT example of a long-running series that did it right. Kinsey had relationships here and there, but Henry was really her true love. I also sort of think about the In Death series by JD Robb (Nora Roberts). The main characters of Eve and Roarke get together in the first book, so there's plenty about their relationship in the plot, but it's not this dumb will they or won't they thing. There are examples of it being done right.
DeleteBut don't you get the feeling she's winding down with this series?
I just skimmed as I still have to read/listen to this one. I am curious now how I will like it. Since I mostly listen to that series it makes getting through 'slog' sections easier.
ReplyDeleteThese books are must reads for me, too. I just hope the next one is better than this one.
DeleteI LOVED THIS BOOK!!! The parts where Robin was inside the cult I found to be so creepy and filled me with anxiety- but in a good way if that makes any sense. I was just so emotionally invested in the story. I thought the scene where she escaped and everything leading up to it was brilliant. Once she was out, I was happy because I could continue reading happily without the anxiety. I really love everything about this series, with the exception- and I think we can all agree on this- that the love interest angle between Robin and Strike is way old. Please resolve this in the next book, JKR!
ReplyDeleteYES! The sexual attraction between Robin and Strike is old and I don't actually think they have much chemistry. Just have them be together and this storyline can go away and we can focus on the more interesting parts of the book.
DeleteI read the first Harry Potter book which was OK but didn't leave me wanting more, and I tried to read one of her adult series but gave it up pretty quickly. I was not surprised to see the sentence "the first 600 pages were a slog".
ReplyDeleteSo yes I came here for the snark and to say once again thanks for reading this so that I don't have to;-)
Oh, I LOVE JKR's writing. I couldn't get enough of HP and though The Casual Vacancy was absolutely amazing. I found it incredibly odd that so much of this book was a slog!
DeleteYou do notice a lot. I have been listening to the Strike series, so this was a lot better than Ink was. It was really tough listening to the computer/social media dialog in that one. Grave was long, but I listened at 1.2 speed which didn't detract at all. I've never done this before. I wonder if there will also be a tv adaptation. I have rather liked those although they have been difficult to find.
ReplyDeleteI do imagine that listening to The Ink Black Heart would have been impossible and it certainly would have been impossible to figure out the solution! Reading it was amazing.
DeleteOh what a bummer. I haven't read this series but a book friend is so into them that I always figured maybe I give one a try. Hope the next one will be better.
ReplyDeleteI hope the next one will be better too! Surely it will have to be.
Delete