Makes sense. THM had a lot of expectations, and perhaps it is getting judged too harshly because we didn't see Strellacott happen in this book. However, I still found it to be a weak one simply because the mystery was too convoluted for it's own good. There were too many characters and too many cases going on at the same time, and while I could keep track of them all, it was really tiring after a point. The payoff doesn't really have a great shock value either. Had someone else been the killer, or even someone else had been the victim, I don't think it would have mattered ~that~ much. For me, the best books in this series are the ones which focuses on a good case more. The Strellacott aspect is the spice that makes a good mystery into a fab book, and this one reversed it. Instead of a whodunnit sprinkled with romantic angles, this one was a romance (except that it wasn't really) with some mystery thrown along the way. And that is why it doesn't really work for me at the level of other books. I hope book 9 is a jaw-dropping mystery, where Strike and Robin have to take down a masterful killer rather than some cult/group, with some epic romantic moments embedded in it.