Listen to Robert expand on Strike’s romantic attachments in The Running Grave, and whether this changes the level of commitment he shows to his investigative work.
Transcript
Well Strike, as we know, has pretty much been through a different woman in every book, other than book five, Troubled Blood, where he didn’t have any dalliances. That book was really dominated by another woman, his aunt Joan who was dying. He does… he’s not completely celibate in this book, that’s for sure. He has what I would say is probably the most reckless and stupid liaison he’s had in a long time, but there you go.
I don’t think it’s so much that he’s wanting to concentrate on his investigative work because he’s always put that first in any case and women in his life have indeed complained about that. It’s more that he is becoming aware that the woman he really wants is not one of the people he keeps having flings with. You know that’s really what’s taken the place of long-term dalliances. I think he’s now at the point where he’s thinking all or nothing. Almost, almost, he’s sort of getting there.
