House rent and career are not a problem for Cormoran Strike anymore because he has flourished much in his career as a detective in the past many years. Now he can afford an assistant too and what more can he wish for than the beautiful and attractive Robin Ellacott. Robin is like a rookie to Strike but she expects to be so much more for him in the coming days.
While busy in the daily routine work Strike sees Robin horrified at something strange. Someone has given her a severed leg of a woman as a gift. There is no mentioning of the name but Strike knows who can do such a horrible act. According to his experience and expertise, there are only four men in the entire world who can commit such a deadly sin. So going after each one of them one by one is the only solution if they want to reach the real culprit.
Also, they have to investigate whose leg is it and what was the purpose of the killer in sending it to Robin or indirectly Strike. Police also get the hunch and it starts investigating the first of these four men but Strike thinks that the police are misguided.
The one whom the police think is a murderer is innocent according to Strike’s calculations. Thus along with Robin, he goes after the remaining three and also prepares his mind that the killer would be after them once the investigation starts. Robert Galbraith portrayed Strike as a loner in The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm but he has got a nice company in the form of Robin here. Also at times Strike gets afraid when Robin’s life comes under threat, the worry is shown through narration by Robert Glenister.