Troubled Blood

 Troubled Blood is the fifth book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling). Strike and Robin are partners of the detective agency set up by Strike in the first book in the series.The firm now has three subcontractors on staff plus Pat who does the admin work and all the staff are busy on a variety of cases. Strike is then approached by the daughter of a woman who was probably murdered forty years ago to try and find out what happened to her mother. This is the first cold case handled by the agency and Strike and Robin accept the challenge.

The disappearance of Dr Margot Bamborough occupies the team for more than a year, along with the other cases on which they are working. The more that Strike and Robin investigate the longer the list of possible suspects grows. After forty years many of the people they wish to talk to have died or disappeared making the challenge of finding what really happened more difficult.

Strike and Robin also have issues in their private lives requiring their attention. The aunt who looked after Strike when he was a boy is dying from cancer and he makes a number of trips to Cornwall to visit his aunt uncle. Meanwhile, Robin's husband is determined to make their divorce proceedings as difficult as possible. Strike also keeps receiving messages from family members wanting him to attend a function for his father's band's new album which is about to be released. As Strike has only seen his father twice in his life he declines the invitations. 

This novel therefore largely focuses on the lives of the two main characters as well as the cases they are endeavouring to solve. It is a good read even though at 927 pages it is a hefty tome.