平装, 664 pages
Chinese language
Published March 31, 2021 by 人民文学出版社.
摇滚明星的私生子、曾在阿富汗失去了一条腿的退伍军人科莫兰•斯特莱克为谋生，在伦敦开了一家侦探事务所。一天，一位麻烦缠身的年轻人比利来到侦探事务所，委托科莫兰•斯特莱克帮助调查他小时候目睹的一场儿童谋杀案。虽然比利精神状态不好，记不起许多具体的细节，但他和他的故事具有一定的真实感。未等斯特莱克进一步盘问，比利便惊慌失措地离开了办公室。与此同时，又有保守党议会成员被敲诈勒索的案件出现，这起案件与比利所述的案件貌似有着千丝万缕的联系，为了深入调查，斯特莱克召回漂亮、聪明的女助手罗宾，他们再次联手，踏上惊险刺激的探案之旅……
《致命的白色》是继全球畅销书《布谷鸟的呼唤》《蚕》《罪恶生涯》之后，“科莫兰•斯特莱克推理系列”的第4部，被称为迄今为止极具野心的罗伯特•加尔布雷思小说，它构造了一个又一个扣人心弦的谜团。
I enjoyed it. Some of the connections were too convenient but overall, it made me happy. I can't help but love Cormoran and Robin. Not necessarily together but as individuals, I love them.
Every Cormoran Strike book has a distinct personality. Cuckoo's Calling was about methodical procedure, Silkworm was a classic whodunit, Career of Evil was "personal peril/serial killer". Lethal White, for much of the first half, is entirely focused on the slowly-heating non-romance of the principals; there's barely any detecting for the early chapters.
Since the previous book ended in a way that suggested this "will they/won't they" thing was heading in the "they won't" direction, much of Lethal White involves resetting that situation. Galbraith clearly isn't in a hurry to come to a resolution, but she doesn't seem inclined to keep that suspense unending.
When the book finally gets to the detecting, it's an interesting, rather involved case of blackmail and politics with a variety of fairly interesting characters. Although I wouldn't say I was as drawn by the mystery in as I was for the first two.
Still, a nice …
Every Cormoran Strike book has a distinct personality. Cuckoo's Calling was about methodical procedure, Silkworm was a classic whodunit, Career of Evil was "personal peril/serial killer". Lethal White, for much of the first half, is entirely focused on the slowly-heating non-romance of the principals; there's barely any detecting for the early chapters.
Since the previous book ended in a way that suggested this "will they/won't they" thing was heading in the "they won't" direction, much of Lethal White involves resetting that situation. Galbraith clearly isn't in a hurry to come to a resolution, but she doesn't seem inclined to keep that suspense unending.
When the book finally gets to the detecting, it's an interesting, rather involved case of blackmail and politics with a variety of fairly interesting characters. Although I wouldn't say I was as drawn by the mystery in as I was for the first two.
Still, a nice return to form after that annoying serial-killer thing.
Lethal White opens where Career of Evil ended, at the wedding of Robin Ellacott to her long-time fiancé, where events soon conspire to establish a subplot of jarred relationships which threads its way alongside the main storyline (building on a will/won't they that fans of Moonlighting will be familiar with).
Even in handy paperback format Lethal White is a weighty tome, one that offers hours of reading pleasure but doesn't lend itself well to the daily commute. Despite the increase in pages from the previous book (and resulting strain on my already sore back from lugging it to work and back), the latest tale thankfully doesn't have the same tendency to wander away with the plot which the third book suffers with. Recommended.
DNF. From what I did read/listen to, way too much time was wasted on the same old Robin/Matthew drama that we have already been dealing with for three entire books. It's just getting old at this point. Then there's the build-up to a Strike/Robin relationship which is just not what I want from these books. There's so much time wasted on all the relationship drama that it felt like it took forever to get to the actualy mystery. What a waste of time.
I loved this book. As usual with the author, the characters are well rounded and developed, the plot is complex and intriguing and I was equally looking forward to know the ending and happy to savour each page. Highly recommended.
Somewhere between books 3 and 4 I lost interest in the characters. That doesn't make this a bad book, but it makes it more obvious that these aren't particularly good mysteries.
The latest installment of the Cormoran Strike series did not disappoint. Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling) has crafted an impressively complex murder plot, as well as a family saga, a bit of culture, and an update on the personal lives of Cormoran and Robin. In other words, everything I wanted.
Bravo! I can hardly wait for the next one...
