DNF – Lethal White (Cormoran Strike #4) by Robert Galbraith

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike’s office to ask for his help investigating a crime he thinks he witnessed as a child, Strike is left deeply unsettled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed, and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic.

Trying to get to the bottom of Billy’s story, Strike and Robin Ellacott—once his assistant, now a partner in the agency—set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike’s own life is far from straightforward: his newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been—Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

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I’m struggling to find words to write my review. In short, after 100 pages (of the 600+ page novel), I decided to stop reading the newest Cormoran Strike novel in the Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling series.

I only stop reading a handful of novels, mostly ones that I have no desire to learn what happens in the end. That rings true with Lethal White. I enjoyed how the novel picks up right away into the cliffhanger of the last novel. We learn what happens and what decision Robin makes.

Then the novel flips right into one year later. I feel that the novel had a lot to discuss and figure out and didn’t need to jump ahead. In reading a couple of chapters, I remembered that this was the same pattern as the previous novels. Nothing had changed. I didn’t want to read another novel about will they/won’t they.

The other decision to stop reading was because the mystery. A mentally distressed young man comes into the office and claims that he witnessed a strangling when he was younger. I’m sure the mystery gets better as the novel goes on, but I wasn’t gripped immediately.

Has anyone else read Lethal White and had the same feelings as me? I would love to hear your thoughts! Also, what do you think about not finishing a novel? At what point of a novel do normally call it quits? I think the novel length also had some part in it. It pained me to think of spending the next week trying to struggle through the next 500 pages of the novel. Maybe if it was only 300 pages, I would of continued reading.

1 calculator out of a potential 5. Do you normally rate novels that you DNF? It gets a 1 from me because I wasn’t interested and didn’t care. As of today, I can’t find a negative review on Goodreads, so maybe it’s just me?

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