*Spoilers spoilers spoilers* the running grave spoilers thread.. (Content warning - mentions suicide)

[EggTheParrot]

Just as the title says really.. spoilers ok in this thread. Let's keep the other one spoiler free??

Oh my god why is Robyn going undercover!

Yes I loved the idea that the Brexit vote was a big enough jolt to snap someone out of a cult brainwashing!

Mind you, still not as funny as 'What did you call the navy?' 'Cunts' 😂

Yes, I snorted at that one too!

I loved that too 😆

Ooh, found you! 😁Just finshed it & my brain feels completely overloaded. I had to cancel seeing some religious acquaintances today because I didn't think I'd be able to bite my tongue about some of the dodgy teachings that come from their church. Didn't want to sully the relationship by accusing them of being brainwashed!

I didn't suspect the big reveal at all! With IBH I'd had suspicions about the culprit but got distracted by rabbit holes. This time I was determined to figure it out but completely trusted her so she hardly featured at all in my several pages of notes. Yes, I made notes like I think I'm an actual detective!

I did get slightly frustrated in a few places where there were words missing from sentences, the wrong tense was used or the same description used multiple times. The latter is probably not something that would bother someone who was reading it a few chapters at a time & could do with a reminder but it was a bit repetitive when I was reading straight through. Missing out words/incorrect tenses is just sloppy editting though. I'm not expert on writing well but I do get annoyed when I have to re-read a sentence to figure out what it means because it's like pausing the movie in my brain & it brings me back to the real world, which is far less entertaining!

Place marking for when I've read it all

Found you.

I loved it. Might have to immediately re-read it.

Strike in the church after he got the news about Charlotte broke my heart a little, and his eyes "reacting to bright sunshine" after lunch with Amelia. I had such a lump in my throat.

Oi, @Thedrownedprophet , be more careful with your phrasing at the opening of posts, this was a little bit too ominous to find on my "threads I'm on" ! 🤣

😂😂😂. Oops!

So many incredible moments, such as when it becomes clear why Emily won't eat vegetables.

She sent me completely up the wrong path too. I was pretty smug thinking that I had the killer pinpointed early. When it was finally revealed I was completely nonplussed. Very very clever

@Thedrownedprophet loving your username 😁

I had to grab it!

So many incredible moments, such as when it becomes clear why Emily won't eat vegetables.

Fuck, I hadn’t thought of that.

Bumping incase this has been missed

It occurred to me as I was getting into bed last night. I didn't sleep for hours. It's so bloody awful and JKR has done it so brilliantly that it's absolutely believable.

The vegetables bit was horrendous.

I remember reading years ago JKR saying that she didn't put the details of how to make a horcrux in the Harry Potter book because it was too terrible, but she explained it to her publisher and he went a bit pale. At the time I thought, come on, it can't be that bad! You're a children's author! Now I am slightly terrified to think what she might have come up with. 😂

Just finished this - so good! It took me a bit longer than some of the others because all the bits with Robin undercover were so tense that I kept having to put it down for a break 😁

Also found it really disturbing - I think this one and Troubled Blood are the two that have really stayed with me. All the details about the poor women having babies there, and the way Daiyu is killed, and poor Cherie leaving her daughters... definitely not one to read before bed.

And that cliffhanger, OMG. I do wonder how she's going to resolve the whole relationship thing because I don't think the books would be the same if they were together, I love that romantic tension. But she's a master plotter so I expect she's got the whole thing planned out somewhere.

Finished.

Well I was not expecting that.

Was I the only one who was convinced that Bijou would turn out to be Daiyu who wasn't dead?

I was feeling very smug but obviously got that all completely wrong.

I read it so quickly I should have drawn a diagram.

Was Jacob Louise's child. I was racing through it so quickly I forgot details later. It talked about her two sons. Was that Jacob and Kevin?

I did not see the killer coming at all.

This is particularly pleasing because I've just read the new Richard Osman and worked out who did it pretty much in chapter 4.

There was not nearly enough Robin and Strike in this one and I was panicking that we'd get to the end with nothing. Well done JK for resisting some fanfic happy ending and realistically stringing it out for another book.

Ryan didn't turn to drink either, which would have been an eat shot for her. I also loved Strike battling with his diet. I'm only disappointed he didn't discover Mumsnet Lowcarb Bootcamp which he was here.

All in all, I think this is the best one yet. I thought IBH was good but didn't love it.

Trebles all round.

Yes Jacob was Louise's child.

I was sure Phillipa and Nicholas were the killers, so much so that when the real killer was revealed I was still convinced they were in cahoots with her!

It was so clever.

That was beautiful! I’ve done my greedy, not-putting-it-down read, (slept with the fookin’ light on!) I’ll go back and savour it properly!
I’m just placemarking where “my people” are.

Can someone explain the vegetables thing with Emily, I've raced through it and now need to go back and re read, knowing Robin is ok. And of course strike's declaration 😍

They reburied Kevin the vegetable patch as punishment for Louise trying to put flowers on his original grave elsewhere in the farm. I think.

Oh goodness that's horrific.

That was the only bit I did work out as reading - as soon as she pushed her vegetables to the side I knew someone must be buried in the vegetable garden!

Wrong about everything else though. I thought Daiyu was Lin for several chapters..

Is anyone else sometimes surprised by how dark JKR's writing is?

I know Harry Potter explored a lot of dark, adult themes but they were still kids' books so there was nothing too traumatising there.

But some of the Strike books have some incredibly gory details in them. I don't usually like gore, but the overall quality of the writing, the characterisation, the humour and the complexity of the plots make me want to read these books anyway.

I felt very stressed reading this one though. I'm sure my blood pressure must have been affected, reading about Robin of all people preparing to go undercover in an environment where she would be expected to have sex with anyone who wanted it, and then just basically the whole time she was in there. And then the big reveal. What happened to Daiyu in the end was incredibly grim.

I almost feel the opposite! Having read HP when I was younger I feel forwarned that we will not be spared on any sentimental grounds. I got a really strong sense of forboding in this one. I have a very nasty sense that she’s showing us just exactly how resilient Robin is, and how much of a touchstone Strike is to her, so that, having finally given us a slightly warm and fuzzy, Prisoner of Askanbany phase of happily ever after we won’t worry too much when the series ends with Robin the sole partner at the agency and a single mum!