Lethal White
2 journalers for this copy...
Welcome to BookCrossing!
Thank you for picking up this book. If you’re new to BookCrossing and find this book and this site (www.bookcrossing.com), please make a journal entry to let me know that this book has found a good home with you. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (it's free). If you join, you’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry for this specific copy of this book (other copies of the book are travelling with their own ID number. Every copy of every book has a unique ID).
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Enjoy the site, the book and hopefully the BookCrossing community. If you’re already a BookCrossing member, thank you for picking up this book.
Happy BookCrossing!
Thank you for picking up this book. If you’re new to BookCrossing and find this book and this site (www.bookcrossing.com), please make a journal entry to let me know that this book has found a good home with you. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (it's free). If you join, you’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry for this specific copy of this book (other copies of the book are travelling with their own ID number. Every copy of every book has a unique ID).
I hope you'll join BookCrossing (doesn't cost anything to join!) and if you do, please consider using me, Cassandra2020, as your referring member. When you’ve finished reading this book and are ready to send it on its way again, make a journal entry then a release note: either 'controlled' if you are giving or sending this book to a known person, or a 'wild' release if you are leaving it somewhere hoping for anyone to catch.
Then watch its journey. You’ll be alerted by e mail each time someone makes another journal entry. It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address) and spam-free.
Enjoy the site, the book and hopefully the BookCrossing community. If you’re already a BookCrossing member, thank you for picking up this book.
Happy BookCrossing!
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith - Mixed but mostly good
Ok, let's deal with the positive first.
JK Rowling knows how to craft a story that keeps you involved and keeps the pages turning. Once the story actually gets going, it's an easy read with plenty of twists and turns and action to keep you reading (I found I was reading 100+ pages a day easily). Certainly I wasn't sure who was at the bottom of the mystery right up until the denouement.
There are two strands running through the book. A young man turns up at the agency. He has obvious mental health issues and appears to be in the middle of a psychotic episode: dirty and unkempt, looks to be sleeping rough, nervous tics and rambling about a child being murdered and buried in a pink blanket...then he takes off before Strike can get any real detail. Strike, of course, is intrigued and concerned and just has to follow up. (Having recently read Third Girl by Agatha Christie, I'm taken with how similar that beginning is!)
Around the same time, the agency is also hired by a senior politician who is being blackmailed. It's high profile but requires secrecy which is never an easy mix. It's going to involve Strike, Robin and an additional hire, Barclay, to cover all the strands and people that may be involved. The Minister in question is, of course, a Tory so there's lots of posh people with ridiculous names and nicknames.
Cue undercover work, infiltration of various groups and businesses, chasing around the country and general adventure before it all gets tied up in the last chapters. It's all so very readable which is a good job as it's 771 pages!
So. The downside.... 771 pages! As I said, the author knows how to tell a good story, but she needs to decide whether she's writing a mystery with a bit of relationship stuff or a book about the characters homelives with a mystery in the background. This has far too much about Robin and Matthew's relationship, Strike and his various girlfriends and ex's, and the unresolved emotions between Robin and Strike. It's chapter 4 before the story gets going, p67! (I normally give up on a book after 50 pages if I'm not taken with it) Everything prior to that is about the fallout from Robin's wedding at the end of the previous book. Now I know one or two points from their personal lives actually feature in the denouement, but the rest of it is unnecessary detail for me. I really don't care that much. I liked the new character Barclay. All you get to know about him is that he's Scottish, has a wife and baby at home that sometimes means he can't do a weekend stint. Perfect. That's all I need to know.
I've noticed a trend with JK Rowling - I haven't read Harry Potter as I don't have children, but I've seen them and the first is quite a slim volume and they increase in size until the last doorstep of a novel. The same seems to be happening here. As she writes the series she finds more and more to include and doesn't seem able to leave any of it out. Having checked out the next in the series, it appears to be 900+ pages. Really needs a good editor to cut out some of the superfluous detail.
Sometimes, less is more!
Ok, let's deal with the positive first.
JK Rowling knows how to craft a story that keeps you involved and keeps the pages turning. Once the story actually gets going, it's an easy read with plenty of twists and turns and action to keep you reading (I found I was reading 100+ pages a day easily). Certainly I wasn't sure who was at the bottom of the mystery right up until the denouement.
