Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, #4)

by Robert Galbraith

Jimmy’s litigious history suggested that he was greedy and unprincipled, sharp without being wise. It was always useful to have a handle on a man’s vulnerabilities when trying to ferret out his secrets.

“I said, they’re supposed to be bad luck, aren’t they?” repeated Strike, as they drove away from the pub. “What are?” “White horses,” he said. “Isn’t there a play where white horses appear as a death omen?”

Strike, who had met countless rootless and neglected children during his rackety, unstable childhood, recognized in Billy’s imploring expression a last plea to the adult world, to do what grown-ups were meant to do, and impose order on chaos, substitute sanity for brutality.