Charlotte Campbell

His friends and family had viewed Charlotte with everything from mistrust to loathing, while hers had always considered Strike, the illegitimate son of an infamous rockstar, as one more manifestation of Charlotte’s need to shock and rebel.

Lethal White, Robert Galbraith

We first meet Charlotte after a blazing row with Strike in his Denmark Street office…but their story together started way before that. Beautiful, clever, upper-class, and (sometimes) funny, Charlotte Campbell was Strike’s on and off again girlfriend of 16 years. Beneath the ice cold, expensively fashionable and Shalimar-scented exterior, Charlotte has a perennial need for lies, sabotage and conflict. Her calculating ways and constant manipulation are what finally prompts Strike to walk out on her (The Cuckoo’s Calling).

The couple met at Oxford University where Charlotte was studying classics and Strike was reading history, when Charlotte decided to annoy her then boyfriend, aristocrat Jago Ross, by leaving a party with Strike. Both from dysfunctional families – Charlotte’s is full of addiction and mental illness – and drawn together by an intense attraction, they had moments of intense happiness over the sixteen years they were sometimes together, and sometimes apart, such as the days surrounding their last birthdays together when they agreed a date to marry. Charlotte has told Strike he is the only place she’s ever felt safe, and the memory of her arriving in the hospital after his amputation, is one of Strike’s happiest. Nevertheless, beautiful, clever, volatile and damaged Charlotte’s jealousy, insecurity, and controlling nature caused endless drama. She hated his work – both in the army and after it. Ilsa, one of Strike’s oldest friends, gives the stories of Charlotte she shares with Robin titles which sound like cheap thrillers: the Night of the Bread Knife, the Incident of the Black Lace Dress and the Blood-Stained Note. Dave Polworth refers to Charlotte as ‘Milady Berserko’. Still, Strike has never said ‘I love you’ to any other women he’s dated.

Just two weeks after Strike and Charlotte part ways, Charlotte gets engaged to Jago Ross, in spite of the fact she had heard about his alcoholism and violence through the blue-blood network. Strike is sure she expects him to rescue her from the marriage, but he keeps his distance (The Silkworm). After the wedding and while pregnant with twins, Charlotte engineers a meeting with Strike when she tells him she wishes the children were his (Lethal White). Still a danger to herself and those near her, she continues to contact Strike after the children are born and tries to involve herself in Strike’s life. Strike tries to help her in emergencies but refuses to be drawn back in (Troubled Blood). When her marriage sours Charlotte involves him in her divorce, causing trouble for the agency and stress for the overworked subcontractors, as well as dripping poison into his relationship with jewellery designer Madeleine (The Ink Black Heart). Charlotte, who is extremely perceptive, grows increasingly jealous of Robin, texting Strike that ‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt so envious in my life as I am of that girl Robin.’ When Strike refuses to give her his new mobile number, she leaves messages on the office answering machine. Her life after Jago continues to be splashed over the newspapers as she dates then dramatically breaks up with a millionaire property developer, and she manages to ambush Strike again, beautiful as ever with another dramatic announcement while he is investigating the Universal Humanitarian Church (The Running Grave). But once again, Strike walks away.