The Running Grave: Cormoran Strike Book 7

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It’s not yet clear when the book will be published but it’s expected to be on late 2023 (or early 2024). We can’t wait to see what J.K. Rowling has in store for us in this new installment of the Cormoran Strike series. The “big news” if you read about this interview, say, at The Daily Mail, was that Rowling turned down an invitation to be in the Hogwarts Reunion party teevee special. I don’t think that makes my top five take-aways from this conversation, which would be:

New Galbraith book, The Running Grave | Robert Galbraith

I would use poetry and its structure to describe this duology within the series. I think TB was the lyric verse of the Strike series. It dived deeply into the emotional core of the characters, particularly Robin. In response, IBH was the narrative or descriptive verse of the sonnet. It reminded me of Petrarchan construction (narrative than lyric) in reverse. There is a clear volta between books 6 and 7, as the writing tone changes between the books. Which would make sense with what John said about IBH being planned first. Both books use poetry as their major framing device for all of the different chapters and parts. Finally, TB is 7 parts long, and IBH is 7 parts long, for a total of 14 unique sections. The series as structured thus far, as prevailing opinion here holds though Prof Freeman’s pentagram hypothesis demands serious consideration, is a seven book ring or asterisk. The public was told at one point that it was a seven book series. Taking into account the fact that Rowling is also juggling writing of the Fantastic Beasts film series — and perhaps some other books — one can assume that Cormoran Strike Book 6 may not arrive until 2022 or 2023 at the earliest.The author has previously said that she intends for there to be many books in the Cormoran Strike series, so there’s no doubt that Book 6 is going to happen. It’s only a question of when. This possibility fits with her comments about 10 books. It also could answer questions about some “missing elements,” such as the Silver Haired Man, Gigi the hanged singer, the rest of the Halvening story, Strike and Robin deciding to become romantic partners, a deliberate kiss to parallel the hand kiss, Pru, Rokeby, Leda, Switch, etc. I’m sure others can think of additional loose ends, critical steps towards resolving the mystery of Leda’s death, and missing relationship milestones. That being said the sonnet structure fails, or perhaps evolves beyond, Petrarchan structure as it does not follow the octave/sestet structure. Though, thinking generously one could argue that the prologue for IBH is the final line of TB rather than the beginning line of IBH. Whatever the true meaning behind the title and clue may be, one thing is certain – fans of the Cormoran Strike series are eagerly anticipating the release of “ The Running Grave” and the new case that it will bring for the private detective to solve.

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith review – a riveting

Beyond Book 6, Rowling is expected to write at least a couple more Cormoran Strike books before wrapping up the beloved whodunit series. Without Louise Freeman’s brilliant literary detective work to reveal the center stage of her planning, the 5-6 Flip idea, the Strike EP possibility really wouldn’t make sense. With it, all the remnant parallels and alchemical coloring pieces fit into a relatively sloppy progression. Not to mention that Rowling’s otherwise risible public pronouncements that it is not a 7 book series now make sense.

Of course, Rowling is canny enough to know that her delaying her readers’ gratification is one ­reason they keep returning to the series – getting Strike and Robin into bed too soon would be akin to killing Voldemort off halfway through the Harry Potter series – but at the current rate it looks like we’ll have achieved net zero before they’ve even held hands for the first time. Rowling has been insisting the series is not seven but ten books long but not denying that it is a ring series and in parallel with the Hogwarts Saga. [Yes, I know no one has asked her about that, but still….] This works with Kathleen’s idea and Louise’s 5-6 Flip idea so long as we understand that stages 5, 6, and 7 in the alchemical sequence and echoing the Potter stages will each arrive as two parts, Strikes 6A, 6B, 7A, and 7B, which will add up to ten books but still be seven stages. I imagine 7B will be the original book 7 as plotted with Heart as 5 and Blood as 6, and that 6A, 6B, and 7A are the cases Rowling dreamed up during the writing of the first books that she wanted to include. She may be referencing these ‘extra’ cases as early as her interview with Val McDermid or even her first denials when she was outed as Galbraith that it was a seven book series. My major concern, reading this, is the fear that recent events might have robbed us all of a potential, ongoing Mystery/Detective series. Something, in other words, that could go on to rival, and then, with time, surpass the Hogwarts saga. Everything Rowling has said up till now has pointed to the idea of the Strike series as the main output for the rest of her career, as it was for Christie, or Conan Doyle, for that matter. We will also have 3 more books to finish the story of Leda & Rokeby (I have no idea what she’ll do about Switch and all the siblings if she does finish with Strike and Robin after book 10). Cormoran Strike Book 6 is expected to take place in 2015, so this tweet would suggest that Rowling has been writing the sixth novel since as early as Spring 2020. While she may have tweeted this before Troubled Blood was released, the fact is that the events of the fifth novel only run between 2013 and 2014.

