*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS INK BLACK HEART *SPOILERS*

[TheInkBlackHeart]

Right I hope the title gives it away. Spoilers ahoy after / during reading Galbraith's The Ink Black Heart.

I swear if someone complains about spoilers now I'll lose it

Ilsa is pregnant! But was keeping it quiet as she was worried about losing the baby.

Oh yes of course! I forgot about that.

I hope that's the last we hear of Madeline and she isn't pregnant.
I didn't hate her character, she obviously wasn't a complete snob and a hard worker , but she wasn't right for Strike at all. We know that Robin is, but it's going to be ages before we see any of this. Plus Madeline was rude to a waitress as well , never ever a good sign ( however stressed or overworked you may be!)

I can't think where else there is for Madeline to go, to be honest. Strike clearly never wants to see her again and he never has any trouble finding beautiful, well-off women to date.

I think the birth of Ilsa's baby is going to prompt either radically different or radically similar feelings in Robin and Strike.

Either push them together or further away.

Nothing like hedging my bets!

But it will be significant in some way!

I hope that Ilsa's baby will be ok too.
They deserve some happiness

Has anyone watched the q&a over on Robert Galbraith's FB page? Went live at 7.30om

I missed it live but just read through the answers. Really interesting!

Just finished this book.
Loved it!
My favourite Strike so far.
More please.

I really want an Ink Black Heart t shirt - has anybody seen one?
Can't find anything on a quick Google.

I doubt there'll be anything official. Maybe once the TV show gets as far as IBH.

I’m just finished today. I listened to the audio version and found the Twitter abd game chat really hard to follow. I wished I’d kept a list of game user names and characters too. Annoyingly not long after I started I was on Twitter and some nob had spilled the beans on Gus (it was a hate JKR trans activist I think) which is rather ironic but annoying. I put it out of my head as much as I could though, and Strike mentioning him near the start made me think it might not be correct. I’m going to have another listen as I think I’ll get more from it next time.

I really think that you could hear JKR putting some of her understandable frustrations out on this book, the whole incel, troll, hate crime culture. And the self absorption of some of the characters, Kaya for instance (having listened not read I don’t know how she spells this). She is definitely someone I can picture having had connections with similar issues with health and self diagnosis.

Interestingly I listened to the whole book thinking it was Anime and Moorhouse. Loved some of the new characters.

I read the physical book and loved it. I didn’t get that Anomie was also the other mod and was worried the original buffypaws was going to be in danger so wasn’t on the right tracks at all. Brilliant book.

I've just finished.
So many of the things you ladies mentioned I echo Pat and Midge! Yay

I found the three columns a challenge but I think the moderators chats were where we got to the facts faster.

My feeling through all the books is that strike should not get with robin. He's an awful user boyfriend. Imagine a man who can only respect a woman he's not in a relationship with. I kind of hate him. He doesnt treat kids with dignity, he has no relationships with animals or family andnhis best mate is a women hating moron. Sometimes his only redeeming quality us that he looks out for robin. It's not enough.
And so I hate that their relationship and feelings make up such a lot of the book. I want robin to be more seeing about how he treats his girlfriends.

I'm kind of new to murder books and maybe it a,ways has to be this way , but I felt so frustrated at the level of confusion until the very end.

Of to think bait more about it. Jkr is a talented writer and the fact that we are so invested and engaged is testament to this. Xxb

Finished at midnight and whilst I 75% enjoyed it it was a slog. I usually read a James Patterson in a long 2-3 session but this took many 1 hour slots to get through 50 pages at a time.

I did lose track of which mod was which character. And wondered why they didn't know Twitter posts can be scheduled.

So many read herring s that really only the last 200 pages really mattered in terms of working out who did it.

Glad I get a 2 year break before next one. I give the books so dense to read for some reason (and read 5 just before 6 as first one I support -in support of jkr- then had to read 1-4 first)

I've been thinking about Gus and the motives for attacking and killing Eddie Josh and vik. It just doesn't sit well does it?

