The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith

 The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym of J K Rowling, is the seventh book in the Strike series, this time following Strike and Robin in their investigations of a cult which was founded in Norfolk and spread across the world, with an outwards appearance of being charitable and fighting for equality, whereas, behind the scenes this religion, the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC) is up to loads of criminal behaviour which goes unnoticed by so many. This investigation starts due to the son of an ex-civil servant joining this religious cult and then not responding to any messages. To start investigating the UHC, as well as interviews, Robin has to go undercover as a member of the UHC, putting her at risk both personally in terms of her mental and physical health and also criminally after the UHC make criminal accusations against Robin. However, Strike and Robin are determined to show that the basic doctrine upon which the church is built, the drowned prophet, is not at all true. This investigation strains Robin's relationship with Ryan Murphy, but what will the outcome be?

I have been waiting a long time to start reading this book and am so glad I have finally found the time to enjoy this latest Strike novel. I really enjoyed reading this book, even if it may not be quite as good as the last book in the series. As always, the plot is extremely well thought-out and developed, which sets J K Rowling apart from many other authors as the plot and the story overall evidentially take much more time and connections with the previous books in this series. It is great, as always, to visit the familiar characters from the previous books but also meet new characters and watch as the overall story which is told in each of these books continues to develop. It was also nice reading a Strike novel featuring a religious cult, which I believe is a first for the Strike novels. 

Rowling did a particularly good job with this religious cult as the unlawful behaviour of the church principles was meant to be disguised by all the good the church does, and this was indeed the case. This somewhat reminds me of Anthony Burgess' book A Clockwork Orange where Burgess writes in his essay 'Clockwork Marmalade':

"The language of both movie and book (called nadsat - the Russian 'teen' suffix as in pyatnadsat, meaning fifteen) is no mere decoration, nor is it a sinister indication of the subliminal power that a Communist super-state may already be exerting on the young. It was meant to turn A Clockwork Orange into, among other things, a brainwashing primer. You read the book or see the film, and at the end you should find yourself in possession of a minimal Russian vocabulary - without effort, with surprise. This is the way brainwashing works."

This is interesting as although it may not be done quite to the same level as A Clockwork Orange, the UHC seems to use brainwashing as one of its tools to convert people to the religion and coerce them into behaving in ways that they most likely would not behave out in the real world if they had control over their actions. Just as the reader, I felt persuaded to join the UHC because everything they said in their publicity sounded so appealing, stripping back life to more basic elements. That is to say, I feel that I would be easily influenced to join the UHC, which adds value to this book overall due to highlighting just how easy it can be to become brainwashed or fooled by something based on only a partial description. Like all the books in the series, this was also an incredibly gripping book, which kept me awake at night, reading and losing track of the time.

However, there are some things that really disappointed me about this book; as already mentioned, this latest book is not quite as amazing as the last book in the series, The Ink Black Heart. Firstly, I was so upset to hear about Robin being in a romantic relationship with Ryan Murphy, as I really feel that Strike and Robin would make a perfect match. The relationship that they have together is so beautiful and amazing. However, Rowling did end the book on quite a significant cliffhanger regarding Strike and Robin's relationship, which I really hope she will pick up on and further develop in the next book in the series, I looked at the time of writing, and there is an eight addition confirmed which is extremely exciting! Secondly, in the last book, Rowling used various formats of text, such as text messages formatted as such. Yes, this book starts with lots of letters and emails, but this is not consistent throughout the book, which is a great shame as it is always nice to have different formats in a book, especially when those features are still rather unique to books. Finally, parts of this book were just not developed well enough. There were parts of the story where potentially exciting and nerve-wracking scenes were essentially just abandoned and not developed further, some parts of the story were generally just not very well developed in enough detail and there were also parts of the book where there seemed to have been some wild guess in terms of what happens and no extremely logical explanation for the reader, at least not in the most engaging or interesting of ways.

Regardless, I rate this book 5 stars because although it may not have quite been at the standard of the last book, it is inevitably an outstanding book that is incredibly gripping and extremely well thought out. I cannot imagine the books in this series are easy to write, but J K Rowling does an incredible job in telling the story, and I cannot wait for the next book in the series. I would thoroughly recommend this book.