The Running Grave

Sir Colin Edensor, a retired civil servant, approaches Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott's detective agency seeking assistance extricating his son Will from the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC), which has been deemed a cult by critics but claims to be a benevolent charity. Edensor had first gone to the rival detective agency of Mitch Patterson, which handled the case poorly, so he went to Strike and Ellacott on the recommendation of acquaintance Izzy Chiswell (who was involved in an earlier case of Strike and Ellacott, recounted in Lethal White). Will, who has autism, had joined the church and cut off all contact with his family, and was believed to be living on a farm (Chapman Farm) operated by the church, leaving it only to solicit donations on the street with other church members.

As Strike studies information about UHC, he realizes that it was formed in the aftermath of the collapse of a 1980s commune, the Aylmerton Community, located at the farm which still serves as one of its retreat centres, and this earlier commune was one of the places Strike, and his half-sister Lucy, had lived as a child, as his mother Leda Strike drifted around the country. The commune had closed after its leaders were arrested for child sexual abuse, but Strike had not himself been abused in this manner. He still intensely disliked the place. When he later talks to Lucy about his plans to investigate the church, and mentions the location, he anticipates a negative reaction from her due to their shared bad experiences there, but she has an even worse reaction than he expects; she reveals that she was sexually assaulted as a child on the farm, and was led to her abuser by a girl named Mazu, who is now one of the leaders of the UHC.

Robin volunteers to infiltrate the UHC, and begins preparations by taking on a look of somebody with "more money than sense" by getting an expensive haircut with the ends of her hair dyed blue, and getting some fancy clothes from Strike's wealthy paternal half-sister Prudence. Meanwhile, both detectives start attempting to find former church members to interview, and digging up records of various past incidents connected to the church; there have been several mysterious deaths in the past, including the drowning of a 7-year-old girl in 1995, Mazu's daughter, who is now regarded as the "Drowned Prophet", central to the church's mythology. There are several other deceased church members also regarded as prophets.

The Running Grave sold 50,925 copies in its first week on sale in the UK, placing it first on the UK Official Top 50 book sales list.[2]

Joan Smith, writing in The Times, says the book reveals Rowling's "extraordinary resilience" to remain in the public eye after suffering "vicious abuse", and also shows her "intense sympathy for the underdog".[3] Jake Kerridge from The Daily Telegraph rated the book 3 out of 5 stars, calling it "some of her most gripping writing yet" but asking "did it have to be so long?"[1] Laura Wilson, writing in The Guardian, says it could have had some "judicious trimming" but was still "an immersive, and, for the most part, riveting read."[4]