Robert Galbraith - The Ink Black Heart

When frantic, disheveled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity.
Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this—and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.
Robin and her business partner, Cormoran Strike, become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits – and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways . . .

Comment: This is installment #6 in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith. I'm a fan of the series and while this one doesn't reach quite the same level as the previous one in terms of mystery, I was still seriously devoted throughout the 1221 pages of my paperback edition.

In this new adventure, Strike and Robin are going to stretch their agency's ability to investigate several cases, mostly because a big one comes their way and, suddenly, besides the things they had committed to, Strike's ex show up with yet another request, and Strike decides to investigate her husband because it would suit his need to finally get rid of Charlotte. 

However, the biggest and most time consuming case is that of the cartoon authors Edie Ledwell and Josh Blay, who are attacked and Edie is killed, being the main suspects members of the fandom of the cartoon. Robin is especially interested because Edie sought her before her death, asking for help to unmask the main hater among the fandom, but Robin told her they weren't experts on cyber investigation. Now, after all, they have the opportunity to make justice, but how will find who that person is?

I can bet many readers hated the size of this story and many might have the opinion that no story requires such an amount of pages but for me, personally, this is fun and like spending time with people I'm interested in. It's certainly true that some situations could be edited even further, but I like the vibe of the story, I like the slow progress and the time we have to savor and think about everything.

I will admit this case didn't fascinate me as much as the one investigated in the previous book and I wasn't as eager to find out the assassin in this one. Besides, the twists and the identity of the killer here weren't as amazing nor as surprising, and part of my reaction was due to this, and not that the story isn't appealing. In fact, this story has to be quite modern and realistic, considering the theme being heavily set on social media and cyber bullying/cyber hate and all those things we can say about coward people who have such behavior and lack of respect while on an anonymous screen.

The author does tackle a lot of themes related to the modern world of social media and how that works and how people can be affected by what they see and by the interactions in such platforms. It does seem as if people are way more free with the demonstrations of hate and lack of understanding if they don't have to be face to face with their "targets" and we can see this very well in the story, especially when Robin and Strike investigate several people somehow related to the cartoon - made to be accessible on YouTube - as well as to an online game fans developed based on the cartoon and, obviously, all the fans who were active on places like Twitter (which I know is now something else, even though I've never had an account there).

The investigation process starts slow, as one would expect, but I like these types of books where searching for a villain doesn't necessarily mean deaths or gore as we might find in other crime or mystery novels, and we can go steadily from one point to another, trying to guess what is going on. Now that I know the solution, there are, indeed, several hints which make sense and point out in that direction, but as always, there is a bigger amount of information that only makes sense, or seems easy, after we get to know how everything is connected. I must say it sounds too complicated to keep track of every detail and the author used tons of details... the editor must have the patience of a saint.

The best thing about these cases Robin and Strike investigate is how we get to see them think on their feet, connect dots, be proactive in finding ways to reach this situation or that, use disguises and plans and stuff that, frankly, seems too much work, but that is what makes reading this such a captivating task. Impossible to forget, of course, the second best thing (for me) about these books, the very slow development of Robin and Strike's personal relationship. They've started as boss/employee, then Robin left, then came back, then they became sort of friends, then co workers, now business partners and it does seem obvious where this is going. I surely hope the author takes pity and makes them a couple soon...

It took me five days to read this book - during work days I was inconveniently restricted - but I was always eager to go back to the characters and what would happen next. I suppose many of the subjects mentioned during the case's investigation might not appeal to many readers , after all one could say there is always somehow the notion the author or someone wants to send a message, but in terms of plot and characterization, I think the author was quite clever and I'm now very eager to read the next one, it will be about a cult....

Grade: 8/10