JK Rowling strikes back with Lethal White!

JK Rowling is rarely out of the spotlight. Lately that’s been due to controversial comments she made on Twitter. However, she and her fans will be hoping writing of a different kind is about to overshadow those.

On September 15, the fifth book in her detective series, which she writes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, is set to be published. Troubled Blood sees its central characters, Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, tackling a 40-year-old cold case.

Before that, Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger return as Strike and Robin in this eagerly awaited four-part adaptation of Lethal White, Troubled Blood’s predecessor and the fourth novel to feature the much-loved characters.

“Lethal White is the story of Strike’s investigation into two families, which lead him quite deep into the past,” says Tom Edge, who has written the screenplay. “On the one hand, you have the Chiswell family, headed up by a classic Shires Tory, a ‘pater familias’ who has four children, one of whom died in the Iraq war. They have a grand, rambling estate and a London home. But all is not well beneath the surface.

“There’s another family tied to them, the Knight family. There are two brothers: Jimmy and Billy Knight. Billy, the younger of the two, is very mentally unwell, and he shows up unannounced at Strike’s office in the midst of a real emotional crisis. He’s haunted by a memory from his childhood when he witnessed a little girl being strangled in ritualistic fashion, then buried behind his father’s cottage. Strike begins to unpick the connections that lie between these two families, which takes us primarily into the world of politics.

“It’s a process of them exploring quite a deep trauma, the weight of which is carried on both sides by these families as they try to escape their own pasts.”

The case itself is intriguing, but as the previous series ended with Robin tying the knot with the clearly unsuitable Matthew while gazing at Strike, viewers are hoping the relationship between the central characters develops further.

Edge isn’t giving the game away, but he does say, “Strike and Robin are forced to face quite a few things from their own recent pasts and relationships. What we see, in a sense, is an attempt by both of them to make their respective relationships with other people work, while keeping their eyes off each other.”

“Robin and Strike have captured so many hearts and minds, mine included!” smiles Grainger, who is clearly just as hooked on the characters and their relationship as the millions who have read the books and seen the series. “It’s as if the audience knows better than they do how much they love and respect each other. I think we’re all rooting for them.”

When Lethal White begins, Robin is still with Matthew, while Strike has a new flame, Lorelei, and his ex-girlfriend Charlotte never seems to be too far away.

“I want to know what’s going to go on with Strike and Charlotte,” admits Grainger. “She’s far too interesting a character to not get to know more of.

“Robin might have to wait for a bit…”

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