He felt hungry and in need of relaxation.
The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith
Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott don’t get much chance to relax, and holidays are rare. Robin’s luxury honeymoon with Matthew in the Maldives is a disaster, as is their expensive anniversary visit to Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. She manages to get away after her divorce once, skiing over New Year in Zermatt, and enjoys the food and having eight hours sleep a night. Even that trip comes at a cost though – she has to spend the next few months avoiding the attentions of Hugh Jacks, a man she met there, while uncovering the killer of artist Edie Ledwell (The Ink Black Heart). As the long, punishing investigation into the disappearance of Margot Bamborough unfolds (Troubled Blood), Strike spends as much time as he can in the pretty coastal town of St Mawes, but he is caring for his aunt Joan after her cancer diagnosis rather than holidaying along with the many tourists who fill the streets over the summer.
The partners at the agency are managing their growing reputation and workforce, and their work is not just a job – it is a vocation for both of them. Still, with the bank holiday upon us, we have to ask, what do Strike and Robin do when they find a moment to relax?
Romance
‘I’m sorry, I can’t come,’ said Robin, ‘Ryan’s got theatre tickets.’
The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith
‘Ah,’ said Strike, reaching for his vape pen. ‘OK, just thought I’d ask.’
‘Sorry,’ said Robin.
‘No problem, it’s your day off,’ said Strike.
Robin’s relationship with Matthew soured when she started working for Strike, but now she is divorced and seeing the handsome and attentive DCI Ryan Murphy, she might find some comfort in romance. Strike notes, unhappily, how Robin laughs at his jokes, and cooks him dinner, and Robin enjoys having a sex life again. There is still a certain guardedness in their relationship though, and the enforced separation necessitated by Robin’s long and gruelling stint undercover at the Universal Humanitarian Church proves a strain (The Running Grave). Ryan also wants to have children, but Robin is not sure her work is compatible with motherhood. She has explained to Strike that she doesn’t want to be torn between the job and family. Ryan, seeing her holding her godson, can’t help remarking that holding a baby suits her.
Strike lit a cigarette and thought back over all the women there had been since he’d left Charlotte.
Lethal White, Robert Galbraith
Strike, recovering from his relationship with his ex-fiancée Charlotte, has a series of girlfriends over the years as the agency grows. Given his devotion to his job though, it’s not surprising that these relationships don’t last long or end well. Strike enjoys the pleasures of sex, interesting conversation and the relief and release of a Friday night, but work is always his priority and that means missed dates and ignored calls. When Lorelei, the longest lasting of his girlfriends, tells him she loves him, he can’t say the same to her, even after her practical help and gentle affection.
Bath and a Book
Had her day gone as planned, Robin Ellacott would have been tucked up in bed in her rented flat in Earl’s Court at this moment, fresh from a long bath, her laundry done, reading a new novel.
Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
Robin understands the pleasures of a long bath, though sometimes as when trailing their client’s husband, Tufty, to discover the secrets of his busy love live, she doesn’t get to enjoy one (Troubled Blood). Though her brother gives her bath oils for her birthday, when she does get to slide, with a sigh of pleasure, into a hot bath, it’s full of jasmine scented bubbles instead, and she hasn’t quite stopped working. She doesn’t take a novel with her, but the Demon of Paradise Park, a book about the serial killer Dennis Creed, and reads holding it clear of the hot foamy water.
Football
He was idly pondering Arsenal’s chances of winning the cup when a series of crashes directly overhead, which made the pendant light sway very slightly, made him look up.
Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
Strike has been an Arsenal fan since his earliest youth, in imitation of his uncle Ted, though he’s never discovered why Ted, a Cornishman through and through, supports a London team. Strike used to collect football stickers and even had an Arsenal Subbuteo set when he was a child, and now when he needs relaxation he often turns to the sport.
The build-up to an Arsenal vs Spurs match plays in the background as he starts to read the stolen manuscript of Bombyx Mori, but as he gets sucked into the obscene, nightmarish story, he misses most of the second half (The Silkworm). Thinking about Arsenal’s match against Aston Villa during the subsequent investigation into Owen Quine’s death, he misses the fact he is being watched by a hooded figure, dressed in black. Later, as Strike’s aunt Joan grows increasingly sick, he and Ted watch Arsenal playing Bayern Munich, but in face of her illness the Champions League is not the pleasure and distraction it normally would be (Troubled Blood).
