Relationships in Strike
Strange night to have a dog fight, Valentine’s Day,’ commented Robin, once Strike had hung up.
The Hallmarked Man, Robert Galbraith
‘I don’t think we’re dealing with born romantics here.’
With the approach of St Valentine’s Day, we are catching up on the romantic lives of Robin Ellacott and Cormoran Strike through the years they’ve worked together. As the agency investigates the identity of the murdered man found in a silver vault in central London (The Hallmarked Man), their latest investigation, they spend the evening of Valentine’s Day together observing a dangerous man for a different client. Perhaps the unromantic setting is appropriate. Strike’s history seems to be catching up with him, and Robin’s might be in danger of repeating itself. At the same time, they remain confused and conflicted about their feelings for each other. So how did they get here, and what comes next?
It had been, in Robin’s view, the most perfect proposal, ever, in the history of matrimony.
The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith
While investigating the murder of model Lula Landry (The Cuckoo’s Calling), Robin and Strike aren’t looking for romance. Strike is fresh from his final horrific fight with his ex-girlfriend and fiancée Charlotte Campbell, and Robin is newly engaged to her long-time boyfriend Matthew Cunliffe, the only man she has ever dated. By the time Lula’s murderer is unmasked, both have experienced a shift in perspective. Strike has had an ego-boosting one night stand with super-model, Ciara, and Robin has been disappointed to discover Matthew is resentful of her new vocation for investigative work. He accuses her of maintaining a ‘ludicrous air of mystery’ about the case, and wants her to get a safer, less demanding, and higher paying job in HR. But Robin refuses to give up her new career. Matthew discovers his fiancée, usually so conciliatory and amiable, remains aloof and angry when he belittles her new job, and her new boss.
He did not much like the reflection of himself he saw in her large mouse-like eyes.
The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith
Strike’s first almost relationship after breaking up with Charlotte is with publisher Nina Lascelles. He needs Nina’s help as he tries to discover what has happened to gothic author Owen Quine (The Silkworm), and after she gets him in to an exclusive publishing party, and copies the scandalous manuscript of Bombyx Mori for him, he impulsively, he asks her to the birthday dinner his sister Lucy is throwing for him. He wakes up in Nina’s bed the following morning, realises it’s Charlotte’s birthday and leaves, pretending he has to work. When the case becomes a murder enquiry, he goes back to her, then again when he needs distraction on the day his ex-fiancée Charlotte marries Jago Ross. Then he doesn’t return her calls. She is understandably frosty when they meet as the investigation closes. He likes her, but insufficiently, he admits, to treat her with common consideration.
As they search for the truth behind Quine’s scandalous last work, Robin insists that Matthew and Strike finally meet. She hopes they’ll like each other, which will make her home life easier. Instead, she has the unpleasant experience of seeing Matthew through Strike’s eyes.
Strike, who craved a pint of Doom Bar, drank burgundy of Elin’s choosing and wished, despite having smoked more than a pack that day, that he could have a cigarette. Meanwhile, his dinner companion launched into a barrage of property talk.
Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith
At a party at Nick and Ilsa Herbert’s house, Strike meets beautiful ex-professional violinist and broadcaster, Elin Toft. The relationship goes well at first, though Strike knows Ilsa doesn’t like her much. Neither does Robin, partly because Elin looks like Matthew’s old university friend, Sarah Shadlock, and partly because she once heard Elin refer to her as Strike’s secretary.
Robin’s wedding planning is interrupted by the delivery at Denmark Street of a severed human leg (Career of Evil), and looks as if it will be called off entirely when Robin discovers Matthew slept with Sarah while they were at university.
As Strike searches his past for the identity of a sadistic killer, he finds his relationship with Elin is beginning to grate. He notices he’s much happier talking nonsense with Robin than he is making forced conversation with his strangely unimaginative girlfriend. He might like her more than he did Nina, but not enough to care very much about her purchase of a new flat.
