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Saturday, April 5, 2025

The Ink Black Heart comes to a Grand Finale: Final wrap-ups and echoes.

I must say, I love the talk Robin has with Zoe nearly as much as I love the one with Rachel (and I really hope that the two of them eventually met and were able to support each other in the aftermath of the Drek's Game scandal). I would have loved some indicator in the Coda that told us what became of Zoe, because I am genuinely worried about this young lady at the end of the evening. She's lost her boyfriend, which has to hurt despite his criminal predation. She's lost access to Drek's Game, her major source of social support. And she is living in terror of Anomie trying to kill her. Robin, as a good psychology student, should have recognized that Zoe is at risk of another suicide attempt. given her history. This had me speculating: if Robin had thought to ask someone to check on her at the Z, who would she ask?  I can think of three possibilities:

  • Mariam: Pro's: Zoe knows her and Mariam clearly has compassion for her, given the immediate job offer.  Cons: She would probably talk Zoe into moving into North Grove immediately, and, while that might be an improvement over her current hovel, I would worry about her staying there unless Nils and Pez are locked into chastity belts, and Bram shipped off to a high security boarding school Also, how would Miriam react to the news that Tim Ashcroft, clearly a pal and a regular North Grove visitor (and volunteer in the special needs classroom!) is a pedophile?
  • Ilsa: Pros: Ilsa would be very compassionate to Zoe, especially since she is just coming off a case where she assisted another vulnerable young girl that had been manipulated by online "friends." She could certainly educate Zoe on the legalities of the situation and offer assurances that Zoe can in no way be held responsible.  Cons: Zoe doesn't know her and might not be too keen on opening the hotel room door to anyone, even if Jessica/Buffypaws sent them. 
  • Vanessa: Pros: General bad-ass and someone you'd want on your side when dealing with either predatory or generalized arsehole men. Might be able to solve the problem quickly by going and arresting the guy. Cons: Again, Zoe doesn't know her. and she might be a bit to aggressive about her plans for Tim. 

Another thought I had this read-through:  I wonder if Zoe's amazing talent for art could get her a job on the Ink Black Heart movie? I'd rather see her drawn into the fold than Pez. 

If you want to read my head-cannon for Zoe's ultimate fate, go here

Moving on: Meanwhile, down in the car. the disgruntled Strike. who had been "emasculated" by his injured leg and Robin forcing him to acknowledge his physical limitations, here gets a bit of vindication with the arrival of Mr. Ashcroft. It is gratifying to see that, even on crutches and sans prosthesis, Strike can still physically in-"Tim"-idate someone who desperately deserves it. This is testimony to both Strike's demeanor and Ashcroft's inherent cowardice; Tim takes flight when Strike steps towards him, just as William Baker (SW) and Saul Morris (TB) did. But Ashcroft is fleeing from a guy on crutches. This is an additional thematic link to CoE with our heroes helping to bring a bonus pedophile to justice, in addition to capturing a misogynistic serial killer.  

Once they have Zoe (hopefully!) settled and safely off to the Z hotel (I wonder where Robin was planning to sleep, since she didn't know, at the time, she'd be tied up with hospital and police most of the night?), it's time to head off to the Ledwells. We get a rare glimpse at Strike interacting with little girls here and, once again, he shows us he is better with kids than he thinks he is. He responds to the Ledwell daughters' very natural questions about his amputated leg with a simple, straightforward and age-appropriate explanation, which is how most child development specialists recommend approaching such situations.  I also caught another connection to The Silkworm here, with Grant Ledwell's startled response to the sight of Strike without his prosthesis, which was very similar to Daniel Chard's. In both cases, Strike responds to the awkwardness by cracking a joke. 

The good-cop/bad-copping of the coffin letter clue out of the Ledwells is one of my series favorite scenes, and another echo of The Silkworm, where Strike and Robin did the same thing to Pippa Midgley, although that encounter was more spontaneous than planned. And, while Grant was not quite as vicious to Heather as Jasper was to Kinvara at the Paralympic reception, his "shut up" was a definite echo of that moment. Strike nailed Uncle Grunt in his later description:

And Grant bloody Ledwell--if he'd looked at the handwriting on the envelope and compared it to the letter, if he'd showed it to the police instead of deciding Blay just must be a money-grubber, which is the worst bit of projection I've seen in a while, Vikas Bhardwaj might still be alive. 

Our heroes are on the way to the Upcotts when Flavia's panicked call speeds them up, to the extent that they arrive before the emergency services. I caught another Silkworm echo in the form of the marble torso statue that Robin pitches out of the window. It was earlier described as:

A modernist marble sculpture of a woman's torso sat squatly on a side table. Otherwise, the room was sparsely furnished and devoid of decorative objects. 

A minimalist room dominated by a naked woman statue was also seen at Daniel Chard's Devon home: 

The dominant feature of the under-furnished room was a life-sized white marble sculpture of an angel, perched on a rock and partially dissected to expose half of her skull, a portion of her guts and a slice of the bone in her leg. Her breast...was revealed as a mound of fat globules sitting on a circle of muscle that resembled the gills of a mushroom. 

While I appreciated the symbolism of smashing Gus's objectification of women, I do wonder, if Strike's explicit request of the neighbors to call the police wasn't enough to summon them, what good does a falling 12-inch statue do?

