Lethal White Is Part Of The Book Series JK Rowling's Adult Fans NEED To Read!

"'Robert Galbraith has announced himself as a fresh voice in mystery fiction: part hard-boiled, part satiric, part poignant, and part romantic.'" 

~Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

"'Galbraith is one of our finest contemporary crime writers.'" 

~Jocelyn McClurg, USA Today

"'Galbraith has created a pair of characters who live on in your head after the book is closed, and who make you wish desperately for a new installment.'" 

~Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

Never have I agreed with a review more than the one by Moira Macdonald. Robert Galbraith has created such lifelike, honest, real characters that you want to know more and drink in every page. Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott make a unique and complimentary pair of sleuths, ready to take on any case, and creating a bond with each other and those closest to them.

Readers, I can't stress enough how much of a hard-hitting, in-your-face, intense, and engaging read this whole series is. I fell in love with the characters since book one, The Cuckoo's Calling, and I haven't looked back. Seldom do I find a mystery whodunit that keeps me involved from page one until the end. I've tried a few different authors of the genre (whose names I won't reveal), and I can say that there are FOUR that keep me holding on, waiting for the next book, or rereading to my heart's content:

1. Agatha Christie
2. Lisa Gardner
3. Robert Galbraith
4. Georgette Heyer


Sure, there are a few others that have captured my attention from time to time or who have a few books I have loved and will continue to love (Mary Higgins Clark's A Cry in the Night, All Around the Town, and Loves Music, Loves to Dance to name one such author), but these top four bring something to the table other authors don't or that other authors don't always deliver.

This isn't a harsh criticism, but more a point of preference and desire to be soaked in the story and drowning in the words as the author wraps a delightful tale around you. Basically, I want to be involved in the story; I want to know the characters; I don't want to guess who did it right away.

What's the point of reading a mystery if you know who did it by chapter three?

Oh, the agony!

So, when I pick up a book, in particular a mystery, I want to have such a hard time putting it down that my eyeballs are red and sticking to my lids by four in the morning when I'm still reading it.

You get me?

Whenever I find a book that takes me back to my childhood and the wonderful days of Nancy Drew, Mandie, Trixie Beldon, and The Boxcar Children, I'm stuck in a nostalgic whirlwind of happiness. It takes me to the days of living dangerously and trying to find the culprit before the amateur sleuths did. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost, but it was always a great experience. In fact, for a few years I toyed with the idea of being a detective myself. Then, I realized that all of those coshes on the head Nancy survived would most likely kill me. You know, being a real human being person and all. 

However, I want to invest my time and energy into these characters who have become my friends, my allies, my truth-seekers. Their story becomes mine. Their desire to find the truth, to help someone, to get to the bottom of the mystery is a part of who I am. When these aspects collide in one solid story-telling, I'm at home. This author is my new best friend because I will read EVERY book they put out, and I will promote and support them until the cows come home.

As a sidenote, I can't help but mention that Veronica Mars was, is, and always will be my favorite tv crime-fighting, amateur sleuth. I have watched all three seasons and the movie so many times I think I've memorized them, and in case you weren't aware, she's coming back! A mini series is happening on Hulu the month of July! Eight episodes taking place a few years after her movie debut and bringing us back into the world of Neptune, California. What?! I'm SO excited, I can't even think straight. It's almost as if the world is going to finally make sense again. Okay. Probably not, but you understand what I mean.

If you haven't delved into this series, yet, then I have to get you started on the right track. First, you need to read The Cuckoo's Calling. It's the great introduction into the world of Cormoran Strike. 

"After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this." ~Synopsis from Amazon 

Interestingly enough, I first stumbled across this series, not on the shelf of a bookstore, but on tv. Cinemax and HBO brought the BBC's own take on the serious sleuth and his intelligent partner to the little screen in 2017. Titled C.B. Strike, actors Tom Burke, Holliday Grainger, Kerr Logan bring the characters to life in authentic and inspiring ways. It was this mini series that brought the books into my life, and I'll be forever grateful. 

After binge-watching the first three seasons of all three books, I've been hanging on and hoping for book and series four. So, after my nonstop viewing party of this glorious visual recreation of the world of Strike, I then had to binge-read all of the books. Watching each book was great, but reading them was also amazing. I have to say I really got sucked into this world of Private Eyes, and I don't know if I can ever go back. 


Book Two, The Silkworm, is a continuation of the crime-fighting ways of Cormoran Strike and his assistant, Robin Ellacott.

"When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days-as he has done before-and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives-meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before... A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, THE SILKWORM is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant, Robin Ellacott." ~Synopsis from Amazon



Career of Evil takes the readers further into the lives of Strike and Robin. We're given more information into Robin's background, relationships, and desire to become a partner in the business, and it's great to see. It delves further into the growth of their own professional relationship. At the time I read this Career of Evil was my favorite of the trilogy. However, Lethal White has taken me to a whole new level of the life and profession of these two characters, and it keeps getting better.

"When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman's severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible--and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on one of the suspects, Strike and Robin delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them..." ~Synopsis of Amazon


I reviewed The Cuckoo's Calling, Silkworm, and Career of Evil via Goodreads, and you can find out more about what I think of each book there. Now, it's time for me to breakdown my thoughts on Lethal White, and I'm more than excited to dive in and release my world of love for this series and Robert Galbraith's writing. 

