Cormoran Strike By Robert Galbraith
The dead could only speak through the mouths of those left behind, and through the signs they left scattered behind them.
― Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo’s Calling
- The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013)
- The SIlkworm (2014)
- Career of Evil (2015)
- Lethal White (2018)
- Troubled Blood (2020)
- The Ink Black Heart (2022)
- The Running Grave (exp. 2023)
What is Cormoran Strike about?
Cormoran Strike is a series of crime fiction novels and is also the name of the lead character, a private detective. With help from his partner Robin Ellacott, they embark on solving the crimes that they are hired for.
Cormoran Strike is an amputee, having lost the lower half of his right leg during an attack in Afghanistan. He was, at the time of his injury, serving for the Royal Military Police Special Investigation Branch as an investigator. He has a lot on his plate with a complicated personal life, a troubled relationship with his family and his injury, he isn’t exactly the easiest person to work with, or know for that matter.
In 2017, BBC took up the Cormoran Strike series and began turning the books into a TV series. At the time of writing they have currently released five series, with the latest series following Troubled Blood, aired in December 2022. There are plans for a sixth, to follow Ink Black Heart, but as of yet there is no release date.
Who is Robert Galbraith?
Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling. She chose the name because she really loved the name Robert, the name also of one of her heroes; Robert F Kennedy. And Galbraith was a name she loved as a kid. She decided to write under the pseudonym to try and have some anonymity and be able to have this work disassociated from her success with the Harry Potter series. She was unmasked just a few months after The Cuckoo’s Calling was released by a UK Newspaper article.
Taken from Robert Galbraith’s website (J.K. Rowling):
Yes, I really wanted to go back to the beginning of a writing career in this new genre, to work without hype or expectation and to receive totally unvarnished feedback. I wanted it to be just about the writing. It was a fantastic experience and I only wish it could have gone on a little longer than it did. I was grateful at the time for all the feedback from publishers and readers, and for some great reviews. Being Robert Galbraith was all about the work, which is my favourite part of being a writer.
Since my cover has been blown, I continue to write as Robert to keep the distinction from other writing and because I rather enjoy having another persona.
Joanne Rowling was born on 31st July 1965, more commonly known by her pen name, J.K. Rowing. She is a British Author most famously known for her Harry Potter series, which has become really it’s own brand, in its own right. Rowling actually has no middle name, and when it came to publishing the first Harry Potter book, staff at Bloomsbury Publishing (the publishers for the Harry Potter series), asked her to use two initials as opposed to her real name. This was because they thought that young boys would not want to read a book written by a woman. Rowling used the letter “K” to stand for “Kathleen” for her paternal grandmother, and for the ease of pronunciation of two consecutive letters in the alphabet.
The whole world’s writing novels, but nobody’s reading them.
― Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm
The Order
The order of the Cormoran Strike books will be in publication order, which also happens to be in chronological order also. Following this order, we feel that this is the best reading order for Cormoran Strike novels. You can read more about each of the books, and the order below.
The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013)
Cormoran Strike #1
136,345 words, 7 chapters, 456 pages, 9hrs to read
19,477 Average Words per Chapter, 65.1 Average Pages per Chapter
Published by Sphere Books
3.88 out of 5 on Goodreads
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, 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.
The Silkworm (2014)
Cormoran Strike #2
138,735 words, 50 chapters, 464 pages, 9hrs 15mins to read
2,774 Average Words per Chapter, 9.3 Average Pages per Chapter
Published by Sphere Books
4.05 out of 5 on Goodreads
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…
Career of Evil (2015)
Cormoran Strike #3
182,090 words, 62 chapters, 609 pages, 12hrs 10mins to read
2,936 Average Words per Chapter, 9.8 Average Pages per Chapter
Published by Sphere Books
4.21out of 5 on Goodreads
Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.
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 the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and 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…
Career of Evil is the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.
Lethal White (2018)
Cormoran Strike #4
194,350 words, 71 chapters, 650 pages, 13hrs to read
2,737 Average Words per Chapter, 9.2 Average Pages per Chapter
Published by Sphere Books
4.24 out of 5 on Goodreads
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.
Troubled Blood (2020)
Cormoran Strike #5
282,255 words, 73 chapters, 944 pages, 18hrs 50mins to read
3,866 Average Words per Chapter, 12.9 Average Pages per Chapter
Published by Sphere Books
4.36 out of 5 on Goodreads
Private Detective Cormoran Strike is visiting his family in Cornwall when he is approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother, Margot Bamborough — who went missing in mysterious circumstances in 1974.
Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike.
As Strike and Robin investigate Margot’s disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly . . .
The Ink Black Heart (2022)
Cormoran Strike #6
302,590 words, 107 chapters, 1012 pages, 20hrs 10mins to read
2,827 Average Words per Chapter, 9.5 Average Pages per Chapter
Published by Sphere Books
4.12 out of 5 on Goodreads
The latest installment in the highly acclaimed, internationally bestselling Strike series finds Cormoran and Robin ensnared in another winding, wicked case.
When frantic, disheveled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity.
Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this—and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.
Robin and her business partner, Cormoran Strike, become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits – and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways . . .
The Running Grave (Exp. 2023)
Cormoran Strike #7
272,690 words, 912 pages, 18hrs 10mins to read
Published by Sphere Books
4.00 out of 5 on Goodreads
Cormoran Strike returns in The Running Grave, expected to hit the bookshelves on 26th September 2023.
We aren’t our mistakes. It’s what we do about the mistake that shows who we are.
― Robert Galbraith, Troubled Blood
Overall
Cormoran Strike novels are fantastic reads with a compelling plot throughout the series. Each of the books has a great crime that will keep you guessing. The characters are undeniably so well developed that you can’t help but enjoy reading all about them, and keeps you wanting more. If you have not yet already picked up any of these books, then you should change this now.
If you have enjoyed any of Robert Galbraith work and want to learn more about Galbraith then feel free to check out Robert’s website.
Which one is your favourite or most looking forward to picking up next?
Let us know!
Happy reading!
“Ridiculous,” he said breathlessly. “You ought to give up detecting and try fantasy writing.”
― Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo’s Calling
Tally Count
Altogether
- Total words: 1,236,365 words (1,509,055 words with The Running Grave)
- Total Chapters: 370 chapters
- Total pages: 4,135 pages
- Total reading time: 82hrs 25mins (100hrs 40mins with The Running Grave)
More of the same, but different:
Things to Note:
- Word count is an approximation.
- Amount of pages may differ due to different publications, font style and/or size etc.
- Time spent reading is generally an approximation based on the word count and the average reading time. The average reader will read 250 WPM (Words Per Minute).
- This is the original publisher of the books.
- The current Goodreads score at the time of writing.
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