THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith

Yet another epic tome by JK Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith in the Strike series. These really are page turners. She has a real knack of wanting you to continue reading right up until the early hours of the morning just to find out what’s going to happen next. I quite literally stayed up after midnight last night just to finish this. It was that good, and at 945 pages it’s extremely good value.

I’m assuming that everyone knows the premise of these. Private detective, and will they won’t they, duo Cormoran Strike and partner Robin Ellacott once again find themselves taking on a densely plotted investigation. This time they are tasked with extracting someone in thrall to a religious cult. As I said above, you can’t put this down, but if I’m being picky, the sub plot regarding the stalking of a female actor proved to be a distraction that really wasn’t required. But as I say, I’m being picky. It’s an extremely good read indeed and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

There was real tension here. Ellacott goes undercover in the Universal Humanitarian Church posing as a wealthy young woman at a loose end. It soon becomes apparent that for all their talk of freedom and spiritual awareness, the UHC are anything but. Other wealthy members are being systematically fleeced whilst being forced to labor on the church's farm. Lead by charismatic leader Papa J, who it turns out both rapes, and encourages other male members, to sexually assault one another, while living in the lap of luxury as members toil in the mud. The investigation quickly expands as it becomes apparent that there’s more to the church than fraud and sexual misdemeanors.

This is only the third or fourth detective novel I’ve ever read in all of my 61 years on this planet, and I can’t help but feel I’ve somewhat missed out by continually reading autobiographies from someone who used to be in The Fall. My loss.