There are two strands running through the book. A young man turns up at the agency. He has obvious mental health issues and appears to be in the middle of a psychotic episode: dirty and unkempt, looks to be sleeping rough, nervous tics and rambling about a child being murdered and buried in a pink blanket...then he takes off before Strike can get any real detail. Strike, of course, is intrigued and concerned and just has to follow up. (Having recently read Third Girl by Agatha Christie, I'm taken with how similar that beginning is!)
Around the same time, the agency is also hired by a senior politician who is being blackmailed. It's high profile but requires secrecy which is never an easy mix. It's going to involve Strike, Robin and an additional hire, Barclay, to cover all the strands and people that may be involved. The Minister in question is, of course, a Tory so there's lots of posh people with ridiculous names and nicknames.
Cue undercover work, infiltration of various groups and businesses, chasing around the country and general adventure before it all gets tied up in the last chapters. It's all so very readable which is a good job as it's 771 pages!
So. The downside.... 771 pages! As I said, the author knows how to tell a good story, but she needs to decide whether she's writing a mystery with a bit of relationship stuff or a book about the characters homelives with a mystery in the background. This has far too much about Robin and Matthew's relationship, Strike and his various girlfriends and ex's, and the unresolved emotions between Robin and Strike. It's chapter 4 before the story gets going, p67! (I normally give up on a book after 50 pages if I'm not taken with it) Everything prior to that is about the fallout from Robin's wedding at the end of the previous book. Now I know one or two points from their personal lives actually feature in the denouement, but the rest of it is unnecessary detail for me. I really don't care that much. I liked the new character Barclay. All you get to know about him is that he's Scottish, has a wife and baby at home that sometimes means he can't do a weekend stint. Perfect. That's all I need to know.
I've noticed a trend with JK Rowling - I haven't read Harry Potter as I don't have children, but I've seen them and the first is quite a slim volume and they increase in size until the last doorstep of a novel. The same seems to be happening here. As she writes the series she finds more and more to include and doesn't seem able to leave any of it out. Having checked out the next in the series, it appears to be 900+ pages. Really needs a good editor to cut out some of the superfluous detail.
Sometimes, less is more!
Journal Entry 3 by Cassandra2020 at The Glencorse Centre ✔️ in Auchendinny, Scotland United Kingdom on Friday, September 16, 2022
Released 1 yr ago (9/16/2022 UTC) at The Glencorse Centre ✔️ in Auchendinny, Scotland United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Although this book is registered at www.bookcrossing.com, you don't have to be a member. It's perfectly OK to just take the book and enjoy it. Of course, if you can visit the website and let us know that you've picked it up, that would be even better - you don't even have to join, you can add your comments anonymously - you can also post your review when you've read it, then return it or pass it on to someone else.
If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!
If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!
Retrieved from obcz
Journal Entry 5 by Cassandra2020 at Little Free Library - Roslin in Roslin, Scotland United Kingdom on Saturday, November 26, 2022
Released 1 yr ago (11/26/2022 UTC) at Little Free Library - Roslin in Roslin, Scotland United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Although this book is registered at www.bookcrossing.com, you don't have to be a member. It's perfectly OK to just take the book and enjoy it. Of course, if you can visit the website and let us know that you've picked it up, that would be even better - you don't even have to join, you can add your comments anonymously - you can also post your review when you've read it, then return it or pass it on to someone else.
If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!
If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!
Reserved for BC Falkirk Convention
Journal Entry 7 by Cassandra2020 at Arnotdale House OBCZ in Falkirk, Scotland United Kingdom on Thursday, May 25, 2023
Released 9 mos ago (6/16/2023 UTC) at Arnotdale House OBCZ in Falkirk, Scotland United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Although this book is registered at www.bookcrossing.com, you don't have to be a member. It's perfectly OK to just take the book and enjoy it. Of course, if you can visit the website and let us know that you've picked it up, that would be even better - you don't even have to join, you can add your comments anonymously - you can also post your review when you've read it, then return it or pass it on to someone else.
If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!
If you do join Bookcrossing, you'll be able to see what happens to it afterwards - for ever!
This book hopped in my bag at the Convention in Falkirk. I am looking forward to reading it.