*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS INK BLACK HEART *SPOILERS*

I feel for Charlotte's twins too
Those poor kids:(

The toxic fandom aspect was all too realistic as was much of the Twitter interaction.

I was so sad for Morehouse as he seemed nice and even more sad when it was revealed that his online romance was a cruel hoax.

Not realizing that people can swap around on line was a fatal flaw agreed on that.
.. But this was JKR's revenge novel on so many people. I have a hunch the next one will be more traditional somehow!

Finished today!

What I liked:
the cartoon sounded adorable. I wish it was a real thing.
Charlotte! I love it when she shows up because she's mad as a box of frogs. Feel sorry for her kids though.
The Hampstead/Highgate locations.
Robin finally gets her own place and her name on the agency door.
First book to be virtually Matthew-free!

What I didn't like:
Overwritten generally and too much about Madeline, Strike has a script for relationships and we know how it goes so no need to follow every twist and turn.
Strike and Robin's mutual admiration society got a bit much at times especially considering the fatal flaw to their strategy. They took turns to play Buffypaws but never even considered that anyone else might be doing the same.

What puzzled me:
Strike takes the Tube from the British Museum to Denmark Street - how? It's a shorter walk to Denmark Street itself than to any Tube station.
What became of Nils' one eyed tortoiseshell cat? It was missing for 5 days. When the police said they called in Strike and Robin about a cat, I thought we'd hear more, but it was a different cat.
I play several online games but couldn't picture this one which seemed to combine cutting edge graphics with very basic early internet style chat.
Is it really likely that the security around the game was so tight that no-one in private detective agencies or the CID could break it?

I hope so re the condoms.
Buffypaws , love the username.

Strike is a private detective who has seen a great deal. Surely he knows to rubber up.

Lots of women drink when pregnant because they don't know they are to start with :(
Please don't let her be 'with child !!'

Sorry, yes. I realised I was wrong (thank God) when she turned up pissed and started beating him up.

I hope Madeline isn't pregnant:(
He'd be tied to her forever then.

@Theundertaker I had not thought of that but now I'm convinced your right. Strike mused about how he would behave as a father a couple of times.
Mind you wasn't she drunk the last time he saw her so maybe not...

At 42 for a steak , I think I'll pass

Oh actually £42 😳😱

The Gun used to be a massive local for me too as worked just up the road and it was the closest pub. So pleased to see it mentioned. It is a lovely spot and since covid I've not been back! Although the prices are a bit extreme, that steak and chips was probably about £30 😅

This is bang on!
Plus the online chat was just torture on the kindle.

I think Robin and Strike is coming a bit predictable. They need a drunken shag or something

Listening now (after reading) and I think that the signalling of Gus is more obvious than I first realised.

I think that's the last we will see of Madeline and Charlotte now!

Oh, and did anyone else think Madeline was going to end up pregnant? There were two points when it was mentioned she wasn't drinking alcohol, and given parenthood is very much a theme of this series, I was thinking Strike might be ending up a dad.

Just finished and while I enjoyed it, I think it suffered by comparison with Troubled Blood which I'd just reread. I loved the time frame of TB - a whole year where we get the home fronts for both Robin and Strike, with Rokeby, Joan, the divorce, the baby circus at Christmas. Also, Margot Bamborough leapt off the page to me as a victim in a way that Edie really didn't. Margot was so vivid somehow - probably a bit self righteous and annoying at times, but brave and a go-getter.

TIBH felt a bit more obvious - and I think that's deliberate. Rowling was very explicitly exploring incel culture, toxic fandom and the awful Twitter abuse, so it would be difficult to explore that while hiding the motives, I think. I think this book was more social commentary than TB, and probably quite cathartic for her.
I saw the Paperwhite = Anomie coming a long way off, but like others, thought the killer was going to be Katya. Glad it wasn't as I did actually like her.
And yes, I got confused when Rachel kept referring to Edie as her aunt.
I think this might be the first time we, the readers, were privy to information the detectives didn't have (those webchats with private channels opening...).
I presume in the next book, Strike is going to start getting his act together. He's had his health scare which resulted in him not being a huge help when Gus went psycho at the end, and he's got therapist-half-sis waiting in the wings, so I wonder if she might point out his obvious attachment issues. He needs to do some work before he deserves a relationship with Robin, whom every man under 50 seems to find irresistible!

The references to PUAs / pick up artists made me wonder if JK Rowling’s been reading Mumsnet.😁

Yep, 57, although I picture her as looking older - if she's a life-long smoker that will show.

She is definitely June Brown in my head!

Half way through and loving it, especially all the observation on sm trolling, obviously taken from personal experience. Really exposes how batshit and self absorbed these people are.
Anyone else notice the inconsistency when Robin meets Tim Ashworth? On pg 431 Tim intimates he wants to say something but doesn't want it recorded. So Robin switches the recorder off but has a secondary device running in her bag. However on 435 it is said that Robin has had the presence of mind to switch the original device back on when Tim is saying something useful. Why would she need to do that if she had a hidden device recording anyway?

I think in IBK it said she was in her 50s possibly 57?

I just picture the late June Brown for Pat !
Even if she would have been too old for the part. ( I don't know how old Pat is meant to be though ?)

That brittleness she brought to Dot would have been perfect here too

On Facebook there is a fan Group for the books and it's pointed out on there that the Rachel Aunt / cousin thing is wrong. I didn't pick up on this at all, I think it's just a printing error.

Just remembered something that annoyed me … why did Rachel constantly refer to Edie as her aunt? Rachel was Grant’s daughter and Grant was Edie’s uncle - so that makes Rachel her cousin, not her aunt!