Graham Hardacre, who Cormoran Strike calls “Hardy”, is a friend and former colleague he worked with in the British Army’s Special Investigative Branch. Hardacre is ranked as a lieutenant and in The Cuckoo’s Calling is stationed in Germany. In Career of Evil, he’s in Edinburgh, Scotland, working at the SIB office at Edinburgh Castle, 35 Section, which is a prestigious posting.

Hardacre, who calls Strike “Oggy”, proves to always be a big help to his friend. He goes out of his way to secure important information for Strike in both of the books in which he’s featured. In Career of Evil, he even lends Strike his car — a Mini, which the “big bastard,” as Hardy fondly refers to him, has difficulty folding into. Strike takes the Mini to Melrose to look for information on suspect Donald Laing.

In the past, Strike and Hardacre worked together to investigate Noel Brockbank, and Hardacre had Strike’s back when he was accused of battering Brockbank and giving him brain damage. In Career of Evil, when Robin is questioning Noel’s twin, Holly Brockbank, she comes up with a fictitious name for a law firm: Hardacre and Hall. This is likely a nod to Strike’s old friend for his involvement in the SIB investigation of Noel Brockbank.

Hardacre is described as being somewhat nondescript, 5-foot-8-inches tall, “with thinning, mouse-coloured hair.” He has kids and a “sizable collection of beer steins.”