Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As with JK’s other mystery novels, this is well-constructed. The pacing is superb; the emotional beats fall right where they’re supposed to. The characters are realistic and compelling, although not fascinating in their own right.
Lethal White is halfway through the romantic arc at the center of the series. We all know Cormoran and Robin are going to end up together. We all know Matthew is a jerk. Everything is inevitable, and we’re watching the progression as it happens. But it’s satisfying, in a certain way, and it moves the story along.
This novel has an interesting quality. Since Oedipus Rex, a lot of mystery novels have focused on long-past crimes. The sins of the past making themselves felt in the present. Generational curses, excavated and exorcised. That way, the detective can solve the mystery with wisdom, rather than mere cleverness. It’s almost a core principle of structuring one of these.
And this novel seems like a recapitulation of that principle. Scenes of violence dimly remembered by a child. Something about execution equipment. But it turns out that the crimes of the past aren’t that bad. They’re wicked, sure, but not murder. And certainly not as bad as we imagine. They’ve grown in power over the years, and by contemporary re-interpretation. It’s the crimes of the present that the forces of good actually need to deal with.
This is one more example of my Rowling opinion: When she has an established literary structure to work within, she excels.