I haven’t read for months and to get going again I treated myself in December to The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith, the latest in the Cormoran Strike detective fiction series (see my previous blogs on the rest of the series so far: The Ink Black Heart, Lethal White, Career of Evil, The Silkworm, The Cuckoo’s Calling and Troubled Blood).

The series picks up with Robin dating detective Ryan Murphy, much to Strike’s disgust, and with a new case brought to the agency by a man whose son has disappeared into a cult. The only way to find him and to try and get him out is for Robin to infiltrate the group, clearly a bad idea given Robin’s history of being a victim of sexual violence, but this doesn’t deter her and so begins months of going deep undercover in Chapmans Farm in Norfolk.

On the outside Strike investigates and tracks down and interviews former cult members, brooding all the while about Robin’s safety and her relationship with Murphy. This doesn’t prevent him from a ridiculous entanglement with a lawyer, which predictably he quickly regrets, and dealing with his wildly unstable ex Charlotte, a suicidal socialite.

Inside Robin has bigger problems to deal with, as she tries to find dirt on the cult, whilst avoiding being raped, uncovering child abuse, and fighting against the psychological brainwashing that threatens to suck her in. It’s only thoughts of Strike (rather than Murphy) that keep her sane.

Will she get safely out, will she and Strike bring down the powerful cult, and, more to the point, will they finally confront their feelings for each other? There is a delicious 945 pages to find out.