Friends
‘Is that where you’re going to stay?’ Robin asked. ‘With Nick and Ilsa?’
Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith
They were two of Strike’s oldest friends. She had met and liked both of them on a couple of visits to the office.
Though Strike has known Nick and Ilsa since childhood – they met at his eighteenth birthday party – Robin becomes equally close to them while working at the agency. They offer a place of safety to Strike when he needs to avoid the press haunting Denmark Street, and to Robin when she leaves Matthew, as well as introducing her to her flatmate, Max. They also provide food and company to both partners in their flat in Battersea. After the investigations into the mysteries surrounding the Chiswell family are concluded, it’s natural for them to meet at Nick and Ilsa’s place for curry and beers (Lethal White). When Nick and Ilsa have their longed-for son, Robin and Strike are both godparents. Ilsa’s attempts to match make between Robin and Strike though can make Robin uncomfortable, and Strike also get irritated with Ilsa when she tries to warn him away from a disastrous liaison with a woman called Bijou Watkins – an encounter which causes trouble for the whole agency (The Running Grave).
Robin and Vanessa Ekwensi, a policewoman who she meets after being sent a severed leg (Career of Evil), build a friendship going to cheap restaurants and the cinema, talking work, clothes and politics, and when her relationship with Matthew falls apart Vanessa has her back. She offers Robin her sofa and satisfying stories of taking revenge on unfaithful partners. She also recommends Midge as a contractor, but when she arrives at Robin’s birthday drinks with an engagement ring, Robin worries they will drift apart. She also keeps trying to persuade Robin to go on Tinder.
The Pub
A pint, a hot day in August, a well-paid job, food on the way and Robin…
Lethal White, Robert Galbraith
Interviewing the Chiswell family at their house in the country gives Strike and Robin the chance to have a lunch at a quintessentially English pub, The White Horse near Uffington. The country inn is the very image of picture-postcard England, a white, timbered building with leaded bay windows, moss-covered slates on the roof and climbing red roses around the door and both partners, Strike particularly, enjoys it there, even as they talk over the case (Lethal White). The pub does not need to be picture perfect for Robin and Strike to relax in one though. Away from the distractions of the office, Robin and Strike often talk through their cases, or find solace in pubs around London, particularly Strike’s favourite, the exuberantly decorated Tottenham, now called The Flying Horse. As an Arsenal fan, Strike thoroughly approves of the rebrand.
Seaside
At last they saw what Strike had felt the need to see: a wide expanse of flat ocean, the colour of chalcedony, beneath a periwinkle sky.
Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
When Robin was a child, she used to spend summers with her aunt in Skegness, so when the search for Steve Douthwaite, former admirer of missing doctor Margot Bamborough takes her and Strike to the seaside town, the visit is tinged with nostalgia. Robin tells Strike about donkey rides, warns him about the bracing air, and shares the pleasure of the town’s superior fish and chips – though she doesn’t expect him to have his with mushy peas. The interview done, Strike is relaxed enough to break into song, and even thinks about buying Robin a stuffed donkey before castigating himself for acting like a teenager on a first date.
The partners end up by the sea again when on the trail of Edie Ledwell’s murderer. This time, rather than being surrounded by acres of beach balls, keyrings, cheap jewellery, sunglasses, buckets of candyfloss, fudge and plush toys, they end up in the picturesque Kent coast town of Whitstable, full of curio shops, art galleries and timber framed houses. Careful of returning to London with the threat of the Halvening, they spend the night at the Marine Hotel, a long red-brick building with white timber balconies. Robin continues the investigation online with a glass of wine and a sea view, as she waits for Strike in the restaurant. By the time Strike has joined her and their food arrives, it looks as if Robin has made a major break in the case. They enjoy the rest of the evening swapping inconsequential talk, jokes and laughter, surprisingly relaxed for two people who have been recently sent a bomb.
So football or a bath aside, it seems Robin and Strike are most relaxed and refreshed when they spend time with each other…
