*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS INK BLACK HEART *SPOILERS*

Oh phew. DH's concert is safe then.

Just in case... I was on holiday when the IBH came out and my Kindle refused to connect to the hotel wifi. I really felt like crying.

I then found it was perfectly happy to connect to a hotspot on my phone.

26th September. I won't read it until it's out in paperback though. Hate hardbacks and only have the kindle app on my phone.

23rd or 26th? Amazon thinks 26th.

I have it in my calendar for midnight so I can download the Kindle and audiobook immediately

DH appears to think that I'd like to come to his concert on the 23rd, poor deluded soul that he is.

What's the equivalent of reading under the bedcovers when in a packed concert hall, do you think?

I've booked a holiday from 23rd. Making sure the hotel has Wi-Fi so my kindle will automatically update.

Poor DH is going to be short of conversation.

Stay off social media until you’ve finished The Running Grave, just in case - when The Ink Black Heart came out, there were idiots who thought it was funny to share the identity of the murderer all over the place.

Yes! And it coincides nicely with the start of my mat leave. I'm just hoping I can get through it before the baby makes an appearance.

Anyone else on countdown for The Running Grave??

It signifies that although I knew their names, she knows what they wrote.😀 I guess you are wondering what they have in common, for her to choose them. Good question.

I've only just finished it so I am a year later but I don't care. Bram can be a teenage criminal in the penultimate book. The last book will have to be solving Leda's end.
So Nils is OK is he? Innocent of crime? Well, yes, as were a load of other unsavouries!
I've read it in book form but I think I'll order the CD from the library, to get another handle on it from what I know now.
I'll have to go back and check who it was that spoke with that uplift at the end of the sentence - Yasmin?? It was a fashion that seems to have gone but like I might not like listen like to enough like people speaking?
Wasn't Robin rotten when she didn't have any chips with her veggie-burger? We can't expect him to go 100% goodie straight away.
I do hope that in the next one nothing bad befalls Lucy or Ted or Ilsa. Some things just need to be steady.

You can, but it's better to read them in order. As a murder mystery it stands alone, but Strike and Robin are key parts of the overall world and story, and they have a lot of change and personal growth. Read them in order and you properly understand who they are and where they're coming from.

I think you'd get more enjoyment of you've read the other books in the series beforehand as it shows the development of the relationship between the two main characters. The crime story itself can be read as a standalone story though.

Ive got the kindle deal this morning, just wondering if I can read this as a stand-alone novel as I’ve never read the earlier ones in the series?
Happy to hunt them down as I have plenty else to read in the meantime.
I fully acknowledge that I’ve been sucked in by the long threads!

Matt in the series looked exactly how I imagined him to be.
I agree that TB is a masterpiece of writing and plots and is far superior to Ink black heart
I also liked Cuckoo too
Silkworm was just weird , but it's the two main characters that keep me hooked!

Just bumping as the Kindle version of Ink Black Heart is only 99p on Amazon today!

@Megsboots, I can't think it'll be the last we hear of Charlotte. She's a great character and a fundamental part of Strike's story. Hopefully we will hear about what happens next with the children.

I love Pat. She is kind and helpful to Strike in a way he can graciously accept when he is feeling vulnerable.

Both Strike and Robin are gorgeous, just in different ways. I think Tom Burke playing Strike on TV made me fully cognizant of exactly how physically beautiful he is.

I understand that we can not get closure on all of the plot points in the book. However, I would like to see Strike or Robin making sure all of Jago and Charlotte's children are safe and properly looked after.

Thank you @SirSamVimesCityWatch - that makes sense

Just finished IBH and while it’s very clever, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the others. It was much too long and just stalled in places, it could have been a third shorter without losing anything. For contrast it thought troubled blood (which is nearly as long) was a masterpiece and I couldn’t put it down. This felt like a slog. At least Strike is now resting his leg properly.

Slip of the tongue I think - the uncle is talking about the letters but says about giving "it" to the undertaker instead of "them". Something like that.

Question about Ink Black Heart which I have just re-read following watching troubled blood.. how does strike know that the uncle didn't put the second letter in the coffin? The uncle reads the letter and thinks it's abusive so doesn't put it in but how does strike know that ?

I’d forgotten that. Thanks both.

Yes Janice said that as a distraction, it wasn't true. I didn't think the drug addiction was true either? Janice got caught trying to get a half melted pill out of a mug, because she had tried to dose Irene on a day she was being annoying. She blamed Brenner to push suspicion away from herself.