I couldn't put it down.

I don't usually ship people in mysteries, but Rowling has made up for the total mismatch of Ron and Hermione plus written a terrific mystery! No sneaky "oh I forgot to give you this clue 200 pages ago," no last minute suspects, just loads of information that builds until you have to start gleaning out what's important. The central blackmail/suicide mystery revolves around a subject I'd never heard of but one that should be better known. Well researched and beautifully written. I really like how conversations are real: people stopping to eat, being interrupted, just the stuff of real life.

But I have to admit, this book is heavy on the personal lives of the protagonists, and while I wrote the previous paragraph right after finishing the book, I'm already fuzzy on the mystery, but I sure remember where our heroes left off! And I have to admit to a good deal of trepidation about reading the next installment where it appears she may be doubling down on her anti-trans stance. I really hope that the negative hype is overblown.

This woman writes the most perfect pros and woven between her words are the most intriguing an interesting stories. Sometimes the twists and turns are enough to make you not want to assume the solution or the answers.
She is my all-time favourite author.

Keep them coming! This one was less gory, but kept that tightly wound suspense that made this story an absolute page turner. Many unexpected plot twists were enjoyable to discover.

This was my least favorite of the Comoran Strike detective series, perhaps because of the complexity of the plot. Perhaps it would have been better had I read it in larger chunks, over a shorter period of time. The characters--Strike and Robin--remain appealing.

It's the usual potboiler thriller here, which is fun and action packed. THANK GOODNESS Robin has sorted herself out - that was causing me great angst here.

I was unexpectedly disappointed in this book. I am a JK Rowling superfan and have really appreciated and enjoyed everything she's written until this book. For me, this was a long-awaited 4th installment of the Cormoran Stirke mystery series so, not only is it written by one of my absolutely favourite authors but also, it is my absolutely favourite genre of book. But, for me, the mystery was not as compelling as her previous ones, the ending really fell flat for me and I felt that the book was about 250 pages too long. I am not sure why JK dragged out the story as long as she did... I felt that there was a lot of redundancy and unnecessary dialogue, often 'self-chatter' within Strike's or Robin's own head. So, only ok for me whereas the previous books in this series were great, in my opinion.

Great characters, good stories

NEW BY JK ROWLINGS

This is an another excellent entry in the entertaining Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith, aka J. K. Rowling. This book is very long and slow-paced compared to the first three books in the series. Because I like the main characters so much and enjoyed Galbraith's descriptions and details, I did enjoy this very leisurely paced book and did not mind its ponderous length. The plot is suitably labyrinthine, with a surfeit of characters and some twists and turns. A lot of time is spent detailing Strike's and his partner Robin's personal lives. If you are looking for a fast-paced page-turning thriller, this book may not be what you are looking for, but if you are looking for a character-driven story with a good mystery thrown in, then this is a great read. I was also pleased that this fourth book was a lot less grisly and nasty than the last two books in the series. I will definitely look forward to another book in this series!