The Running Grave

Private detectives Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott’s seventh outing strays from Galbraith’s (The Ink Black Heart) winning gritty mystery formula by separating the team for nearly 40 percent of the book as Robin goes undercover at the cult-like Universal Humanitarian Church’s isolated and sprawling farm to rescue a client’s son who has been under the church’s spell for years. Once inside, Robin discovers that several mysterious deaths on the farm could be murders and struggles against the brainwashing techniques, starvation, and physical and sexual abuse that the church members now accept because they think they are preparing themselves to become “pure spirits” who possess supernatural powers. On the outside, Cormoran and his detective agency’s staff realize that the few people who have escaped the church are being killed, staged in ways to look like suicides. Both detectives are fascinating and clever characters. Galbraith (J.K. Rowling using a pseudonym) also endears them to readers by giving them plenty of emotional baggage to deal with beyond their current cases. At 960 pages, the mystery is overlong but it’s a surprisingly agile and nimble elephant.