The Running Grave is the latest instalment in the hit Strike novels by JK Rowling, written under the pen name of Robert Galbraith. The novels have been adapted into a popular series for the BBC, with the sixth novel, Ink Black Heart, currently in production, starring Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger as the detective duo, Cormoran and Robin. The will-they-won’t-they plot has been in the works for seven novels now - but do the pair finally get together in the latest book? Warning, huge spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read the seventh novel, The Running Grave…
Warning, spoilers ahead!
While the seventh novel of The Running Grave might leave fans feeling frustrated as, once again, Robin and Cormoran don’t get together, the novel ends on something of a cliffhanger while marking the closest the characters have ever come to discuss their feelings with one another. So what happened?
After Robin and Cormoran successfully take down the UHC, with the leaders in custody and many of the people living at Chapman Farm rescued, the novel’s epilogue ties up the other loose threads, including Cormoran’s reluctant meeting with his late ex-girlfriend Charlotte's sister Amelia. During the meeting, Amelia tells him that she burned Charlotte’s suicide note after deciding not to show it to her two nephews, but Cormoran accurately guesses that the contents include Charlotte blaming him for not helping her, and accusing him of being in love with Robin.
Later, following his return to the office, Robin and Cormoran are discussing work when Robin enquires about how the lunch went, with Cormoran telling Robin that Charlotte believed that he was in love with her.
"She waited for Strike to say, 'which was her spite, obviously,' or 'because she never understood that a man and a woman could just be friends, or to make a joke. Yet he said nothing to defuse the grenade he’d just thrown, but simply looked at her."
In an excruciating cliffhanger, this is the exact moment that Robin’s new boyfriend Ryan arrives to take them away for the weekend, leaving Robin's response to Cormoran’s statement unknown. However, JK Rowling has confirmed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she is already working on the eighth novel - so fans might have their answer sooner rather than later.
Speaking back in 2017, the author revealed that she had "another ten books" about the detective - having published three of the novels at the time. She told BBC: "The first time I met Tom [Burke, who plays Cormoran in the series], I said, ‘Well I hope to God you do enjoy playing this character because I think I’ve got at least another ten books in me, so you could be locked in for quite a few years here.’"