When Nazi terror meets homophobic cyber bullying, it’s not easy stuff. But if this comes from the brain of J.K. Rowling, who has her successful private detective Cormoran Strike investigating in all directions, it promises suspense, humor and characters with depth.
Strike is back! And that’s good. The Cormoran Strike isn’t a man, he’s an apparition. A person who, once you have met him, you will never forget. On the one hand, this is due to his appearance: he lost a leg in the war, has Ludwig von Beethoven’s hairstyle and facial features, except that there is a boxer’s nose in the middle, which dates from Strike’s college days in Oxford. 1.90 meters tall, overweight, Benson
Speaking of which, if Strike had his way, he’d love to cuddle with Robin Ellacott. It started with him five years ago, coming from a temporary work agency. In the meantime, the career changer has become his detective agency partner and the detective agency is known beyond the city limits of London. Sometimes a divorce case here, sometimes a small case of fraud there. But again and again a monster case comes around the corner and knocks on the glass office door of the detective agency Strike
Ellacott is in the office when a human wreck wants to enlist the detective agency’s services: Edie Ladwell, co-creator of the surprisingly successful animated series “The Deep Black Heart”. Ladwell is being bullied. For years. Low, low below the belt. One reason is the success of the former underground series, which has now ended up on Netflix from YouTube and is now to be staged for the big screen. The fans of the series are outraged, especially the users of an online game created by fans of the series. Like the series, it is set in Highgate Cemetery.
And that’s where Ladwell is murdered shortly after the visit to the detective agency. A stranger stabs her with a machete and seriously injures her ex-partner and co-developer. Who is behind the cowardly attack? Ladwell’s family and the Hollywood film company hire Strike and Ellacott to find the killer and the background. And the detective agency pulls out all the stops.
Strike and Ellacott shed light on Ladwell’s family, current and former friends, and ousted employees. But they always end up in the online game, where one of the leading figures boasts that he murdered Ladwell. It’s called anomie. But nobody knows who hides behind the username. The other moderators of the game are also groping in the dark or at least pretending to be.
There are rumors that a right-wing terrorist group, a hallmark of tattooed runes, has infiltrated the game and is using the chat rooms there to plan attacks. Has Ladwell caught on to them? Is that why she had to die? Or did a former employee take revenge on her, who has now become a YouTube star himself, based on macabre jokes and racist statements? Strike has him monitored.
Ellacott gains access to the game as a user and tries to find out more via various chats. But then a letter bomb attack is perpetrated on the detective agency, the office is destroyed and Strike only survives with a lot of luck. So are the two private detectives on the right track? Is she getting hotter? Or is the killer more likely to be found in an artistic commune set up by a cranky Dutch millionaire and where Ladwell lived, loved and worked at times?
Strike and Ellacott pull many strings together until they find the thread that leads to the solution of the case, to Ladwell’s killer and to Anomie’s true identity. The audio book, published by Randomhouse Audio, enchants for more than 30 hours, read by “007” dubbing voice Dietmar Wunder. The playing time is an announcement! It might also turn off some listeners. But let me tell you: “The deep black heart” is worth every hour, every minute, every second!
It is the sixth case in the private detective series around Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. From the mind of “Harry Potter” inventor J.K. Rowling, who writes here under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Anyone who picks up “The Deep Black Heart” can therefore rely on absolute literary expertise on the one hand and on one of the most well-known audio book voices in Germany on the other. A perfect package considering the plot, the crisp dialogue and the character depths of the main protagonists and supporting cast. You just like to listen, from the first minute. You are immediately drawn into the material and captivated by the storytelling.
As a writer, Rowling, and thus Galbraith as well, is an absolute man catcher who is always up-to-date on socially relevant topics that people are burning under their nails. “The Cold Heart” is set in 2015, but the topics of cyberbullying, right-wing terrorist cells, fake news in social networks, internet trolls, online game consumption, the sale of ideals, greed and a lack of morality still exist today even more urgent. In other words: Rowling/Galbraith has tackled a socially hot topic and implemented it in a page turner manner that is extremely readable (book published by Blancalet). As an audio book, “Das eiskalte Herz” is even a tad better, thanks to the German voice of Daniel Craig.
The figures of the two main protagonists, Strike and Ellacott, also act as people catchers. They function – despite or precisely because of their rough edges – as the perfect sympathizers. The fact that there is always crackling and sometimes rattling between the two opens up a second interesting level: will the two get along? If so, when and how and at all? To say too much here would be like naming the killer and revealing the identity of Anomie after just five minutes of the audio book. In short: To call this a spoiler would be an understatement. But what can be revealed is this: Strike will be back, at some point, with the seventh case.
