Another classic and engrossing Cormoran Strike novel. At 32 hours, it is the longest one yet. Rowling continues to write stories that keep the reader on the edge of their seat, wanting more. Cormoran and Robin continue to dance around their relationship. Robert Glenister remains a brilliant narrator. ( )

Not my favourite. Although not in anyway explicit, it's very dark in content, and doesn't quite work mostly because I don't really think of religious cults in a UK setting. I know we have had them, but never quite to this extreme.

Strike and Robin get asked to investigate whether there's any chance a son can be extracted from a religious cult called UHC. This leads to a side plot where another agency messed up and Strike has to deal with the competition. There's a lot of names and 'family' connections and they all tend to blur a bit, despite being critical to the plot of knowing who had influence where. There remains a degree of telling us what Robin and Strike are thinking rather than showing, it appears to be a style that Rowling has introduced for this series, but it remains annoying. The characters storylines all progress, the focus is mostly on Robin's agency work, and Strike's personal life which balances out quite well.

It's a cruel and evil conspiracy that is uncovered, never feels fully believable and as plot device, won't appeal to any fundamentalist religionists, but I suspect Rowling's past caring at this point. I still like the characters and agency and will continue reading. ( )

Indrukwekkend boek waarin Cormoran Strike en Robin Ellacott onderzoek doen naar de partijken van de Universal Humanitarian Church. Onder het mom een kerkgenootschap te zijn, is het eigenlijk een sekte die allerlei illegale praktijken uitoefent om geld te verdienen, waar de straffen hevig zijn en waar eigenlijk niets en niemand is wat het lijkt te zijn.
Robin gaat undercover in grootste wooncentrum van de UHC in Norfolk. Ze moet proberen om de zoon van hun opdrachtgever Sir Colin Edensor, Will, op te sporen en uit het centrum te halen. Ze moet daar allerlei dingen doen die ze erg onprettig vindt. Uiteindelijk houdt ze het daar 4 maanden uit. Terwijl Cormoran ondertussen zo veel mogelijk dingen probeert uit te zoeken en oud-leden van de UHC probeert op te sporen.
In gewikkeld verhaal. Ik heb een lijst van 119 personen, met hun onderlinge verbanden, die een hoofdrol of een grote bijrol spelen en die heb ik vaak geraadpleegd om de mensen weer te kunnen plaatsen in het verhaal. Het zou makkelijk een 5 sterren boek kunnen zijn, maar het was net iets te lang naar mijn idee. ( )

Private Detective CormoranStrike is contacted by a worried father whose son,Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.
The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.
In order to try to rescue Will, Strike’s business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. ( )

2024 book #10. Robin goes undercover to help extract a client's son from a cult. I mostly enjoyed it except for the length, it was too long. There were so many clues and loose ends that when the denouement finally came I had a hard time following it (and it was pages long). ( )