Cormoran Strike — Reading Order

Robert Galbraith's (J.K. Rowling's) Cormoran Strike series features one of the best detective duos in contemporary crime fiction. Cormoran Strike is a war veteran and private detective operating out of a cheap office on Denmark Street in London. Robin Ellacott joins as his temporary secretary and quickly proves herself an indispensable investigator. Together, they take on complex cases while navigating their own complicated personal lives.

Read the books in publication order: The Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm, Career of Evil, Lethal White, Troubled Blood, The Ink Black Heart, The Running Grave, and The Hallmarked Man. Character and relationship development are cumulative across the series.

Rowling brings the same meticulous plotting and vivid characterization that defined Harry Potter to the crime genre. The mysteries are intricate and fair — all the clues are available to the reader — and each book tackles a different milieu of British society, from the fashion industry to the literary world to online harassment culture. Strike and Robin's evolving partnership is the series' greatest strength, built on mutual respect and complementary skills. The books are long and detailed (a hallmark of Rowling's writing), rewarding patient readers who enjoy inhabiting a richly drawn world where every conversation and observation might be a clue.