Robin decides to go ahead with the wedding, and as the investigation becomes ever darker, Strike and Elin have a final disastrous date at La Gavroche. When Robin’s wedding day arrives though, it looks as if Strike’s relationship with her is over too. Strike races to Yorkshire to attend and repair the breach. Matthew is not the only one to notice that Robin looks happy for the first time on her wedding day when Strike makes a noisy entrance during the ceremony.
Lorelei opened the door, smiled good-naturedly at the familiar sight of him on the phone, kissed him on the mouth, relieved him of his wine and returned to the kitchen, from which a welcome smell of Pad Thai was issuing.
Lethal White, Robert Galbraith
Lorelei Bevan and Strike meet at Eric Wardle’s house, and for months he enjoys the home comforts of his relationship with the stylish and independent shop owner. After injury on the job forces him to say at Lorelei’s flat for several days (Lethal White), Strike realises she is no longer happy with a no-strings attached relationship. He likes her, but is only sorry when she says, ‘I love you’, knowing he cannot reciprocate.
Robin finds out on her wedding day that Matthew deleted Strike’s messages unsacking her, and she is planning on getting an annulment. Then Matthew gets ill on their honeymoon, and her pity for him convinces her to try again. As the investigation into the Chiswell family continues, Robin feels trapped in her marriage, seeing her decision to stay with Matthew as cowardice disguised as compassion. Proof of Matthew’s infidelity finally ends the marriage, and she escapes in a minicab to a friend’s sofa.
As Robin’s marriage collapses, Lorelei loses patience, reminding Strike if he wants a hot meal and a shag with no human emotions involved, there are restaurants and brothels.
‘He’s my oldest mate,’ Strike corrected her. ‘My best mate … ’
Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
For a split-second he wondered whether he was going to say it, but the whisky had lifted the guard he usually kept upon himself: why not say it, why not let go?
‘ … is you.’
During the investigations into the disappearance of Margot Bamborough (Troubled Blood), Robin is struggling through her divorce and all Strike is dealing with the final illness of his aunt Joan. The pressures, personal and professional, lead to a fight outside Robin’s flat, and reassessments of their past and present relationships. After the case is closed, causing a sensation in the press, Strike tries to make up for some of his neglect of his partner with a proper birthday present and drinks at the Ritz. The evening leads to a near kiss, but Robin panics and the moment passes. Strike, shocked at the rejection, thinks Robin doesn’t find him attractive at all. Robin, hating the idea that Strike might regret kissing her, tries to suppress her true feelings for him.
On the evidence of what she knew about Strike’s past love life, that was what he liked: women who played the game with an insouciance Robin had never learned.
The Ink Black Heart, Robert Galbraith
Strike begins the new year by kissing jewellery designer, Madeleine Courson-Miles, at an exclusive London club while Robin dodges the attentions of a divorcee she meets on a skiing holiday.
Then the detectives agree to try and discover the identity of ‘Anomie’ an online troll who harassed murdered artist Edie Ledwell (The Ink Black Heart). Strike’s relationship with Madeleine follows a familiar pattern. He finds some comfort and pleasure in a liaison with another beautiful and successful woman but is unable to give Madeleine the relationship she wants. His ex-fiancé, Charlotte, takes the opportunity to cause trouble, casually telling Robin about the affair, and playing on Madeleine’s paranoia. The relationship ends messily, leaving Strike wounded in his good leg by a stiletto heel.
Robin realises her feelings for Strike are profound, but decides he has no romantic interest in her. She throws herself into her work, and working undercover as Jessica Robins, fakes a level of sexual experience and confidence she does not have. Having convinced herself she is the most romantically inept woman in London early in the investigation, she later finds the bravery to tell Met Officer, Ryan Murphy, she’d be glad to go on a date with him.
As Strike recovers in hospital from the wounds received in the final confrontation with Edie Ledwell’s killer, he learns about the date, and realises how miserable the idea of Robin being with anyone else makes him. And what that means.
