Troubled Blood

Visiting Cornwall, where his aunt Joan has cancer, Strike meets Anna Phipps. She wants to know what happened to her mother, GP Margot Bamborough, who vanished in 1974 on her way to a Clerkenwell pub. Police blamed Dennis Creed, a serial killer who never owned up to it. Strike and Robin give themselves a year. They inherit the notes of an old detective obsessed with astrology, question Margot's colleagues and patients, and interview Creed. Joan dies, and Robin works through her divorce from Matthew. The killer is Janice Beattie, the practice nurse and a longtime poisoner. Margot's remains are found, and Strike takes Robin to the Ritz for her birthday.

1. Change944 pages in four hours

   The longest book up to then became just four episodes. The year-long case and its huge cast of witnesses reach the screen heavily trimmed.

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2. Behind the scenesDrawn from real cases

   Rowling has said Dennis Creed is loosely based on real killers Jerry Brudos and Russell Williams.

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3. Behind the scenesControversy before release

   In 2020, criticism of one detail about serial killer Dennis Creed, who disguised himself as a woman, became a controversy before the book was even out.

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