The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith, review: fun but overlong

Instead, she says it “stops at ten”. And I have to wonder if that was her original goal, and the whole recent fiasco has brought everything to an unnecessary, and unwanted halt? Let’s put it this way. It seems doubtful that Rowling ever intended for her series to have a Reichenbach Falls moment. Instead, it’s more that reality might have forced one on her, in the most ironic twist in the history of the Noir genre. Rather than wanting to cancel her detective, as Doyle did, she’s had to usher him into an unwanted, early retirement. I go through all that to make the point that, if Rowling only wrote seven Strike novels, then the teevee program would only have seven seasons. Why give a premature death sentence to a goose laying golden eggs? When stretched to ten or more books, the series and teevee show could have a significantly longer and more profitable run. This is riveting stuff, some of the best writing Rowling has produced. But it’s interspersed with the kind of scenes that have bedevilled the more recent Galbraith books; a seemingly endless number of seemingly endless interviews with suspects or witnesses, providing little of value to the reader except the odd veiled clue. Rowling seems keen to show off her ability to sketch a wide variety of characters, but the interviewees rarely come to life. And I could do without her attempts to render characters’ speech phonetically, whether working-class or posh. If this theory is correct, JKR originally planned to write about the Halvening, and part of that story involved the relationship between artists and fans in the age of the internet. Her prolific imagination, spurred on by some intense experiences she’s had with her own fandom, created a story too complex and long for a single book, so she has expanded her plan and turned “book 6” into parts A and B, so now we have Strike 6 & 7 as a parallel to HP6 and an echo of Silkworm.The Rowling Library is not associated with J.K. Rowling, The Blair Partnership, Pottermore, Bloomsbury, Scholastic or Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films. Rokeby has to appear and die in Strike6, giving his favorite son clues and cash to solve the Leda mystery in the series finale, because, y’know, Dumbledore in Harry6!”“Look for Polworth to find the crucial evidence Strike needs to solve the case because, of course, that’s what does in Strike2!”“Lots of swans, silver, and precipitation are expected ( Tom Waites song!) because of the albedo signatures; look for them!” What could happen is the Met could, on occasion, farm out certain cases for Strike, Robin, and the other personnel to solve in their ample leisure time. Friendly faces in the Yard, such as Wardle, Anstiss, or maybe even Laybourne would possibly find enough case material to send their way. Some of it could even turn out to be bigger than anyone was expecting. The curious part is that, for some strange reason, my imagination insists that the best way to execute this idea is as a series of short stories, rather than novels.

Strike: The Ink Black Heart | Season 6 release date Strike: The Ink Black Heart | Season 6 release date

Rowling-Galbraith has presented a moving target with respect to how many books will be in the Strike series. When she was first out-ed as Galbraith, reporters were told it was a seven book series which the author and publishers have been denying ever since, despite the significant textual evidence that the first seven books in this collection will work as a set or ‘ring.’ I can’t be the only one considering whether IBH might be half of “book six” from an original plan for seven books. I propose JKR has decided to divide the sixth and seventh parts of Strike and Robin’s story into two books each, which will result in a total of 10 books. Rowling-Galbraith decided not to hand over adaptation rights to her Cormoran Strike stories to someone else’s teevee studio or to one of the Hollywood corporations. I think she did this because her experience in her “collaborations” with Warner Brothers have been for the most part disappointing, not to say “humiliating” for her; see Kloves’ comments about their having to “fit the lady to the dress” in making her Fantastic Beasts screenplay into a film. Rowling does not count her screenplays among the books she wrote and has said she does not consider the Potter films to be creative projects for which she can claim any kind of credit (an opinion she shares when told by a fan that they love the movies). I think all of Rowling’s comments about the length of the Strike series have to be filed away until there is any solid evidence they contain any truth of sufficient substance to comment on. Things certainly don’t look good from Strike’s perspective at the beginning of the book, as Robin is enjoying an apparently successful relationship with Ryan Murphy, the C I D officer she met in the last ­volume (and a man much more ­conventionally good-looking than Strike, who – in a description so familiar that it’s come to have the status of a Homeric epithet – is once again described here as “a broken-nosed Beethoven”).So are we to believe there are ten books that have been plotted — or the textual evidence of a seven book cycle, a parallel series with the Hogwarts Saga, and the possibility there may be more (but not necessarily!) or as many or as few as the author claims?