*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

I hope so re the condoms.
Buffypaws , love the username.

Finished today!

What I liked:
the cartoon sounded adorable. I wish it was a real thing.
Charlotte! I love it when she shows up because she's mad as a box of frogs. Feel sorry for her kids though.
The Hampstead/Highgate locations.
Robin finally gets her own place and her name on the agency door.
First book to be virtually Matthew-free!

What I didn't like:
Overwritten generally and too much about Madeline, Strike has a script for relationships and we know how it goes so no need to follow every twist and turn.
Strike and Robin's mutual admiration society got a bit much at times especially considering the fatal flaw to their strategy. They took turns to play Buffypaws but never even considered that anyone else might be doing the same.

What puzzled me:
Strike takes the Tube from the British Museum to Denmark Street - how? It's a shorter walk to Denmark Street itself than to any Tube station.
What became of Nils' one eyed tortoiseshell cat? It was missing for 5 days. When the police said they called in Strike and Robin about a cat, I thought we'd hear more, but it was a different cat.
I play several online games but couldn't picture this one which seemed to combine cutting edge graphics with very basic early internet style chat.
Is it really likely that the security around the game was so tight that no-one in private detective agencies or the CID could break it?

Not realizing that people can swap around on line was a fatal flaw agreed on that.
.. But this was JKR's revenge novel on so many people. I have a hunch the next one will be more traditional somehow!

The toxic fandom aspect was all too realistic as was much of the Twitter interaction.

I was so sad for Morehouse as he seemed nice and even more sad when it was revealed that his online romance was a cruel hoax.

I feel for Charlotte's twins too
Those poor kids:(

I thought it was odd they were watching for tweets when it’s pretty standard knowledge that you can pre schedule tweets to post at any time

This thread has given me a lot to think about. So much I missed!

I'm not sure being able to schedule tweets derails the plot as it was twitter being used to go back and forth, either as bullying or faked conversation, which would require being online.

I guessed Anomie but tbh thought I was being sold a pup, and that he was deliberately underwritten to misdirect. JKR got me on that, and quite right, because that particular brand of evil is very much a type right?

It was overlong like JKRs HP books are overlong - she writes at once at a size of landscape and level of complex detail that mean you have to do the hard yards not to feel shortchanged. On the other hand, this one will stay with me more than the others. It's such a real and horrible world. Pure evil, and I hated what happened to Morehouse. Not in a hating it as part of the plot way, just sad and creeped out for an appealing character.

I like Robin more and more, but no, she can't just get it on with Strike. It's been too much risk of hero syndrome for him from the start. They have to be true equals - and that includes flipping the tables for a time and then Strike rebuilding his sense of self too.

Now that we know who anomie was - what did the far right group do apart from that attempted killing on the train and the bomb?

I like Robin more and more, but no, she can't just get it on with Strike. It's been too much risk of hero syndrome for him from the start. They have to be true equals - and that includes flipping the tables for a time and then Strike rebuilding his sense of self too.

I’ve just started my second, slower read & came to comment that things could have moved a lot faster if they’d just had an honest conversation. But no, I think you’re right. They have to take their time for this to work.

People don't have honest conversations do they ? I sometimes see couples together and I can sense that the lack of these type of heart to hearts are not happening. They are not on the same page at all
Strike saw fear in Robin's eyes. It was a rejection for him and he couldn't handle that at all.
So rather than address it, he goes off with someone else making it all worse again
That one line from Pez ' your so gorgeous' was what he should be saying to her ! He knows it , but so scared of opening up.
I think JK should have put them in the 'friends zone ' this book : no kissing, friendly bantz , skipping along. It would have been less fraught.
She never makes it easy for us readers though

Had a very busy week so only finished the book last night and glad to have somewhere to chat about it!

I was a bit disappointed because I guessed the murderer early on and the reason I've enjoyed her books so much is for the surprise reveal at the end.

JKR does have a tendency to resist editing length I think! We saw it with some of the later Potter novels and ink black heart is a perfect example. I found my eyes slipping over pages in the first half the book - I think it could have easily been half an inch to an inch thinner without losing anything and would have been a tighter/stronger read for it!

A few editing mistakes especially towards the end that I guess will be picked up in later editions.

Great book for learning how to plant red herrings I think! Though too many of them to keep track of. She seems to latch onto something in these books and then flog it to death a bit - like how every single person Strike knows has a different nickname for him, and the continual flagging of his pube like hair and the farting sofa. Pleased to see these all finally took a backseat in this novel.

Did anyone else feel the book was a bit preachy at times?
When it came to sexism, I mean. Don't get me wrong, she's not wrong about misogyny but it did feel like she was shoe horning statements into every possible space. Felt a bit unnecessary given the context.

I feel this was a transitional book and just a platform for her to have some revenge on those who hate.
I think she could do with stepping away from social media and making book 7 a proper thriller
/ whodunnit and make it less formulaic too
The references to people who kill themselves because of online bullying was interesting
It might have worked better if maybe Edie had killed her self because of this and the ones who asked her to help them did so because they wanted closure around why.
Or maybe a different murder linked to the case then a tie in that way or something. It might have worked a bit better maybe ?
Still, I'm on a second read now and it's making more sense. As it always does with her books
The sofa has gone now , the agency has moved on a bit with a brand new door too!
That made my day! Nice ending , well that was!

Can I join this thread?

Just finished the book.

It wasn't my favourite, although I think my favourite is Lethal White so I don't necessarily like what everyone else likes.

