I had previously read The Cuckoo’s Calling and when I heard this book was coming out, I was very excited to pick it up and get engrossed by the fascinating language and descriptions the author feeds you through the chapters. Books of the crime fiction genre always have a way of engaging readers in hopes of catching up with the mystery before it is revealed in the last chapters.
In this book, the protagonist Strike is called up by Leorna Quine, the wife of a peculiar writter who seems to have gone missing, which is not especially unusual for him. Strike and his assistant Robin embark on a journey that makes it hard for readers to put down the book in hopes of explanations, another plot twist, or more drama in the two investigators private lives.
I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.
A very captivating read, with a winter setting making it perfect for hot summer days as you imagine the action playing out. It’s a reasonably quick read that doesn’t leave the reader hanging at the end of it. The descriptions are like none other that I have read, and everything that ever confused you throughout reading the novel are well thought out and explained in due time as the protagonist himself resolves the mystery.
Quotes:
Monday-morning faces: sagging, gaunt, braced, resigned. (7)
…didn’t someone once say the unexamined life isn’t worth living? (69)
Every taint of the touristic was wiped away by the freezing November evening … (83)
Strike leaned back against the wall beside the ticket machines, his eyes fixed on a circular ceiling supported by a spider’s web of struts. 116
… the madness and occasional ecstasy. (195)
… a mixture of football and murder on his mind … (281)
Love is a mirage. (294)
You can’t plot murder like a novel. There area always loose ends in real life. (380)
aga is reading 
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