I have read all of Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike books over the years, so despite the amount of {unfounded} controversy surrounding the latest installment, Troubled Blood, I absolutely could not resist picking up a copy - if only to catch up with Strike, Robin, and the rest of the gang. Let me state that this is not the type of series I typically gravitate to; but the noir-inflected feel and character-driven storylines have kept me enthralled from the jump. Troubled Blood, though somewhat hard to digest at times, was, overall, very much the same.
Troubled Blood opens with Strike visiting his family in Cornwall. It’s there that he is approached by a woman requesting his help in finding her mother, Margot Bamborough, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The catch? Margot went missing in 1974. Though Strike has worked on many cases, a cold one has never been part of his repertoire, let alone one from forty years ago; but he’s intrigued, and accepts - despite the knowledge that the chances of success seem slim.
Though only one case in their long list of jobs, Margot’s disappearance quickly becomes the front-runner for Strike and Robin, leading them down a messy path rife with tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer, and a wide array of witnesses – many of whom appear to have something to hide. But is one of them the culprit?
I’m gonna be real here, at 944 pages, Troubled Blood is a tome. And for many of those pages I truly felt as if I was wading through information that, while good fodder for character development, would ultimately contribute very little to the overall storyline. I wasn’t wrong.
Do I care to read about multiple visits with Strike’s family during a grieving period? Not really. Do I want more details about Robin’s disastrous divorce and overall unlikable family? Negative. But I know Galbraith’s {Rowling} talent, so I muddled through it {albeit halfheartedly} in order to get to the true heart of the novel, and what lies there is brilliant.
The character development found within these pages is outstanding. Through interrogations and interviews, snippets from book and newspaper coverage of Margot Bamborough’s disappearance, and a mind-blowing incorporation of astrology, Galbraith’s narrative brings a ripped from the headlines tale to the Strike series that will satisfy the biggest true crime fan – or anyone interested in behavioral psychology.
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