Review: THE HALLMARKED MAN, Robert Galbraith

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DS571XMN
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sphere, Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 2, 2025
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 908 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1408723777
• Book 8 of 8 ‏ : ‎ Cormoran Strike  

Synopsis   (Amazon)

A dismembered corpse is discovered in the vault of a silver shop. The police initially believe it to be that of a convicted armed robber - but not everyone agrees with that theory. One of them is Decima Mullins, who calls on the help of private detective Cormoran Strike as she's certain the body in the silver vault was that of her boyfriend - the father of her newborn baby - who suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.

The more Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott delve into the case, the more labyrinthine it gets. The silver shop is no ordinary one: it's located beside Freemasons' Hall and specialises in Masonic silverware. And in addition to the armed robber and Decima's boyfriend, it becomes clear that there are other missing men who could fit the profile of the body in the vault.

As the case becomes ever more complicated and dangerous, Strike faces another quandary. Robin seems increasingly committed to her boyfriend, policeman Ryan Murphy, but the impulse to declare his own feelings for her is becoming stronger than ever.

A gripping, wonderfully complex novel which takes Strike and Robin's story to a new level, The Hallmarked Man is an unmissable read for any fan of this unique series. 

My Take

After reading the blurb, you don't need me to tell you much about the plot. I will comment though on how long this book is -900 pages - how complex the plot is, and how the strands seemed to multiply, and how it took me all of 2 weeks to read. There was a lot of extra information to take in, quotations from various authors at the beginning of each chapter and selected bits about freemasonry. (I did feel that some of this information was extraneous and could have been edited more tightly.) The number of staff working for the agency has multiplied and relationships have become very complex.

But, for all that, I never thought of giving up. And I'm ready for the next in the series, whenever it happens.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

5.0, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING #1 

4.5, THE SILKWORM  #2

4.6, A CAREER OF EVIL  #3

4.7, LETHAL WHITE - #4

4.8, TROUBLED BLOOD- #5 

5.0, THE RUNNING GRAVE -#7

Review: THE RUNNING GRAVE, Robert Galbraith

• 
   This edition read on my Kindle (Amazon) on a variety of devices
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C3CKHR3F
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mulholland Books (September 26, 2023)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 961 pages
• #7 in the Cormoran Strike series

Synopsis (Amazon)  

In the seventh installment in the "outrageously entertaining" Strike series, detective duo Cormoran and Robin must rescue a man ensnared in the trap of a dangerous cult. (Financial Times) 

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.

The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.

In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. . .

Utterly page-turning, The Running Grave moves Strike's and Robin's story forward in this epic, unforgettable seventh installment of the series. 

My Take

Well, this must be the longest book I've ever read - Kindle tells me nearly 18 hours, page count 961, but to be honest, my interest in it never flagged. I did initially contemplate reading the hard copy edition, but eventually hopped between my Kindle and my Samsung tablet.

The story itself has a huge time span, and an enormous range of characters, but the more you read, the more you want.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 5.0

I've also read

5.0, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING #1 
4.5, THE SILKWORM  #2
4.6, A CAREER OF EVIL  #3
4.7, LETHAL WHITE - #4
4.8, TROUBLED BLOOD- #5

Review: TROUBLED BLOOD, Robert Galbraith

• 
  Format: kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size : 11931 KB
• Print Length : 888 pages
• Word Wise : Enabled
• X-Ray : Enabled
• ASIN : B084VPR3N2
• Publisher : Sphere; 01 Edition (15 September 2020)
• Cormoran Strike #5

Synopsis (Amazon)

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is visiting his family in Cornwall when he is approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother, Margot Bamborough - who went missing in mysterious circumstances in 1974.

Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike.

As Strike and Robin investigate Margot's disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly . . .

My Take

I thought this novel owed quite a lot to the fact that Galbraith (J. K. Rowling) is the extremely successful author of the Harry Potter novels. Certainly as far as crime fiction goes, it is a very long and complex novel, with an amazing number of plot threads, and a huge array of interesting characters. I wasn't so taken with the sections that owed so much to interpretation of tarot cards, and reading it on my kindle meant that I didn't get the most out of the full page illustrations that had been created by the first detective who had investigated the disappearance of Margot Bamborough forty years earlier. 

In the background are the other investigations that the Strike/Ellacott firm have running simultaneously, their rising success, Strike's relationships with his family, and his relationship with Robin. All of that gives the novel a depth that is unusual in modern crime fiction, and yet it provides an interest that keeps the reader going, despite the length of the novel.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
5.0, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING #1 
4.5, THE SILKWORM  #2
4.6, A CAREER OF EVIL  #3
4.7, LETHAL WHITE - #4  

Review: LETHAL WHITE, Robert Galbraith

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1480 KB
• Print Length: 656 pages
• Publisher: Sphere (September 18, 2018)
• Publication Date: September 18, 2018
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07FD8PFJM
• #4 in the Cormoran Strike series

Synopsis (Amazon)

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 from his office 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 most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, LETHAL WHITE is both a gripping mystery and a page-turning next instalment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.

