Lethal White is the fourth instalment in the Cormoran Strike crime/thriller series. Written by JK Rowling under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, the series follows the lives, loves and cases of both Strike, detective and ex-army amputee, and Robin Ellacott, his relief secretary turned investigative partner.
If you are a lover of crime fiction and haven’t read the Strike series, well, you should. I like the occasional crime thriller, but am not a voracious fan, and yet I wait impatiently as Rowling takes almost as long to turn out a new thriller as George RR Martin does to finish the Winds of Winter (all right, not quite as long, because, let’s face it, we know WOW will NEVER happen). Anyway, the first three books, Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm and Career of Evil are all worth reading, and I would recommend reading the books in order even if only to understand the sometimes fraught relationship between Strike and his secretary-turned-partner, Ellacott.
Lethal White starts right where Career of Evil ended – at the wedding of Robin Ellacott and her longtime fiancé Matthew Cunliffe. I’m not giving anything about this away – you must read it yourself – but Lethal White nudges the Strike/Ellacott relationship along a notch or two, in which direction I’m not saying.
But the guts of a crime/thriller is the crime, right? Wrong. Galbraith/Rowling cleverly steers us to the novel’s halfway point before someone commits a clear crime. Brilliant storytelling. And yet so much happens in that first half of the book. Yes Strike and Ellacott work a case, yes they investigate a crime, but this is a crime that happened “off-screen
No spoilers here I’m afraid. I will, however, tell you this: as with Galbraith’s three previous outings, Strike worked out whodunnit well before I did, and my interest did not wane for one page. Long? Yes. Boring? Never.