"When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott-once his assistant, now a partner in the agency-set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been-Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

The most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, Lethal White is both a gripping mystery and a page-turning next instalment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott." ~Synopsis from Amazon

Numeric Breakdown:

1: didn't like it
2: it was okay
3. liked it
4. really liked it
5. it was amazing


1. Writing Style: 5/5

Robert Galbraith has a sense of effortless magic when it comes to writing. The steady, consistent world-building gives readers a full-course into the characters' lives and relationships in a beautiful, unsugar-coated way. The style delivers a lyrical narrative which brings the descriptions and every day nuances into sharper focus. We aren't just solving a mystery or getting to the bottom of a whodunit, but we're taking a ride into the lives of the characters and how they work, interact, and grow. I can't put these books down, and even though they include a few "non-becky approved" instances, the picture of the world of PI Cormoran Strike is alluring, moving, and addicting.

2. Overall Plot: 5/5

The twists and turns of any good mystery are more than apparent here. The author doesn't rush through the telling of the tale. Galbraith takes you through the problem, the surprise of the revelations, the hunting of accomplices, and the climax of what's happening. We are not only introduced to Billy and his memory of a girl being murdered and buried when he was a young child, but we're given a whole new world of a government official with a blackmail problem that only Strike can solve, and the two stories have more in common than you think. The way each world is pieced together, the colorful characters you meet, the building of Strike and Robin's continued professional relationship, and the overall ups and downs of their own personal lives help move this story along and keep it fresh. We aren't just being told one part of the story here, we're being introduced to and reacquainted with and immersed into the full-lives of the regular characters as well as the new. The connection between the cases Strike is solving as well as his battle to build-up his business is endearing and understanding. The wrap-up of the whole mystery is satisfying and leaves you wanting more.

3. Characters (how you relate and/or enjoy them): 5/5

Strike's continued world of living with the loss of his leg is empowering and heartbreaking all at once. His determination, surliness, and overall intensity is relateable. We can all understand personal struggle and the need to continue even when you have failings. Robin's wrestling with the previous cases she had been involved in, her PTSD, and now her marriage are also a central part of the plot. We get to evolve, learn, and grow with her character. Her reasoning at times is human and flawed, and she brings us a real part of humanity. Between these two characters, the mystery is sometimes almost a subplot to what's happening in their individual worlds. They are beautiful characters, flawed, strong, and everlasting. Reading these books, I find myself wanting to know more about these Strike and Robin and how they will continue to evolve with each new case we're a part of reading.

4. Unexpected thrills: 5/5

The introduction of Billy was exciting and a bit alarming. You don't know what's wrong with him and if what he claims to have seen is true or not, but you're also worried about him. The clues you find along with Strike and Robin keep the plot moving along, and they throw you some unexpected twists which keep the story interesting. The government official's connection to Billy and his brother brings another element to the story and what's being uncovered. Plus, there are some even more twists with Robin and her marriage to Matt. Some I felt that I saw coming, and others I was shocked to read. I think this author does a great job of balancing information, thrills, and revelations.

5. Hooks/Attention-kept: 5/5

My attention is kept with the main characters alone and their personal struggles, and when you throw a dead body, hyped-up witness, victims/suspects with secrets to hide, and under-the-table collusion with the police into the mix, I'm hooked! I love Galbraith's books and how each one is a steady pace of information, personal connection, and undercover shenanigans.

6. Overall enjoyment of the story based on the genre: 5/5

I love mysteries, and I love this book! Each of the series has been fun, inventive, and holds its own sense of beauty and majesty. I can't gloat enough over the break-down and eventual capture of the wrong-doers. This author gives you a satisfying ride until the end.

7. Overall enjoyment of the story based on the storyline: 5/5

I loved the intricacies of the whole mystery teamed with our daring and brave main characters. Strike and Robin make this story, and their sarcasm, witty repretoire, honesty, human qualities, and hard work give the readers a well-rounded understanding of the world they're working. I'm in love with these stories and how real and intense they are.

8. Revealing of Facts: 5/5

Excellent! I enjoy Galbraith's break-down and slow build-up to how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together. It reminds me a bit of how Agatha Christie sorts all of the pieces within her mysteries and brings them all together at the end. I don't like to rush through a good book, and this story gives the reader a plot to really think through and draw your own conclusions before the reasoning is revealed.

9. The Ending: 5/5

I think the author finished this story right where they needed to do so. It leaves us open to what's next in the lives of our main characters, and it gives them the chance to breathe. The culprits are caught, and the climax is satisfying. The relationship between Strike and Robin continues to grow and evolve, and I really love that Galbraith isn't making this all about them or throwing Strike and Robin together. The slow-build of their trust and understanding of one another is a beautiful tale all on its own, and their ability to work together and love solving crime is a whole other element.

10. Overall Story Rating: 5/5

This book gets a solid 5/5 for me. It might be the best one yet, and I've loved all of the previous three. It has an intriguing mystery with a great deal of complexity, twists and turns, some unexpected thrills, and the continuation of beloved characters who you grow to adore. So, I'd suggest that any of you mystery lovers with a preference for Agatha Christie-like detection and a slow story build to dive into this series immediately!! You won't regret it.😉 

As always, thanks for joining me, and Happy Reading!!

~Author Rebecca Reddell