Lethal White

3.5 stars

I really enjoy this book series, but this was my least favorite book so far. The story starts out with a young man named Billy visiting Strike at his office. The man clearly has mental health issues, with paranoid delusions. He insists that when he was a young child he witnessed another child being killed near his home. His story is disjointed and incomplete. Before Strike can find out more, Billy dashes out of Strike’s office.

Meanwhile, Strike’s last case has made him more popular than ever. His business is growing and he hires additional people to help him out. Robin, fresh off her honeymoon, is raring to get back to work, but her relationship with Strike is strained. To make matters worse, all is not well with her husband Michael.

Strike is retained by a wealthy man to find out who is blackmailing him. This takes him and Robin into the halls of Parliament and rubbing elbows the upper crust elite of England. As usual, there are plenty of twists and turns, as well as false leads. The story was fairly interesting, but this book was way too long. There is a lot of dead weight and the book could have been half its size and still been been a good story.

In addition, this is the first book that Robin started to annoy me. On the one hand, she is a strong, independent woman that has survived multiple attacks on her life. She is bright, very intelligent and is a great investigator. On the other hand, she is a weak- willed woman that doesn’t have the backbone to tell Michael she doesn’t want to marry him and puts up with far too much crap from him. I get that there are times when people aren’t as strong in their personal life as in their work life, but STILL. It’s like she’s 2 different people and I just didn’t buy it. I hope Robin is written better in the new book and is written like the bad-ass she is.

All in all, it’s still a good book and I recommend you read it.