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A review by kathywadolowski
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
5.0
I see a lot of readers (and even non-readers) complaining about the length of this doorstop. I could not disagree more. First, if you have any experience with this series you know you're getting into a long one; but second, and more importantly, no amount of pages in this series would be enough for me. The writing is just absolute magic, and even the more banal moments in the plot pull me right in.
The mysteries at the center of the Strike series are always so complex, and this one was no exception. And I love it—that intricacy is what keeps me engaged through 1,000+ pages, and I appreciate the slow burn of these investigations. Nothing feels rushed, and we have time to pay attention to every detail. And though some turn out to be unimportant or even red herrings, it feels much more real at the same time. We genuinely get to feel out the suspects alongside Strike and Robin, and this accounts for a great deal of the thrill in these books. And though we did learn things pretty slowly in this book, I also think it worked *because* of the mystery's complexity. The flux between the real and online worlds was a lot to keep straight and we definitely needed some thinking time, which we got.
"The Ink Black Heart" had an interesting feature in the internet/chat text blocks included throughout the book. These were a little bit confusing to get through at the start, especially with the volume of online personalities and the challenge of keeping their real-life counterparts straight as we learned them. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure I had all the links right even when I'd finished the book. But I think you quickly learned who you *needed* to keep tabs on, and that helped.
No review would be complete without a discussion of Strike and Robin, the other lynchpin of the series. Theirs is like, the ultimate will-they-won't-they relationship and I actually expected to be tired of it by now. Though I do have some occasional frustration with Strike's revolving door of ladies—OBVIOUSLY he is just filling the Robin-sized hole in his heart—their shared hesitation to move things forward is a genuine concern. Their work is so important to each of them, and as business partners any movement could destroy their careers as well as personal lives if things were to go south. So I get it, but so help me they had better get together at some point in this series. I can wait, but not forever...
The mysteries at the center of the Strike series are always so complex, and this one was no exception. And I love it—that intricacy is what keeps me engaged through 1,000+ pages, and I appreciate the slow burn of these investigations. Nothing feels rushed, and we have time to pay attention to every detail. And though some turn out to be unimportant or even red herrings, it feels much more real at the same time. We genuinely get to feel out the suspects alongside Strike and Robin, and this accounts for a great deal of the thrill in these books. And though we did learn things pretty slowly in this book, I also think it worked *because* of the mystery's complexity. The flux between the real and online worlds was a lot to keep straight and we definitely needed some thinking time, which we got.
"The Ink Black Heart" had an interesting feature in the internet/chat text blocks included throughout the book. These were a little bit confusing to get through at the start, especially with the volume of online personalities and the challenge of keeping their real-life counterparts straight as we learned them. To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure I had all the links right even when I'd finished the book. But I think you quickly learned who you *needed* to keep tabs on, and that helped.
No review would be complete without a discussion of Strike and Robin, the other lynchpin of the series. Theirs is like, the ultimate will-they-won't-they relationship and I actually expected to be tired of it by now. Though I do have some occasional frustration with Strike's revolving door of ladies—OBVIOUSLY he is just filling the Robin-sized hole in his heart—their shared hesitation to move things forward is a genuine concern. Their work is so important to each of them, and as business partners any movement could destroy their careers as well as personal lives if things were to go south. So I get it, but so help me they had better get together at some point in this series. I can wait, but not forever...