Book Review - Robert Galbraith's Troubled Blood
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: September 15th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 944 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy
Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are presented with an intriguing case. Margot Bamborough disappeared in 1974. She was never found. Forty years later her daughter Anna just wants answers. She hires Cormoran and Robin to investigate the disappearance. If they turn up nothing within a year Anna has promised her wife that she will accept that she will never know what happened to her mother and move on with her life. The reason Anna reached out to Cormoran in particular is that him being a "celebrity" private investigator he might be able to interview the prime suspect in Margot's disappearance, Dennis Creed. Dennis Creed, known my the sobriquet The Essex Butcher, abducted, imprisoned, raped, and murdered at least seven women between 1968 and 1976. Margot's disappearance falling during his active years before his subsequent arrest and imprisonment in Broadmoor has always made him a person of interest. But he doesn't do interviews and he definitely doesn't answer questions. That might change if the person talking to him were famous. Creed loves publicity. But getting clearance to see Creed is going to take a while so Cormoran and Robin start by tracking down every single person directly and tangentially connected to the disappearance. This takes time as it's been over forty years. They also find leads that the cops missed, such as a connection to organized crime. But there are only so many times you can poor over the pages of The Demon of Paradise Park before you have to resort to sheer luck that a new clue will land in your lap. What's more is that Cormoran and Robin's personal lives are more out of control than ever before. Cormoran is often having to hare off to Cornwall at a moment's notice because his Aunt Joan, the woman who was more a mother to him than his own mother, is dying of Cancer. And as for his ex Charlotte, if she has her way she will really be out of his life for good this time. As for Robin, what should have been a fairly straightforward divorce from Matthew, seeing as he cheated on her, is turning into a nightmare. She wants to move on, get her money from the sale of their home, find a new signature scent, and start fresh. Will the two investigators find closure for themselves and their client or will they always be left wondering what went wrong?
When the initial buzz quickly rose to a clamor for Troubled Blood and it looked like J.K. Rowling was going all in on being a TERF I was willing to withhold my judgement until I had read the book. I fully admit she's a horrible human being but perhaps that didn't translate to her writing. Perhaps? Ever since I was young and first learned about Lewis Carroll I have been able, to an extent, to separate a book I love from the author. Of course it helps that in his case he's not profiting off my purchases. So I approached Troubled Blood with an open mind and quickly saw that all the reviews I've read have gotten it wrong. Yes, this book is transphobic. Yet the transphobia in this instance is a common murder mystery trope that needs to be retired wherein to lure in female victims a male will dress as a female so they feel safe until the realize they're not. Far more troubling to me was the homophobia, sexism, sexual harassment, and exploitation of the mentally handicapped. But again, while the way these topics were handled in the book physically repulsed me this isn't what we need to be talking about when we talk about this book. Because there's no way calling this book out on these atrocities will actually make J.K. Rowling sit up and take notice. She is unrepentant in her hate. So while yes, this book needs to be called out, she won't listen and just say it's part of "cancel culture." Therefore I want to change the narrative. This book isn't bad because of the deplorable author spewing her hate, it's just a badly written book and everything else is just extra shit piled on top. I have this feeling that when this book arrived at her publishers they realized she had finally gone all in on being a deplorable and no editor touched this book. They didn't want to wade into the cesspit that is everything about this book. The plot is boring. There is no driving force what with the case being a cold case. There is no jeopardy. Months go by between any developments and the plot just plods along. Also, why is Robin so obsessed with finding a new "signature scent?" I get that she's trying to leave her life with Matthew behind, but she's a PI, she's tailing people all the time, don't you think that a PI shouldn't announce their presence with a whiff of perfume? For an author and series I loved it took me over a month to force my way to the meandering finish. So please, hate on this book not just for the hate but for the bad writing, it's deserving of both.
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