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*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS INK BLACK HEART *SPOILERS*

455 replies

TheInkBlackHeart · 31/08/2022 10:34

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 Grin

OP posts:
SirSamVimesCityWatch · 26/10/2022 07:50

Hmm, not sure off the top of my head, Bob, but I am going to reread next week so I'll look out for it! I assume they met through the online fandom before they made the game - 2015, so maybe message boards / forums like Reddit?

soulinablackberrypie · 26/10/2022 08:02

I'm rereading it now (about halfway through, Robin is at the about to go for the drink with Pez) and I haven't come across any reference to that, although it's clear Anomie does know who Morehouse is IRL.

It is very interesting seeing how much makes sense once you know who Paperwhite is. How she/he stirred things up between Morehouse and Fiendy1 for example.

I noticed Ryan said the police had someone in the game - are we supposed to be able to work out who that is? It's not one of the main 8, obviously, so I've been keeping a vague eye on the "extras" but no-one stands out.

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 26/10/2022 08:10

I thought that they had someone playing the game but not a moderator. A bit like Robin was in the game. Robin using an established user meant she had an "in" with one of the mods, maybe the police plant didn't, and so they got nowhere with it?

Ooh can't wait to reread now!

EdieLedwell · 26/10/2022 14:35

Re-listening now. God Inigo Upcot deserved that date didn't he?

I'd love a follow up on Katya and Flavia. Katya must've been horrified to discover what Gus was.

EdieLedwell · 26/10/2022 14:36

*fate

soulinablackberrypie · 26/10/2022 15:50

I'd love a follow up on Katya and Flavia. Katya must've been horrified to discover what Gus was.

Yes! Also Zoe and the real Nicole, who was badly wronged too.

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 26/10/2022 17:24

Yes hard to feel sorry for Inigo, even though it was clearly a horrific death. The character was so thoroughly unpleasant!

PauliString · 26/10/2022 21:02

I left it feeling saddened that Rachel Ledwell never got to have a proper relationship with her cousin Edie. I think they would have circled each other cautiously for a bit and then got on brilliantly.

BobinogBobbleHat · 27/10/2022 19:38

PauliString · 26/10/2022 21:02

I left it feeling saddened that Rachel Ledwell never got to have a proper relationship with her cousin Edie. I think they would have circled each other cautiously for a bit and then got on brilliantly.

Rachel refers to Edie as her aunt. I'm not sure if that's an editing issue, or just a young person describing a more distant relationship than half sister in a way she felt comfortable with.

(It confused me so much I now can't remember if half sister is right...)

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 27/10/2022 20:28

An editing issue I think. I'm sure someone on here said it was corrected on the later version of the Kindle download?

Arcadia · 27/10/2022 21:18

Really curious to know how the chat room messages were done one the audiobook version. Can someone who has heard it describe how they did the chats with three columns going down one page simultaneously?

ElizabethBest · 27/10/2022 21:32

@Arcadia very, very badly. All just read out in a monotone.

Arcadia · 27/10/2022 21:37

@ElizabethBest but a column at a time or switching between them?

ElizabethBest · 27/10/2022 21:39

I have no idea how the columns work in the text as I’ve only listened to the audiobook, but it was mostly a conversation at a time, unless the chats were taking place at the same time, in which case it cut back and forth in time order.

soulinablackberrypie · 28/10/2022 10:29

I finished my re-read last night. It's interesting how much more you pick up when you know what you're looking for! (And interesting how early on they suspected the right person, but for various reasons never really concentrated on him.)

There are now lots of people I'd love to know what happened to next, which strikes me as the mark of good characterisation. This is what I'd like to think happens:

Yasmin stays with Katya and Flavia while Katya is recovering, mixes more with real people, grows up a bit, Katya's business flourishes without the constant negging.

Zoe eventually goes back to Yorkshire and gets her life back on track, but becomes friends with Rachel in real life, which is a good, supportive relationship for both of them. (I hadn't registered the first time around how close in age they were - I think I thought Rachel was about 14, which was actually Christy Ross.)

Josh and Pez become better friends and eventually work on something together. (Possibly "genius" Bram could be involved in some way and it does him a lot of good. He does need help though - maybe Prudence? With the right support he could be a Vikas rather than a Gus.)

Kea takes over the ME website (which was probably genuinely quite helpful to a number of people who weren't trolls trying to get inside info), or starts her own, and gets a sense of purpose (the "character" Strike muses about at one point).

Jago gets trampled to death by a vengeful horse. (I would say Christy kills him, but she doesn't deserve to go to prison. The weakest thing about this book for me is that it's hard to forgive a team who turn a blind eye to what's going on there.)

And that brings me to the other big thing I notice about the book as a whole. It's really all about fathers and the damage they cause, isn't it? The spectre of Jonny, as always, this time in the form of Strike's reluctance to see Prudence. The utterly awful Jago and Inigo, one who has already damaged a child to dangerous levels, one who could well do the same if he isn't stopped. The really-not-great Nils and Grant, who seem almost normal in this freakshow, but we'd all be seeing red flags if they were the only parents in the story. Barely mentioned inadequate fathers like Josh's alcoholic dad. Did I imagine it or was there a brief reference to Matthew seeming bored with his child already? It might have been something I read in a review or discussion rather than in the book itself. The nearest things we get to good fathers are Yasmin's and Nicole's (well-meaning, if a bit interfering during the investigation), and by implication Vikas's. It made me wonder what Nick will turn out to be like as a dad - it would be nice if there was a stable, loving, not in the least smothering family in the series.

babyjellyfish · 28/10/2022 13:48

Interesting comments about dads there, @soulinablackberrypie.

