TROUBLED BLOOD

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is visiting his family in Cornwall when he is approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother, Margot Bamborough - who went missing in mysterious circumstances in 1974. Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike. As Strike and Robin investigate Margot''s disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly . . . A breathtaking, labyrinthine epic, Troubled Blood is the fifth Strike and Robin novel and the most gripping and satisfying yet. Praise for the Strike series: ''A blistering piece of crime writing'' Sunday Times ''The work of a master storyteller '' Daily Telegraph '' Unputdownable '' Daily Express ''Highly inventive storytelling'' Guardian ''Superb . . . an ingenious whodunnit'' Sunday Mirror ''Come for the twists and turns and stay for the beautifully drawn central relationship'' Independent ''Outrageously entertaining '' Financial Times