The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Hallmarked Man is the 8th book and the latest release from Robert Galbraith, aka JK Rowling. Strike and Robin are asked to prove that a body found is their clients boyfriend. The client is very specific that they are not to prove it is anyone else, just the boyfriend. There are a lot of twists and turns as the detectives nagivate the investigation, their relationship, and their personal lives.

The Good – The last book was somewhat of a cliffhanger as Strike finally admits fully to his feelings for Robin, but only to himself. We had to wait to see how he dealt with the admission. This book was much more about their personal lives than what the investigation held. Robin’s relationship with Murphy along with her relationship with her family are front and center. The book goes to lengths to show us the conflict for women between family, career, and expectations of both.

Strike must also confront repercussions of his past and past behaviors. As he tries to sort out his feelings for Robin, he also has to deal with his feelings for Charlotte and his relationship with his father. This is all with a backdrop of bad press he is getting for his real and fabricated misdeeds of the past.

As usual, there are so many characters, plots, and subplots, that it is a page turner. Much like how Harry Potter became less about magic and more about relationships, this series is becoming less about the crime and more about Strike and Robin. I am ok with this. Rowling draws us into the first few books with great stories about the crime and we end up caring so much about the people that we stick around for that.

The Bad – Time to have an honest talk about Robin. I don’t understand how a woman as strong as she is has such a hard time saying no. She clearly doesn’t love Murphy, even though she pretends to love him. He gives her ample opportunity to tell him off and get rid of him. Why can’t she? I really think sometimes, people are so afraid of being alone that they end up compromising who they are. The real problem, for Rowling, is that Robin is starting to sound whiny. She needs to pull her back from the edge in the next book.

I also had a bit of a wince over Strike’s approach to trying to win Robin over. He made it seem like a conquest where he was pitted against Murphy. It felt like the competition was more important than the prize. It made me wonder if Robin would be discarded once the competition was won. Maybe that is what Rowling has in mind, and that would be painful to read.

The Ugly – In the end, we find another crime that is about sex. To be fair, most of the book doesn’t even touch on the subject. The end though, brings us face to face with a groomer and his gang of abusers. This might be hard to read for some. It was hard to read for me.

*Spoiler Alert* Second ugly part is the ectopic pregnancy that Robin has. It is ugly because she struggles to answer if she would have kept the baby or it is implied that abortion was an option. This bit is hard to read. She does also struggle with the fact that so many women around her have children so easily and because of her rape, she can not. For women who have struggled getting pregnant, or staying pregnant, this is a difficult part of the story.

Link to book on Amazon