*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

Just finished! I’ve had to work every day so only been able to read in the evenings - I’ve had some late nights staying up to get through!

Bits I liked:
Midge and Dev - though I’d like to have seen them developed a bit more
Pat - love her
Robin doing some kick ass detective stuff, truly becoming Strike’s equal
The Strike/Charlotte/Jago scene. Bye bye Charlotte!
The mystery - very engaging and I didn’t guess who Anomie was.
The new door and Robin’s reaction to it 🥰

Bits I didn’t like so much:
The chats were hard to follow, even in print
In general there didn’t seem to be as much character development as in previous books. We got sooooo much family content etc in TB and I was expecting more of the same, which we didn’t really get.
Hardly any Nick and Ilsa (though I did like the chapter of Ilsa and Robin’s dinner that we did get!)
Madeline - she was just a boring diversion. Much like it looks like Murphy will be in the next book.
All the missed opportunities for Strike and Robin! JKR was really teasing us with the sleepover at Robin’s and the hotel!

Those are my immediate thoughts - I’m sure I’ll have more once I’ve reflected.

Annette Badland for Pat in Troubled Blood, for a fiver!!

Bereft now I've finished the book. Am I going to have to wait like 3 years for the next??

June Brown would have been perfect as Pat. Annette badlands is too jolly i think.

She wasn't in Eastenders! Monica Dolan would've been great if she wasn't in The Silkworm!

I've just been watching Doctor Who with Annette Badlands & she's a great actress but not at all how I imagine Pat. In my head she looks a bit more like a cross between Prunella Scales & Maggie Smith, but not quite!

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!

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.

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

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

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?

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!

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

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!

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.

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

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

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

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 😅

Oh actually £42 😳😱

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

@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...

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

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

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