Like Troubled Blood, I think there were too many suspects and by the end it could have been any of them, especially when it was revealed that Hartella had been pretending to be Anomie in the game so half the suspects who had been ruled out became potentials again. When Anomie's identity was revealed it was a bit of an anti-climax for me, but I think it would have felt like that whoever it turned out to be, because we hadn't seen enough of any of the suspects.

I'm also not sure that the far right group brought much to the plot. It could have done with being pared down a bit.

To me, this came across as an up yours to JK Rowling's detractors. I howled when I learned that people who haven't read the book have taken to Twitter to complain about it being ableist, when it is a book about a cartoon which is criticised on Twitter for being ableist. Predictably, people who haven't read the book are also calling it transphobic because of the Worm character, which isn't even a major character in the cartoon but is the reason why the cartoon was also criticised for being transphobic. She knew full well that people would say these things without even bothering to read the book, and the book is a tribute to them. It mocks Twitter trolls, incels and professional offence takers. I love the fact that Anomie literally turned out to be a smelly incel with no job or social life who lives with his mum. Also loved Strike basically ruling out several suspects purely on the basis that they couldn't be Anomie because they had a job, friends and a sex life.

That said, I hope she's got this stuff off her chest a bit in this book, and that in the next one we see more of a return to the regular detective fiction she is so good at.

@babyjellyfish agree with all that! Also on twitter she’s been criticised as hating fat people and making them shitty characters. Twats obv had not read any of these books least of all this one in which strike being overweight is a big concern for him! It’s a great platform for her as one of the most widely read authors of our time to do a proper clap back to the dumb twitter trolls.

Welcome to anyone with an opinion about this book !! I could ' chat ' about these books forever. It's nice online because everyone else I know do not read that much. Or have different tastes and it's always respectable on here too
I'm not that big a reader myself , but there is just something about these books I love and not just the author! I can see the action taking place in my head.
I agree it could have pared down a bit ( strikes hospital trip was pages of not much ) but she clearly wants us to know the struggles he goes through and the toll on his health from this stressful job

Love the username, @Buffypaws!

You're right about the fat thing, and Strike also makes the criticisms of ableism completely absurd. If JKR was prejudiced against disabled people she wouldn't have made the hero of the whole book series an amputee, would she? The whole series shines a light on how difficult it is to live with a disability which holds you back from doing the things you want to do, which is a theme I haven't really seen explored in many books. It's so daft so suggest that if someone writes about a disabled character in an unflattering way, it means they're ableist. If anything, it's ableist to suggest that authors shouldn't write about disabled villains, or black or gay villains, because they must always be sympathetic characters and so can never be portrayed with the same complexity that an able bodied white heterosexual can.

Unrelated, I really liked the Rachel Ledwell twist, especially the way she pretended to be male online due to her previous bad experiences. I didn't see that one coming at all and yet all the clues were there if you were paying close attention to the Twitter handles.

Haha thanks @babyjellyfish

yea the Ableism thing is weird. I’d have thought it would be good to have a disabled protagonist. Representation. But presumably the way she does it is incorrect or something. I personally haven’t seen anything “ableist” but I’m obviously not right on enough to notice …

I would have thought that most people in his position after his rehab would have taken the compensation and just lived on benefits or something similar ( or a sitting down job of some kind in an office)
The fact he decided to work and make a go of a very difficult career is to be applauded really
Having only one leg must be hard enough without having a job like this! Nothing ableist about any of it.
I think he'll lose weight and get fit in book 7, the fags and doom bar will have to be replaced by healthier options

Just finished it. I really liked it! Looking forward to the next one with the new office etc. I loved Pat's character, and Midge too.

Midge was cool!

I also suspected Gus from the beginning but then she did throw me off so in a way, well done! I do spend most of these books thinking 'oh it's definitely x'.

I loved how Robin did some really clever detective work in this one.

I didn't like Madeline at all.

Charlotte was vile as usual.

I actually quite like Ryan Murphy! I'm still undecided whether Strike and Robin getting together would ruin it for me.

I liked Ryan , but being an ex alcoholic might put a spanner in the works:( plus she'll keep on comparing him to Strike.
It's sad Robins landlord didn't get much of a mention too ; he was lovely to her after the strike drunk incident in TB. They got on ok
Shame about the dog too

Ryan’s alcoholism is a Chekhov’s gun. Interested to see how it pans out. It sets up a plausible exit from the relationship once strike’s cleaned up his act

Did anyone else actually slightly miss Matthew...? He's so realistically awful (especially how he'd put on that shrill voice whenever he was imitating Robin!) but if we had to have a pining ex popping up, I'd prefer Matthew to Charlotte. I didn't get the impression he was happy with his new Sarah-and-baby setup. He'd dragged his heels over the divorce, not got with Sarah for ages, and then had to be trapped with a pregnancy. I can see him making a play for her if they see each other in Massam again.

@Buffypaws I think the complaints of ableism are about how she writes about some of the suspects but I can't say I paid much attention, especially given that none of the people complaining seem to have read it.

I like the way the Pen of Justice and other Twitter warriors go on about the Worm being transphobic and Drek being an antisemitic trope and then you hear Edie in interviews saying, "no, its literally just a worm" and, "I don't know what Drek is, it was based on a plague doctor mask", showing that if people are determined to find you something-phobic or something-ist, they will, no matter what you write. The same way people are now claiming the Gringotts goblins are antisemitic when nobody seemed to notice or care until JKR came under fire for her opinions about gender.

The professional offence takers are really bad news for the arts in general, but especially literature. And the publishing industry seems really intolerant of the wrong opinions, which is deeply worrying.