THE LAST WORD
MIRIAM R. KRAMER
Cormoran P.I.
J.K.
Rowling, ranked in the top ten bestselling authors of all time, has moved far away from her Harry Potter days. Her renown from penning her beloved children’s fantasy series of seven books, plus other books related to the series, have made Harry Potter and his world of witches, wizards, and fantastic beasts a global pop culture touchstone. The Casual Vacancy, her first murder mystery, was a stand-alone novel with a nasty tone about nasty people. After this freshman effort, which had a mixed reception, Rowling decided to create the Cormoran Strike series, a succession of blunt, psychological murder mysteries based around two private detectives, Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Deciding to write under the pen name Robert Galbraith, Rowling wanted the series to sink or swim on its own merits, while signaling that these thrillers were set in a different universe than her blockbuster children’s novels. She was outed as the author, however, and the first novel subsequently shot up the bestseller list after its middling initial sales. The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, Career of Evil, Lethal White, and very recently, Troubled Blood, have profiled a provocative, evolving partnership between Cormoran and Robin, along with their private lives and hunts for the criminals who lurk among their diverse victims. Cormoran Strike, a former military policeman who wears a prosthesis after his leg was blown off in Afghanistan, starts a struggling detective agency. A secretarial temp
Old Town Crier
assigned randomly to the office, Robin Ellacott, shows up there for a week’s work, only to be confronted with Strike’s exfiancée running out the door and Strike himself, who nearly knocks her down the stairs by accident. A sympathetic, personable, and organized colleague, she complements Strike’s gruff and imposing presence, bringing insights to the table as he calls in favors from London’s Metropolitan Police while interviewing suspects and witnesses that Strike would intimidate. As the novels progress, Rowling develops the P.I.s’ back stories. In the first novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, Strike has just broken up with his gorgeous, wickedly funny fiancée, with whom he has had a tumultuous relationship for sixteen years. The goal of Charlotte Campbell, mentally unstable and fond of drama, is to escape responsibility. An upper-class woman with a broken home life and network of aristocratic friends, she chose Strike in college to rebel against her upbringing and fell in love with him. After his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, the prickly, fastfood–loving Strike decides to opt out of the military and set up his own shop as a private investigator. Strike, the illegitimate son of supergroupie Leda Strike and rock star Jonny Rokeby, has grown up moving constantly. His pot-smoking mother drifts from ratty flat to ratty flat, and musician boyfriend to
musician boyfriend, with her children, Strike and his conventional half-sister, Lucy. Strike’s only source of stability is his part-time childhood in Cornwall, where he has good memories and old friends, with his Uncle Ted and Aunt Joan. Dropping out of Oxford after his mother died of a heroin overdose, he gravitates towards the military police. As an MP, he learns how to organize his life and develop a methodology as he investigates crimes. When Strike hires Robin permanently as a secretary and then a private investigator, she begins fulfilling a lifetime dream of working in criminal justice. Born in a close-knit middle-class family in Yorkshire, she had started off as a psychology major at university. After suffering trauma, she too drops out. A born investigator, she does
what she can to stay with Strike, despite the low pay and potential danger. Her new fiancé and longtime accountant boyfriend, Matthew Cunliffe, finds her new profession dangerous and wants her to make more money. As they plan their wedding, Robin starts coming into her own, developing her professional relationship with
Strike and making her mark by helping to solve cases and bring in customers. Rowling has written five THE LAST WORD > PAGE 13
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