Fans of Cormoran Strike have had a near-agonising two year wait for the next instalment in the hugely popular series from Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling. The seventh book in the series, ‘The Running Grave’, arrived in September 2023 and it saw Robin Ellacott, Strike’s business partner, go under cover at the United Humanitarian Church to expose the cult and retrieve a young man who has been brainwashed by them. Clocking in at almost 1,000 pages, the book was a gripping read and one of the darkest of the series so far. ‘The Hallmarked Man’, the eighth book in the series, arrived earlier this month and it picks up just a few months after ‘The Running Grave’.
Robin is still dealing with the trauma of the things that happened to her when she went undercover, and she’s steadily progressing in her relationship with police officer Ryan Murphy. Strike on the other hand, is trying to find the best moment to be honest about his feelings for Robin but afraid that a declaration of love might ruin their friendship. ‘The Hallmarked Man’ throws the detectives into the middle of a case involving a dismembered body found in the vault of a shop specialising in Masonic silverware. With no head, hands or feet, and a Masonic Symbol carved into its back, the body is hard to identify and the police believe it belongs to a convicted robber.
Strike and Robin are hired by Decima Mullins, a woman who believes that the body in the vault is really that of her missing boyfriend Rupert Fleetwood. Reluctantly Strike agrees to take the case and what transpires is a complex mystery with several sub-mysteries built in. What seems like a relatively straightforward case proves to be anything but, and with Strike and Robin wrestling with their feelings for one another, things get very complicated very quickly.
Fans of Galbraith have come to expect a layered story that’s packed with plenty of action. While the body found in the vault is the main mystery, there’s so much else going on that the book quickly draws you in and refuses to let you go. With a familiar cast of characters returning including office manager Pat and detectives Barclay, Midge and Shah, Galbraith’s world is richer than ever before. Strike and Robin have continued to expand their agency to cope with the demand for their services, enlisting bolshy former police officer Kim Cochran, and there are lots of references to previous clients and cases as Easter Eggs for fans of the series.
The body in the vault opens up a whole can of worms, leading Strike and Robin down multiple lines of investigation and into other mysteries that may, or may not, be related. Part of the fun of the books is feeling like you’re working with Strike and Robin to solve the cases, and I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering every time I put the book down, trying to piece together my own theories. The mysteries are so detailed and superbly plotted, that I could barely put the book down.
Aside from the main mystery, readers will be dying to know what’s next for Strike and Robin on a romantic level. The two colleagues have been dancing around their feelings, with neither having expressed them to the other. ‘The Hallmarked Man’ finds them battling those feelings as they try to focus on their work and their private lives. Strike is convinced he’s left his declaration too late but the speed at which Robin’s relationship with Murphy is progressing panics him. From Robin’s perspective she tries to suppress her feelings, which is made even easier by some of the revelations about Strike in this book, but she’s not sure she’s fully committed to Murphy. Will fans get answers in this book? I won’t reveal but I will say that the jaw-dropping final chapter will have you desperate for book nine to arrive.
‘The Hallmarked Man’ is a superb read. Even at just over 900 pages, the book doesn’t feel flabby or over-stuffed. Galbraith has created a world that the reader wants to spend time in and I’m just as invested in the characters as I am the mysteries. Strike and Robin are two of the most compelling characters in contemporary fiction and I really hope we’ve got lots more books to come. ‘The Hallmarked Man’ is dark, twisty and endlessly addictive, and it’s one of the strongest books in the Strike series so far.
Publisher: Sphere Release date: 2nd September 2025 Buy ‘The Hallmarked Man’ now
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