The disclaimer to this review is that I am a big fan of the Cormoran Strike series and couldn’t put this book down once I started.

A body is found in the vault of a silver shop which specializes in Masonic Silver. The body has been horribly disfigured and there is a question about the identity of the body. Strike and Ellacott Detective Agency were hired by Decima Mullins who is convinced that Rupert Fleetwood, the father of her newborn son, is the body in the vault and wants Cormoran and Robin to prove it.

It turns out that Rupert is just one of four possible victims in the vault – one of four men who roughly fit the description of the victim who have been missing since the time of the murder. The detectives must investigate four sets of scenarios and character groups related to each victim, on top of their investigation of the employees of the silver shop, the people who delivered the silver, and their circles of acquaintances.

I was about halfway through the book when I started to feel like I should have been taking notes, because it was hard to keep track of all the characters and subplots, especially when they started to cross and overlap. Perhaps I just need to re-read the book when I’m not so busy but several times I had to go back and check who was who.

In spite of my confusion, I was still sneaking off to the bathroom at work to read it – basically had a hard time putting it down until I was done. But I think I might need to read it one more time to make sure I got all the intricacies of the plot. I give this one a 4👍🏼 out of 5👍🏼.