I think Robin has a decent dad too, although he doesn't get much airtime in this book other than a potted history of his career as a sheep reproduction expert!! And of course Ted, Strike's real dad figure.

I liked the portrayal of Nicole and her family, even though they only appeared for a brief moment. She sounded like a lot of fun, with loving and supportive parents who had proper boundaries but also allowed her to follow her dreams. The part where she talks candidly about sending nudes with her distinctly unimpressed dad next to her made me laugh. They seemed like nice people.

IndominusRex · 28/10/2022 14:53

Oooh some great observations there!

soulinablackberrypie · 28/10/2022 20:52

The part where she talks candidly about sending nudes with her distinctly unimpressed dad next to her made me laugh.

Me too. In some ways she felt like the female equivalent of Pez (only less sweaty!) - happy, confident, appealing, a bit cheeky, with some caring family relationships. Both people you feel are always going to be OK.

elizabethgaslight · 31/10/2022 14:18

Just finished reading. I found it quite hard going at first because the game chats were so hard to read and with so many characters, and I thought it was going to be too much about things that don't really interest me in middle age - gaming, cartoons, teenage obsessions, etc. But it picked up and I ended up loving it at the end, and found it interesting as an exploration of how people live their lives online, the trails we leave, the vulnerability to grooming, etc. Also obviously very interesting in the light of JKR's own treatment online.

I love the agency team at the moment - Midge is a great addition, and Pat and Strike's growing mutual respect is so well done.

I thought I was going to be frustrated by Robin and Strike STILL not getting together, but I think it's been set up nicely for Robin to have a happy fling with a decent, normal bloke, and Strike is starting to be less self-destructive and think about what he really needs in life, so I can wait another book or two for it to happen. Robin is such a strong character, and I think she's ahead of Strike in coming to terms with her past. She shouldn't have to rescue him from his messy life, so it's good to see him sorting himself out - breaking the Charlotte spell, looking after himself, and maybe meeting Prudence will be another step forward in coming to terms with his childhood. Not sure which pp said that Leda Strike's death needs to be investigated, but I agree and hope JKR has that planned.

Good point @soulinablackberrypie about dads, but a shame Ted wasn't in this one. Strike's got a bit of a surrogate dad thing going on with his nephew Jack too. I wonder what he'll be like as a godfather to Nick and Ilse's baby. But I like that neither he or Robin want children. It's refreshing to have a 30 year old woman character who is so absorbed by her fulfilling career and not worrying about her biological clock.

I didn't get the murderer but wasn't far off.

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 01/11/2022 14:51

I'm rereading. It's so frustrating seeing them line up Gus as a suspect and then veer away! They were so close to him at the start of the investigation. I am thoroughly disliking Inigo again, feeling not at all bothered by his imminent stabby demise.

Definitely think the Pez "date" is a taste of things to come for Robin. Hopefully she can have some fun while Strike sorts his life out. Isla makes an observation that one of the reasons Strike likes Robin is that she isn't trying to fix him and that she doesn't need saving - she saved herself. A new relationship for Robin can be an extension of that - she's getting on with her life (and will presumably be in her new flat by the next book too), Strike has time and space to get himself sorted.

Arrghh I wish it wasn't such a long wait between books!

ReneBumsWombats · 01/11/2022 15:29

Robin needs to have a fun fling to get her sexual desire properly kickstarted - I'm not sure she's ever really had a properly satisfying experience, what with Matthew as her first and only boyfriend from when they were so young and then, of course, her terrible attack. So she knows who she is, what she wants and has a bit of excitement and self discovery. And so Strike can get jealous and start realising that relationships aren't just sex and home cooked meals.

On the one hand, I want them to get it together. On the other...would it work if they did?

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 01/11/2022 16:03

Fingers crossed Ryan Murphy is good in bed. Robin deserves a decent tumble between the sheets!

babyjellyfish · 02/11/2022 10:00

But I like that neither he or Robin want children. It's refreshing to have a 30 year old woman character who is so absorbed by her fulfilling career and not worrying about her biological clock.

I'm not sure about this part, I think she is ambivalent about having children.

I think she did want them, but she loves her career and she doesn't think the two things are compatible.

At the moment it's kind of academic for her anyway because she's single. But I don't think it's as simple as her simply not wanting kids anymore.

ReneBumsWombats · 02/11/2022 10:20

Robin hasn't ruled kids out at all. She does brood (haha) about her biological clock. But she's not going to make bad life and relationship choices just to have them.

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 02/11/2022 12:55

I don't know about that - she said in Troubled Blood I think about kids meaning she'd be pulled in two directions and not wanting to ever feel that split / pull again. Also when she met her brother's (?) baby her sister in law talked about how it seemed that Robin was moving in a different direction from everyone else (who is marrying & having babies).

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