Matthew Cunliffe

Matthew proposes to Robin just before she starts at the agency. He sees the job as temporary and is annoyed when she turns down a better offer to stay with a broke detective. To him, Strike is a chancer with a famous surname and nothing more. Matthew has a rising accounting career and expects Robin to follow a similar path. The couple's first fights start there, and he begins to notice Robin coming home more excited than she has been in years.

With Robin in danger, Matthew pushes her to quit. He's right to fear for her, but he uses that fear to try to control her choices. In a fight, he admits he slept with Sarah Shadlock at university. The wedding goes ahead anyway, and Robin finds out he deleted Strike's calls. At the reception she confronts him, and the marriage begins under a cloud of distrust.

A year in, the marriage is failing. Robin finds out Matthew is having an affair with Sarah again and moves out. Before that, he complains about Robin's hours, the danger of undercover work and Strike's constant presence. They live in a new house Robin never felt was hers, and Matthew pretends all is well in front of friends. Once the truth comes out, there's no going back.

Separated, Matthew and Robin fight over the divorce and the money from the flat. It's his last chapter in Robin's life. Matthew stays with Sarah and tries to come out of the split with the better end of the deal. For Robin, the end of it is a chance to start over with no one demanding she quit her job.

In the books, Matthew is also from Masham, Robin's Yorkshire hometown.