©Debra Hurford Brown
Books by Robert Galbraith
Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of the British author Joanne (J.K.) Rowling. Following the huge success of her Harry Potter series, her first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, was an instant bestseller. However, she was keen for her books to be judged on their own merit and when she started writing a crime fiction series, she hid her identity by adopting the name Robert Galbraith. The books feature Cormoran Strike, a British Afghan war vet who returns to London and sets up a detective agency.
The Cormoran Strike books are highly recommended for anyone who is into the crime fiction genre. The tricks to keep you guessing or the surprise about ‘whodunnit’ are not quite as mind-boggling as Agatha Christie, but perhaps more realistic. The plotting is solid and satisfying, and doesn’t grate like in all too many contemporary crime novels.
However, it’s the characters and their interaction that make the Robert Galbraith/Cormoran Strike books so enjoyable to read. They’re very real. You can move with them around London and the UK, sympathizing with their trials and tribulations. As happens in the Harry Potter series, the characters appear, and then gradually, as the series progresses, their backstory is fleshed out and Galbraith/Rowling makes them more complicated and you want to know what happens to them next.
We’ve listed the Robert Galbraith/Cormoran Strike books in order below. They’re also excellent to listen to as audiobooks, narrated by the British actor Robert Glenister.
The Cuckoo's Calling
by Robert Galbraith
The Cuckoo's Calling introduces Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling's detective Cormoran Strike. How does he compare to other literary detectives? In our experience, there are (broadly) two types of literary detective. The first type are patently ludicrous, but a lot of fun. Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are among the best known examples, but Simon Brett's Charles Paris or MC Beaton's Agatha Raisin are also wonderfully ridiculous detectives. The second type aim to be 'real' characters. We are still expected to suspend disbelief, but there's a basic aim to make a believable character we can identify with. In that aim, crime novelists rarely succeed. One detective might like jazz, another poetry, but they're pretty generic. Not so Cormoran Strike. He is a memorable detective, with a character that sticks with you (in our mind, he looks like the actor Robbie Coltrane).
As the first in the series, The Cuckoo's Calling is one of the best, also introducing Robin Ellacott, the Yorkshire woman who starts the book as Strike's temp. In the audiobook, actor Robert Glenister is excellent at narrating her Yorkshire accent and, like Strike, she seems like a real person.
The Silkworm
by Robert Galbraith
The Silkworm is the second novel in Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling's Cormoran Strike detective series, set in the literary world. If you enjoyed the first book, the second one does not disappoint, and you begin to feel comfortable with the main characters. The murder is on the gory side and some of the images a bit sickening, but not so bad as to ruin the book.
Career of Evil
by Robert Galbraith
Career of Evil is the third book in the Cormoran Strike detective series, and in it Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling really gets into her stride. Strike's (now) partner, Robin Ellacott is the target of a serial killer, and we get to know more about her as Rowling/Galbraith writes in her backstory, and we start to really live through the ups and (mainly) downs of her longterm relationship with accountant and childhood sweetheart Matthew.
Lethal White
by Robert Galbraith
In the fourth book in the Robert Galbraith/Cormoran Strike series, Lethal White, J.K. Rowling does what she did so successfully in the Harry Potter series, which is that she makes it better than the book before. Rather than getting tired of the formula, you feel that she is taking things forward, and you become interested in where it’s all going to end up. The murder plot is good and the settings (which include the Houses of Parliament) memorable. At this point in the series you’re really rooting for the lead characters and how their lives will turn out.
Troubled Blood
by Robert Galbraith
***Shortlisted for the 2021 CWA Gold Dagger***
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) is the 5th book in a series featuring Cormoran Strike, a British war veteran who sets up a detective agency in London after losing his leg in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan. The series is one of the most intelligent out there for fans of crime fiction. If you're new to the books, we recommend reading the series in order, as it's a lot about the evolution of the relationship between the two main characters.
The Ink Black Heart
by Robert Galbraith
The Ink Black Heart is the sixth book in Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike series, one of our favourite crime fiction series. The plot revolves around a cartoon and an online game based on that cartoon, and London’s Highgate Cemetery plays a key role in events (if you’ve never visited, you should: both Karl Marx and Douglas Adams are buried there, amongst hundreds of graves and ash trees growing all over the place. All in all, an ideal setting for a murder). The book is long, and it’s for readers who enjoy living daily life with the two main protagonists, Strike and Robin, as they go out about running their detective agency, rather than a pacy thriller you rush through at speed to find out whodunnit. As we’ve noted previously, this is a series where character development is important and while you can read each of the books as standalones, it’s best to start at the beginning with The Cuckoo’s Calling. The audiobook narrator for every book in the series so far, Robert Glenister, is excellent.
The Running Grave
by Robert Galbraith
The Running Grave is the 7th book in Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)'s Cormoran Strike series, one of the most enjoyable crime fiction series out there. It features Cormoran Strike, a British war veteran-turned-private investigator, and Robin Ellacott, who starts out as a temp but becomes his business partner. In The Running Grave, Robin goes undercover to join a religious cult on behalf of a client who is worried sick about his son. The books in this series tend not to be fast-paced thrillers, but get you into the daily lives of the main characters, with the plot/mystery driving the story forward. If you haven't read any of the books yet, it's best to start with the first, The Cuckoo’s Calling, published exactly a decade ago.
Interviews where books by Robert Galbraith were recommended
The Best Crime Novels of 2023, recommended by Sophie Roell
From a police procedural set in World War II Berlin to a man pushing his in-laws off a wall in Ningbo, the variety of settings for crime fiction continue to provide a lot of opportunities for armchair travel. Our editor, Sophie Roell, an avid reader of crime novels, picks out some of her favourites of 2023. Read more fiction recommendations on Five Books
