This is the seventh in a series of books by Robert Galbraith (pseudonym of R.K.Rowling) about a private investigator, Cormoran Strike, and his business partner Robin Ellacott (whom, in the interests of brevity, I’ll call “the duo”). I’d read the first and fifth in the series some time ago, but gave the others a miss as I like to read a variety of authors and different types of books. And neither of those two prompted me to write a review for the Voice.
A worried father engages the duo to retrieve his son Will from the country retreat of the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC), which Will has joined and from which he refuses to have any contact with his family. In order to fulfil their mission, Strike reluctantly agrees to allow Robin to go under cover, and to join the church with a false identity.
The church projects a charitable image consistent with its name. Yet, during the several weeks Robin spends at its retreat, she witnesses such horrific acts, and is subjected to some, that she struggles to maintain her equanimity. I won’t be a plot spoiler by providing any details, but my reaction was so appalled that I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a work of fiction.
Coincidentally, while still reading the book, I read an article in the Weekend Australian Magazine about Hillsong. Admittedly, the wrongs allegedly committed by that organisation pale by comparison with those of the fictional UHC, but it did cause me to ponder on the dividing line between a church and a cult.
Eventually Robin is rescued from the retreat, without having persuaded Will to leave, but later (for a reason I won’t disclose) he does leave of his own accord. So, although the duo cannot claim credit for this outcome, their client is sufficiently impressed by their efforts that he renews their engagement with a new mission – effectively to destroy the organisation which has left Will deeply traumatised.
The rest of the book is devoted to the duo’s attempts to contact past members of UHC and to persuade them to speak of the events they witnessed while they were part of it, and of course I won’t reveal the outcome of those endeavours.
It is certainly one of the most gripping detective/thriller novels I’ve read, but there are a few reasons why I’ve not given it five stars:
- the book is 1200 pages long, thereby frustrating the urge not to put it down;
- the main plot is interspersed with details of other assignments of the detective agency, which I found somewhat distracting;
- there is much about Strike’s and Robin’s personal relationships with others, and – irritatingly for me – their unspoken feelings for each other; and
- so many characters are involved in the main and sub-plots that I found it difficult to remember how they all fitted in. Readers of a certain age might find a list of dramatis personae, at the beginning or end of the book, helpful.
The fact that all those reservations caused me to discount my rating by only half a star will, I hope, be interpreted as an enthusiastic recommendation.