So Lethal White, the latest crime thriller by Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling, is the harrowing tale of the grizzled Detective Comoran Strike and his gorgeous assistant Robin's eternal struggle to come up with more reasons why they shouldn't sleep together even though they both would very much like to.
The Strike books have thus far been on the 'pretty good' side of things, but I am sorry to say that this one only manages to reach the level of 'it was alright I guess'.
One of the reasons for this is that the sexual tension between Strike and Robin is so damn thick so as to be distracting. That has been an ever-present part of these novels since the get-go but it's getting to the point where it's been milked for all it's worth. It's just painfully obvious that that's where that arc is going and having page after page of Robin contemplating whether she loves her boss or not while Strike broods about how he hates the fact Robin is married now is just plain dull after a while.
Another reason for this is that the murder plot at work in this thing is so utterly and ridiculously elaborate that it is just plain cartoonish and needlessly complicated. I mean, it gets to the point where I was ask myself at the end: "Is killing someone like this really less efficient than just leaving a banana peel on the stairs or dropping a toaster in the bath?"
And the fact that witnesses openly withhold critical information from Strike for no damn reason for the bulk of the book and Strike just sort of nods and plays along. There's a blackmail plot and no one wants to say what the damn guy is being blackmailed about. At a certain point, one would have expected our hero to just say: "Look, do you want this shit solved or what?" but that moment just never came.
The thing is still well-written and I like these characters. When another of these things, I'll read it. But the prime emotion I associate with the text is still irritation. Either I was feeling irritated at the two protagonists' love problems or at irritated at the frustrating way that the investigation was artificially handicapped from the get-go.
Lethal White is thus a fairly unremarkable offering, typical of this era of mediocrity that we are currently suffering through.
Anyway, let's talk some book specifics.
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