Cormoran and Robin set off from Barrow-in-Furness and go to Market Harborough in search of the ex-workplace of Noel Brockbank, a Thai massage parlour.

Market Harborough is a town neither Strike nor Robin had ever visited before. It took them 4 hours to get there from Barrow and the approach took them through pretty little villages with thatched roofs, seventeeth-century churches, topiary gardens and residential streets with names like Honeypot Lane.

“The ornate and ages church of St Dionsius rose proudly in the heart of the town, and beside it, in the middle of the central thoroughfare stood a remarkable structure resembling a small timbered house on wooden stilts.”

“Once parking to the rear of the building on stilts, Strike left the car to have a smoke. He observed a plaque that told him the building was an old Grammar School built in 1614.

“Biblical verses painted in gold ran around the structure. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” 

Robin drives to St Mary’s Road, off the main road, where she drops Strike off at the Thai Orchid.

In the Thai Orchid Strike pays to see a girl, not for a massage, but in an attempt to extract information on Brockbank, who had once worked there as a security guard. After a while, with Robin waiting in the car wondering if Strike was actually having a massage, Strike left the establishment having arranged for one of the women, Ingrid, to meet him at a café called Appleby’s on Adam and Eve Street to give him Brockbank’s phone number.

Whilst Strike was in Appleby’s with Ingrid, Robin waited in the car and was wondering why he was taking so long just to get a phone number. A bit of jealousy seeping through?

 Fancy a trip to Market Harborough? You can find it on Google Maps here:

After Market Harborough, Strike and Robin take a trip to Corby, you can read about it here.