My Take

Cormoran Strike is approached by a Cabinet Minister who says he is being blackmailed, whose wife says there are trespassers in the woods on their property. And then Billy turns up saying he has witnessed a murder. Coincidentally Billy's father used to work for the Cabinet Minister.

The Cabinet Minister believes that the blackmail threat is coming from another Cabinet Minister's office so Robin, Strike's colleague, is installed in the Parliamentary office undercover.

That is just the beginning of the first theme of the story. The book is quite large, with complex intertwining themes, a large number of characters and incidents to keep track of.

But it was so well written that it just kept me reading. There is considerable development in the personal background for both Strike and Robin. The action takes place over a period of over a year.

I look forward to the next in the series.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
5.0, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING #1 
4.5, THE SILKWORM  #2
4.6, A CAREER OF EVIL  #3

Review: CAREER OF EVIL, Robert Galbraith

• this edition published by Sphere in 2015
• author also known as J.K Rowling
• ISBN 9-780751-563580
• 494 pages
• source: my local library
• Also available on Amazon for Kindle
• Cormoran Strike Book 3

Synopsis (Amazon)

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 their own hands, and delve 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...

A fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists around every corner, Career of Evil is also a gripping story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives. You will not be able to put this book down.

 My Take

Newspaper reports about the arrival of the severed leg have the effect of almost killing Cormoran Strike's detective agency. And then there is the fact that the parcel was in fact addressed to Robin, not to Strike. Strike reports the package to the police and they begin an intensive investigation.

Robin and Strike have just two cases to occupy them, and both require surveillance. Strike is anxious to find out who the severed leg belongs to and who has sent it to him. He has some idea that the cause is embedded in his past in the military police but tracking down the four suspects is not easy. One of them is a man he knows well, his own stepfather, while the other three all have reason to hat Strike.

Simmering in the background is Robin's impending marriage. Her fiancé Matthew is convinced that Robin and Strke have a relationship going and then Robin finds out that Matthew has something to hide. Strike also has a new girlfriend but he is beginning to question where that relationship is headed.

We often see the narration from the point of view of one of the suspects who is not necessarily the serial killer, and it is hard to decide who it is.

I found this book a time consuming read. That is partly because it is long, and partly because it is densely written. There is lot of new background material which fleshes out both Strike's and Robin's characters. A lot of it feels "off topic" but at the same time is giving the central characters a lot more depth. The novel manages to maintain the tension right to the end. I am looking forward to the next in the series.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read
5.0, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING
4.5, THE SILKWORM

Review: THE SILKWORM, Robert Galbraith

• published in 2014 by Speher
• ISBN 978-1-4087-0403-5
• #2 in the Cormoran Strike series
• 455 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author website)

A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, The Silkworm is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott.

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 were published it would 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 time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any he has encountered before…

My Take

I have previously read the first in this series, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, and thoroughly enjoyed it. An ex-soldier, Cormoran Strike is a different sort of sleuth and he and his secretary/assistant Robin Ellacott make a good pair. Many of the themes/bylines that began in the first novel are continued and it will probably help a bit if you read them in order.

But to be honest I am a bit disappointed with THE SILKWORM. I thought it was a bit long and unnecessarily complex, particularly in the final explanations, almost as if the author wanted to keep the readers puzzled until the very end, and to be able to say with a flourish "There! You didn't guess that! Did you?"

Mind you, it is still a good read for the most part and you may not get as impatient as me for the ending to come.

My rating: 4.5

Read an extract on the novelist's website.

Review: THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith - audio book

• published in 2013
  
• narrated by Robert Glenister
• length: 15 hours 53 mins
• available from Audible

Synopsis (Audible)

When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case. Strike is a war veteran - wounded both physically and psychologically - and his 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 complex world, the darker things get - and the closer he gets to terrible danger…

A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London - from the hushed streets of Mayfair to the backstreet pubs of the East End to the bustle of Soho - The Cuckoo's Calling is a remarkable book. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is a classic crime novel in the tradition of P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, and marks the beginning of a unique series of mysteries.

My Take

To be honest I read this knowing that it was J. K. Rowling's first venture into crime fiction. I'm not a Harry Potter fan although I have read a couple of them.

In THE CUCKOO'S CALLING Rowling has created a sleuthing partnership - Cormoran Strike and his temporary office help, Robin Ellacott - that works really well. Cormoran Strike is a good detective and Robin provides invaluable backup.

The novel has an interesting timeframe in that it is firmly set in the first decade of the 21st century, referring to the war in Afghanistan etc. The characters really come alive and the plot, though it has lots of twists and tangles, is plausible and enthrallingly constructed.

So this is J. K. Rowling for adults and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and Robert Glenister was the perfect choice for the narrator. The blurb says this is the beginning of a series and I certainly hope Cormoran and Robin get a second outing.

My rating: 5.0

Other reviews to check

• Sydney Morning Herald 
• New York Times
• Kelly Konrad

Robert Galbraith site - including Rowling decided to write under a pseudonym (see FAQs)