I feel like the other suspects were padded out enough for us to buy that they would be deranged enough to kill (gus's dad and nils ) or not (zoe, pez), especially the creators of a cartoon that their own creation is based on.
If he had got caught up with the right wing group and kind of taken part in a bigger thing then that's kind of stupid young man stuff. But two murders and 2 attrmpted murders in 3 different spots with no help and no car. He's a kid who doesn't drive how did he get there with the weapons and costumes between school cello moderating and creating a game all the while being under the tow of a narsacisticc damanding dad

I felt that the bald spot that is our killer was there to keep up a mystery rather than make a full story and it's deeply unsatisfying. I felt frustrated in that when we find out that paperwhite is also anomie that a great deal of the book was now obsolete again for the purposes if keeping a mystery until the last 20 pages.

It then leads me to think well they got paid a lot of money to essentially provide the investigation with zero facts. Except the letter right at the end. Why Eddie's aunt would withold that clear motive evidence from the police without confronting her son or mention it is strange.

So I feel frustrated I love the universe jkr has created and the characters are vivid but I hate the smoke and mirrors and thin character that our killer has, and this makes me think that a detective agency with a London office who are this incompetent would go bankrupt a lot sooner and the police are better equipped to do this kind of investigation.

Oh sorry just saw that he does drive his dad's car home from the holiday cottage

Yes I agree about gus.

We had all this chat with pez(?) where we could have been dropped hints in the conversations that he said something revealing or should not have known,

Same with others. But gus was hardly interviewed. It was a bit "oh the butler did it"

I was thinking it was "lawyer sister" who was mentioned a few times of someone but went nowhere.

So is this a character novel with some mystery to solve? As it's not perfect as a mystery book.

Thank goodness my next book is a nice simple 300 page serial killer book (binding room) which I can rattle through in a few hours.

(I did like the private chats and assumed the creators could see everything if they wanted)

I love Strike but he's extremely flawed. Isla definitely has his number.

I think we're in for a sizeable relationship between Robin and Ryan Murphy with lots of glowering in the background from Strike.

I think we're in for a sizeable relationship between Robin and Ryan Murphy with lots of glowering in the background from Strike.

Me too. It'll do him good I think - be the push to sort himself out a bit both physically and mentally. I think the intro of the therapist half sister is useful here too. JKR has said in the past that both Strike and Robin have a lot of growing to do as individuals before they could work as a couple. Robin's thoughts in IBH about how inexperienced she is with men / sex / relationships, especially in contrast to Strike's range of romantic and sexual experience, can be addressed by a relationship with Ryan Murphy. Strike's Charlotte issues seem to have resolved themselves finally, but he still clearly has both mother and father issues which the therapist sister might be able to help him with. He also seems to have had a bit of an epiphany re his physical health at the end of IBH, and seeing Robin with a younger, fitter man could help him keep his resolve over the next couple of books.

I really, really want them to end up together in the end, but I don't want them to get together when it's doomed because they are both still a bit too broken.

Yes, agree with all of that.

I think we might also meet Rokeby in the next book.

Ooh that would be good.

I am hoping for more Shanker. I like him. A bit of me would quite like to see Matthew being a bit miserable but I think it's better for Robin to just move on and for him to barely register in her life.

Yes yes to miserable Matthew! That
would be excellent

Actually, I'd be happy for Matthew and Sarah to just get together and have the conventional, somewhat materialistic life they obviously both want. They suit each other, they want the same things. He was an utterly arsehole to Robin, going through her phone and cheating, but people aren't their best selves when they're in bad relationships. One of JKR's themes, even in HP, was humans being flawed, truly flawed, even the ones we idolise.

Matthew and Sarah aren't great or deep, spiritual people. But that doesn't mean they can't be suited to each other and go on the rest of their lives together, pursuing their slightly shallow but shared goals and not hurting anyone else again.