*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

Linda Bassett is too old to be Pat, though I'm sure she'd be great if they were a little flexible with ages between the books/TV series.

I've just seen photos of Helena Bonham Carter as Noele Gordon &, hair colour & dress sense aside, she looks more like the Pat in my head than anyone else mentioned so far. I'm going to have to go through all the female cast announced for TB & see who's closest to Pat's age...

I can't help thinking JKR has taken the "smelly strike" comments a bit to heart. (Just for the record I think ecigs are a bit smelly too...)

The kid at the art collective has 100% killed that cat

For some reason I thought Gus was 14 ish until he was driving his dad.

Thought Kea might attempt suicide too

Assumed Anomie was multiple people from the start.

Loved it, didn't mind the Twitter threads or in-game chats being read out loud but it's the first one I've felt I want to have a paper copy of to check what they are actually saying. I don't have any in actual book form, maybe I'll treat myself to a set of hardbacks to celebrate Strike and Robin's wedding

Listened to it faster than I would have liked to as I saw there were spoilers about. I've already started re-listening to catch all the bits I missed first time round.

I still like TB best, then CoE, IBH, CC, LW, SW.

Who was the lady doing the excellent podcast on the Strike books? (in real life!)

Annoyingly I don't know her name nor remember the names of what I've seen her in but if it jogs anyone's memory the woman I envisage as Pat has been in a lot and remember her in a crime drama of a few years ago (Itv?) Where she played the mentor of a young black boy who discovered she'd once been a member of a far right group...

???

She was married to /living with a black man too and completely regretful in later life. Eventually her relationship survived but in early scenes she was trying to get to the young boy to his exams (gcses or maybe a levels).

Anyone know??

I remember!

Ruth Sheen

One thing that amused me was the way she really went to town on Cormoran's amputated leg. After the first one came out, apparently loads of people complained that she spent too much time describing how his amputated leg affected him, how much it hurt, how he looked after it etc. She seems to have cheerfully ignored all that and decided to give Cormoran a really hard time of it with the leg. It's very effective, though, because it's an opportunity to show us Cormoran's character as he ploughs on regardless. I also found it quite educational - how many of us have ever really thought about how it feels to live life with an amputated limb?

Do you mean Ruth Sheen from Unforgotten? (Also played Molly Dawe's Nan in Season 1 of Our Girl)

I'm really enjoying it so far - place marking to come back here once I've finished 😁

@Lunde yes I think she's brilliant

I loved Pat's line about sending her first husband's OW "something that wouldn't spread easy on toast".

@User478

There's a group podcast called the Strike and Ellacott Files, but I think the one you are thinking of is Denmark Street Deep Dive with Clara, who has been on TSEF as well as a guest.

I don't think she is around here on Mumsnet much anymore, but she occasionally pops up on Twitter.

Feel free to ask her for more episodes, as I don't want to nag her any more than I have!

Sorry, meant Kea, not Katya. Also, self diagnosed ADHD and ASD.

Kea was a very interesting red-herring character - I kept expecting more to happen with her. I also thought about her Mum and her psychotic birds as a potential plot twist.

I see Pat as the chain smoking church secretary in young Sheldon when I read the books, even though she’s only supposed to be 57!

The end seemed very rushed. I keep imagining Zoe sat, waiting alone, back in the hotel.

Pez made my flesh crawl.

Just finished it as well. My random thoughts:

-It’s not my fave Strike book (that was Career of Evil) and I read on Kindle so the tiny font for the Drek’s Game chats was annoying, but it was really well observed in terms of the online trolling and also the sheer entitlement some “fans” have when it comes to someone else’s creations.

• I didn’t guess the murderer but I had Madeline pegged as a crazy bitch from the moment she was rude to a waitress.

-Also lots of themes of shitty parenting in this one- Grant Ledwell, Jago and Charlotte, Nils and Bram, the Upcotts.

-I missed Matthew. Because I enjoyed how much fun JKR has describing his insecurities and annoying habits. He is very well drawn and I love to hate him. I also enjoy Charlotte turning up because she’s an agent of chaos.

-One thing I didn’t get was what the two far right infiltrators were doing in Dreks Game in the first place. Was it just to plant the dossier to try and get Edie to kill herself because she was a target as an outspoken left wing woman?

-I would have liked some closure on some of the side characters, like Zoe, Josh, Rachel, Nils and Bram

-Not JKR’s fault, but it annoys me that racists are ruining runes for us pagans.

-Loved the poetry at the start of each chapter, particularly Rossetti.

-Re accusations of transphobia and ableism thrown at JKR: Tell me you haven’t read TIBH without telling me you’ve read TIBH.

not RTFT yet

I pictured Pat as a cross between Sylvia Sydney from beetlejuice and a woman credit controller I knew from one of my first temp jobs she had a downstairs office to herself that was a fog of smoke when you opened the door she had glass and short hair, and yeah a very deep husky voice from all the cigarette.

*glasses

Couldn't resist an Ink Black Heart themed name change!

<fist bump> @BorkledDrek

I ❤️ Pat and her singed handbag

I loved it. Going to have to give it a slower second reading though.

Amelia Bullmore woud make an excellent Pat.

Just finished my second reading. I wonder if Pat should be getting counselling for her repeated misgenderings?

Pat doesn't strike me as a snowflake. I think she'll be OK.

I hope so.

I think Madeline is pregnant despite her getting drunk in the final scene together. I also wonder if there is something wrong with Strike in terms of health - we never did get to hear about the blood test results for the twitchy leg and face.

Cracking book. Love Robert Glenister’s narration too