quippe | Entries tagged with j. k. rowling

The Blurb On The Back:

”I seen a kid killed … He strangled it, up by the horse.”

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him, and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott – once his assistant, now a partner in the agency – set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been – Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much more tricky than that …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The fourth in Robert Galbraith’s (aka J K Rowling) CORMORAN STRIKE SERIES is a gripping read that expertly runs two separate yet intertwining mysteries while also developing the relationship between Strike and Robin (although I could have done without the romantic undertones) and showing the impact that unwanted celebrity can have and the attention it brings.

The Blurb On The Back:

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The third in Robert Galbraith’s (J K Rowling’s) crime thriller series is another entertaining page-turner that delves more into the pasts of both Strike and Robin to up the stakes. I particularly enjoyed learning more about Strike’s time as a Red Cap and the work that he did and I enjoyed his scenes with an old colleague (something I hope will continue in future books). Although I’d guessed Robin’s big secret, Galbraith handles it in a sensitive way and what worked particularly well was the ramifications this continues to have for her, both in her relationship with Strike and with her increasingly odious fiancé Matthew. I can’t be the only person who thought: ‘Don’t do it, Robin!’ as she planned her wedding. Galbraith is particularly good at ramping up the tension between Robin and Strike and while the miscommunication and failure to communicate got frustrating, there is a ring of truth to it as each has their own insecurities and desire to protect the other. The scenes told from the killer’s point of view are genuinely chilling and while I’d guessed his identity before the end, the book is no less thrilling for it. All in all, I found this an entertaining read with a real cliff hanger ending and I can’t wait to read the next one.

The Blurb On The Back:

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days – as he has done before – and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel is published it will ruin lives – so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.

And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against tie to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

J K Rowling’s second crime novel (writing as Robert Galbraith) is an entertaining page-turner that lampoons London’s publishing elite but ultimately can’t quite deliver on its premise with a rushed and incoherent resolution. I loved Rowling’s skewering of literary London and the introduction of Strike’s old friends (including the man he saved in Afghanistan) and the progression of his break-up with Charlotte (who I really hope doesn’t appear as a character because she works so much better shown in Strike’s memories). There’s a hint of something traumatic within Robin’s background as well, although her relationship with the awful Matthew has doom written all over it and I could do without the brewing romance between her and Strike. Ultimately though what lets the book down is the ending, which is rushed and contains a car chase that makes absolutely no sense at all. This is a shame because while I had guessed the murderer (Rowling over-egging the main clue just a little too much), I was looking forward to a tense resolution. That said, there’s a lot of fun here and as such I’ll definitely be reading the next in the series.

The Blurb On The Back:

When a troubled model falls to her death from a Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts and calls in private detective Cormoran Strike to investigate.

Strike is a war veteran – wounded both physically and psychologically – and his private life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model’s world, the darker things become and the closer he gets to terrible danger …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

As everyone knows by now, Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of J. K. Rowling and this is her first crime novel. Judging the novel on its own terms, I thought that this is a strong debut with Rowling taking the traditional elements of the genre and making them her own. Strike is an interesting character with a background that promises much – notably the rock star father who’s disavowed him, a mother who died in tragic circumstances and an ex girlfriend skilled in mind games who he finds it difficult to stay away from. I also liked Robin – competent, new to London, she’s got the detecting bug but is engaged to a man who wants her to get a better job. The novel’s strongest on its themes of celebrity and money with Rowling using her own particular insights to interesting effect – I especially enjoyed a lunch that Strike has in a posh restaurant with two bored but moneyed sisters, which oozes in snobbery, power plays and insecurity and also Strike’s interview of a bitchy fashion designer who’s worked his way to the top. However, the novel falls down in its revelation of the killer, which I found a little melodramatic and I didn’t buy the killer’s motivation at all. That’s a big shame because I was enjoying the novel up until this point – Rowling may not be a great technical writer (there’s a lot of head hopping and she over-writes descriptions at times) but she knows how to tell a story and I definitely want to read more of this series.

The Blurb On The Back:

Harry has been burdened with a dark, dangerous and seemingly impossible task: that of locating and destroying Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. Never has Harry felt so alone, or faced a future so full of shadows. But Harry must somehow find within himself the strength to complete the task he has been given. He must leave the warmth, safety and companionship of The Burrow and follow without fear or hesitation the inexorable path laid out for him ...

In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling unveils in spectacular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited. The spellbinding, richly woven narrative, which plunges, twists and turns at a breathtaking pace, confirms the author as the mistress of storytelling, whose books with be read, reread and read again.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Oddly, I think that the book felt rushed - the use of exposition was simply too heavy to be effective and I got the impression that Rowling really lost her bottle when it came to character deaths in that whilst she was happy to whack characters, she didn't want to write anything that gave any emotional impact to those deaths. On many levels, I found the book to be personally unsatisfying - the Epilogue is poorly written and there are two plot holes that really irritated me. Parts of the book could easily have been edited out without causing any loss to the reader and much of the exposition dumped here could have been hinted at or explained in earlier books. Whether this is the children's classic that reviewers claim is something that only time can tell, but I think that looking at this book in terms of the overall arc, it was an undeserved end to the series.