May I join in? I've just read this (for the first time - I do want to re-read parts) and have lots of thoughts.
I didn't see the killer's identity coming at all. Looking back, I don't think I would ever have sussed the blink-and-miss-it dog clue, but I'm surprised I didn't make the connection between his skin condition and his MO. I guessed the killer in The Silkworm quite early on for that sort of reason.
Early on I thought Grant and/or Heather might have had something to do with it - I suppose just because it was relatively unlikely and I didn't warm to them. It was kind of satisfying to me that although I was wrong, it did come back to them near the end and Grant had something that helped them crack the case.
I thought there were interesting parallels between Strike and Bram. They both lost their mothers in similar circumstances and had lived in chaotic households. Bram had an at least nominally stable and present father figure (weird, but less bullying than Jago or Inigo), and yet seemed considerably more fucked up than Strike, which to me just highlighted how much Strike had done on his own to improve his life. I wonder if Bram will pop up again in another book and be shown either getting help and turning things around or descending into grown-up crime.
I really liked Flavia and Rachel. I kind of was Rachel, and can well imagine that having access to online communities would have been both a blessing and a curse.
I didn't really get why the cartoon was seen as ablist. The book itself, arguably, in the treatment of people like Kea with hidden or hard-to-define disabilities. But the cartoon, I'm not so sure. Being a person missing a body part is obviously a disability, but would you call being a body part missing a person a disability? He's arguably more able than most disembodied body parts, since he can get around on his own. I mean I know the people making that accusation are meant to be trolls and wrong, but it's difficult to see how the idea gained traction.
Oh, and to the person who asked if anyone thought Pez was sexy - he wasn't quite my type, but I found him likeable and was glad he wasn't the killer. More to the point, I think Robin found him sexy to some extent, and it was a sign of her continued recovery/liberation. She's still only experienced sex with Matt and the rapist, hasn't she? I sort of feel that she might end up having considerate, reassuring sex with Ryan for a while, then be able to contemplate bad-boy, throwaway sex with someone like Pez, who would presumably not be heartbroken if it turned out to be only a fling.