A review by romonko
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Perhaps it is my age, or perhaps it's my total indifference to social media and all its iterations like Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, instagram, but I truly did not get really into this book like I usually do with this series.  The mystery was a good one, and it finally did get really exciting at the end.  And that is another of the things that caused me to shake my head - the sheer length of the book!   1,300 odd pages is a lot of book!  The writing is superb as well, but I did find some of the dialogues and transcripts of Twitter feeds and internet chats far too graphic for my tastes.  I was extremely uncomfortable through about 30% of the book, but the other 70% held me enthralled.  There is no doubt that Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling) is a very skilled and talented author, and her characterizations are incredible.  In this book Corm and Robin's detective agency are run off their feet with business.  Then along comes a visitor that Robin meets. A young Gothic woman who has a very strange tale to tell about her on-line cartoon called The Ink Black Heart and the on-line abuse that she is receiving..  Robin is intrigued but knows that they're too busy to take on this case.  Then Robin hears that the young woman is killed  and her boyfriend was stabbed in the very graveyard on which her story is based.  So Corm, Robin and their three contract detectives are on the tail of a particularly odious killer.  At much risk to Comoran and Robin and to their business they continue on the quest to find a killer who uses the internet as his/her hunting ground.  This is a particularly horrifying book, and probably realistically illustrates the danger of on-line relationships and influences. And it reminds parents that they must be particularly vigilant in monitoring their offspring's on-line footprint.  Rowling has shown us in this book what a truly scary world we live in now. Although I did not like the format and the pages and pages of internet-speak, I still enjoyed the story, and I love Comoran and Robin and will eagerly awake the next instalment.
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