Matthew Cunliffe

Both born and raised in Masham, Matthew and Robin became boyfriend and girlfriend in Sixth Form at school, because he tells Strike ‘she was the only girl with any brains who was fanciable’ (The Silkworm). They stayed together throughout university, and he was kind and supportive after the attack which ended Robin’s university career, then Robin moved down to London to follow Matthew in his accountancy position, not realising that her own career as a private detective lay in waiting for her there. The night before starting her job with Strike, Matthew – normally discreet and not particularly romantic – proposes to Robin in public, on the steps at Piccadilly Circus, a move she finds delightfully out of character for him.

He wasn’t devoid of kindness: he felt guilty when he did wrong. It was simply that what Matthew considered right was so heavily coloured by what other people did, what other people considered acceptable and desirable.

Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith

Matthew isn’t keen on Robin’s job with Strike. Initially casting doubt on Strike’s credentials as a detective – “…anyone can do that. Anyone can google people” – he soon becomes jealous and feels threatened by him, as well as resenting her long hours and low pay. He uses Robin’s past experience of violent assault to try to convince her the job isn’t safe, or good for her, but that only convinces Robin to fight harder for the career she has secretly always hoped for.

…that little pocket of insecurity just beneath the smooth surface that made them overcompensate, and sometimes overreach.

The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith

Matthew and Robin’s relationship is bumpy: at one point their wedding looks unlikely when secrets from Matthew’s past crop up; just before they marry Matthew attempts to sabotage Robin and Strike’s working relationship by intercepting messages on her phone (Career of Evil). When Robin finds out, it looks as if their marriage is over before it has even begun, but Matthew convinces her to try again. Though Robin tries repeatedly to balance her husband’s fragile ego with the job that means everything to her, the cracks in their relationship reappear. Once Robin realises he is sleeping with Sarah Shadlock, his friend from university, she leaves him and asks for a divorce (Lethal White). He drags out the process as long as possible, but when Sarah becomes pregnant, he agrees to the settlement and marries her (Troubled Blood). Robin’s brother and sister-in-law meet them in the local pub after their son, William, is born, and Jenny declares her so smug (The Ink Black Heart).