Unlike the private detective, who resembled a broken-nosed Beethoven, with dark, tightly curling hair and a naturally surly expression, Murphy was classically good looking, with high cheekbones and wavy light brown hair.
The Running Grave, Robert Galbraith
Just before they begin their investigations of the Universal Humanitarian Church (The Running Grave), Strike sleeps with Bijou Watkins and refuses to listen to his friend Ilsa Herbert when she tells him it’s a bad idea. In the following weeks, he discovers how right Ilsa was, as the encounter with the man-eating lawyer brings chaos in its wake.
After years of struggling with a difficult marriage and her feelings for her business partner, Robin is now with Ryan Murphy. She hopes the CID officer will understand her work and her commitment to it far better than Matthew, and in the run up to her going undercover at the Universal Humanitarian Church the relationship is going well. She is though aware of a certain guardedness between them. Ryan is in Alcoholics Anonymous and doesn’t talk about his drinking years. He also gives Robin a sanitised version of the break-up of his first marriage. Equally, Robin takes a long time to tell him about the assault which ended her university career and is careful not to talk about Strike too much. She also doesn’t share how much Matthew’s jealousy of Strike contributed to the break-up of their marriage.
Strike, selfishly, is hopeful that an extended period of undercover work might put some strain on the relationship. Certainly, Ryan doesn’t like the idea of Robin being gone so long and in constant danger, and he shows flashes of jealousy.
Charlotte Campbell, in the midst of an affair with a property billionaire, makes increasingly desperate attempts to reconnect with Strike and starts leaving abusive messages of the office answer machine. Pat, the office manager thinks her accusations of abuse against Strike are made up nonsense. He might be a grumpy sod, Pat says, but she can’t see him knocking a woman about. Whilst Robin is fighting to retain her sanity amid her undercover work, Strike is left trying to make sense of his long, complex relationship with Charlotte after some difficult news.
When Robin returns, traumatised and exhausted from her time undercover, Ryan is supportive and she is very glad to see him again. On the other hand, he continues to show signs of jealousy and possessiveness which remind her uncomfortably of Matthew. She also suspects he’s been winding up her mother, Linda, about the dangers her work entails.
There’s a distance between us sometimes and I don’t know if that’s just who you are, and this is how you love, or whether you’re fooling both of us about what you really feel.
The Hallmarked Man, Robert Galbraith
As the detectives work to uncover the identity of the man found in the vault of Ramsay Silver (The Hallmarked Man), Strike is dealing with the fallout from his past relationships. Journalist Dominic Culpepper, a former contact, has started publishing slanderous articles about Strike and his relationships with contacts and sources. His cousin, Nina Lascelles, is almost certainly providing him with useful quotes.
The pressures on Strike are coming from inside the agency too. Their new hire, Kim Cochran does exemplary work, but Robin doesn’t like her and Strike too realises her behaviour could lead to problems. As the investigation continues, Strike is also trying to find the right time to admit his feelings to Robin. Despite his worries though, he makes time to keep an eye on Eric Wardle, whose split from his wife has left him depressed. He also finds himself caring for a very ugly fish, and as the investigation and the attacks of the press reach dangerous new heights, Strike is forced to revisit another relationship which has caused him great pain in the past.
Robin’s relationship with the kind, handsome and intelligent Ryan Murphy has grown complicated. He is supportive when Robin discovers some difficult news and is eager to buy a house with her. Though Robin feels she should want to move in with him, she is shocked to find she’s relieved when they are gazumped.
Ryan’s problems at work and the resulting pressure on him lead to strange flashes of temper, and Robin is angered by his comments about Strike and his continuing habit of gossiping about her boss with her mother. Added to that, she begins to suspect Ryan is not telling her everything about his work or being honest about how he is coping with the stress.
A cancelled trip, an exceptional Christmas present, a meal on the island of Sark, and a terrifying end to the investigation lead to another turning point, but what lies ahead remains another mystery Strike and Robin must grapple with.
