Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

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Lethal White by Robert Galbraith



This is the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike series. There won’t be any spoilers for this book, but if you haven’t read the first three there are spoilers abound.

I’m just going to jump right in with the review and skip the blurb. This book picks up exactly where the 3rd book, Career of Evil, left off. Thankfully, because one of the main reasons why I was itching to get this book in my hand was to find out what Robin chooses to do: Does she stay with Matthew or does she leave? The answer is complicated. But with the prologue we jump right back in, not necessarily into another case but right back into the dynamics of Robin and Cormoran’s relationship, now partnership, friendship? That relationship for me is the driving point of the story. No matter how wrapped up I am in their cases, I am also constantly wondering what the state of their relationship is or will become.
                Now let’s jump into the actual case at hand. Billy, an obviously mentally ill young man, comes into the office claiming to have watched a young child strangled and buried when Billy was younger. This leads Strike on a wild goose chase looking for the young man. What he ends up finding is a man trying to blackmail the Minister of Culture, right when London is about to host the Olympics, and a dysfunctional family with a dubious connection to Billy’s family. Twist and turns abound throughout the investigation. Robin gets her feet wet in some undercover work as they peel off the layers of this complicated investigation.
                If you’re a fan of the first three Cormoran Strike novels then I can’t see you disliking this book. I finished it in three days and really enjoyed it. But like I mentioned earlier, I was more engaged and intrigued with the relationship between Cormoran and Robin than the case. This was a good case, with plenty that needed to be investigated but the people it involved were completely unlikeable. It’s hard to root for the case to be solved when you think that everyone involved is horrible and you don’t mind the thought of them getting their just deserved. By the end I was just glad it was over. We do meet a new part of the team in this book, Barclay, and I’m interested to learn more about him. I’m hoping he’ll stay an additional part of the team.
                And then we’re left not necessarily with a cliffhanger but we’re still curious about what’s to come. Galbraith insinuates that change may be on the horizon but doesn’t give too much hope about the future. Now we wait for the next book in the series and hopefully more.

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