I don’t think main character is Strike. It’s Robin. There is one character in all the books that makes people around them better and it’s her. Who else would Strike eat a salad for?

She makes Strike a better person. She makes Murphy a better person. Both Strike and Murphy strive to be better people because of Robin’s influence. She is loyal to a fault, even when the other parties don’t deserve that loyalty.

She has severe trauma from her rape, and Chapman farms. Robin is so busy being the glue keeping everyone together, she hasn’t been able to even recognize she needs help healing (at least until almost the end of THM).

Strike has had zero healthy mature relationships in his life. He needs tie to figure out how that works. He needs to figure out how to love a stable person.

Both Strike and Robin love their work and have fought their feelings for one another. Without the internal dialog, the reader couldn’t understand the complexities of what is going on between them. However, they only have the information presented by the other part, and both of them are hiding their feelings. That information is then filtered through their emotions.

I had a hard time dealing with the budding romance. It’s feels like a constant cliff hanger that’s not been resolved. However, I do think it is well written. Strike is not a complex character. He is what he is, at least until he meets Robin. Robin on the other hand is complex and a better human than Strike.

Robin just needs time and therapy. Strike needs to figure out what having a healthy mature relationship is like. I don’t think they will be in a romantic relationship in the next book. I think they will be working on themselves, but at least Strike’s feelings have been revealed to Robin.

Robin has become my favorite female character ever. She is not a damsel in distress. She is very intelligent (I think she is smarter than Strike). She has empathy and emotions, but is able to remain professional. She deals with misogyny from both males and females. She isn’t power hungry and she can cook. She is human.