In addition to connections to The Silkworm, much has been written about connections of The Ink Black Heart to The Half-blood Prince. See this essay by Beatrice Groves, this one by Irvin Khaytman and this Three Broomsticks podcast.  But, this read-through, another occurred to me.  TIBH is the only one of the books, to date, where we don't get a major confrontation of the villain by one of the detectives, who explains the resolution of the mystery to both the culprit and to us readers. We have Strike confronting Bristow in CC, Tassel in SW, Laing in CoE, Janice in TB, while Robin has the honor with Raff in LW.  In TRG, they split the duties, with Robin confronting Mazu and Strike Abigail.  In TIBH, the confrontation with Gus is a physical fight, with not a lot of time for explanations. Yes, Robin and Strike tie up some loose ends in their hospital chat, but that has a very different vibe than a hero-villain showdown.  HBP is the only one of the Harry Potter books where Harry does not get a long explanatory chat with Dumbledore at the end, what with Dumbledore being dead and all. In Books 1-5, the chat happens at Hogwarts; Harry travels to the Kings Cross Afterlife for the conversation in DH. In a weird way, the hospital chat is more like Harry and DD's book wrap-up talks, given that the parties are on friendly terms. 

One thing that marred the ending of the book for me is yet another screwed up timeline. Monday, June 15th is a very busy day for our heroes, from the office repair to the trips to Zoe's and the Ledwells to the final capture of the killer. The Coda, supposedly five days after Anomie's capture, apparently takes place on a Friday, since Robin was in the office with Barclay and Pat that morning (when Nutley called), but has a "free weekend" to go out with Murphy that night. So, June 19th. However, Strike said on Monday that the new glass would be installed "at the end of the week," yet, in the hospital he grouses that everyone has been walking by the new window for "five days" without noticing. This suggests that either the glass guy showed up early, on Monday right after Robin and Strike left for Zoe's, or it is actually 11 days later and the new window was in place for the June 22-26 work week, with Robin visiting on Friday June 26th.  But would Robin really stay away that long? More importantly, how could Strike possibly wait that long for his snacks and nicotine fix, unless he was in a medically induced coma?  Could some kind soul with a more recent edition paperback check that last chapter and see if anything has been corrected?

I will close by pointing out my favorite Silkworm-Ink Black Heart connection: Orlando and Flavia. One is a cognitively impaired adult, one a precocious child. Both conceal vital clues to the mystery: Orlando hides part of the original Bombyx Mori in her Cheeky Monkey; Flavia witnessed the letter swap but kept quiet, except for the anonymous Darth Vader phone calls. Both "girls" have highly unsympathetic murder victims for fathers. Both are facing potential permanent separation from their mothers: Orlando because Leonora was almost convicted of murder; Flavia because Gus nearly killed Katya, but our heroes save the day. And both send a thank-you card to the detectives at the end. 

As I said at the start of this series, The Ink Black Heart, coming only a year before The Running Grave, got relatively little in-depth analysis. Given the leapfrog pattern seen so far among the Strike books, it is the book most likely to have echoes to The Hallmarked Man, so it was well worth revisiting as we await publication. I hope you have enjoyed the read-through, and I look forward to tackling The Silkworm next. 

Subscriptions and commentary may be easier at the Substack version of this blog. 

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

The Ink Black Heart: Chapters 94-100: Madz's swan song, Aeschylus, bad medical news, an awkward Facetime and a vastly inferior sofa.

I decided this blog post deserves its own epigraph. 

When she says she wants forgiveness
It's such a clever masquerade
She's so good with her stiletto
You don't even see the blade--  Billy Joel

Looking back at the Madwoman's attack at Denmark Street, I was struck by the description: 

Her silver high heels and short metallic dress suggested she'd come straight from a party or, perhaps, the launch of some book, album or beauty product; somewhere, at least, where people go to be seen, and photographed, and reassured they were important. 

Given that Mads will later text that she had just run into Charlotte, MiLady Berzerko was presumably there at this VIP event. I wonder what Charlotte said that set her off?  Mads must have told Charlotte pretty quickly after the breakup (Saturday evening) since Charlotte already knew on Tuesday (as seen on Strike's visit to Jago) and Mads turns up on Denmark Street on Wednesday. Could Charlotte have been gushing on how helpful Strike had been in getting her dirt on Jago? Or did she trash-talk her ex, going on about how he was a user and a gold-digger? Which would have upset Mads more? 

Considering Mads' wake-up present to Strike on the morning after Comicon, him saying that Charlotte was "gagging for him" was a little.... weird.

The mention of Landon Dormer is also interesting: evidence Charlotte was lying through her teeth to Jago about there being nothing between them-- and, of course, they will be a public couple by the time of A Running Grave. But this is Charlotte, so what else can we expect? In any case, the Denmark Street encounter goes badly, ending with Mads' stiletto heel implanted in Strike's bad leg, Strike literally crawling through a gutter, then her tearful begging for his forgiveness. Strike makes the smartest love-life choice we've seen of him to date and tells her to f*ck off. 

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Schedule for the Pre-Hallmarked Man reread of The Silkworm.

 

The Ink Black Heart re-read is drawing to a close, and I'm gearing up for the next in the series, Book #2: The Silkworm.  Anyone who would rather listen than read should check out the series the The Strike and Ellacott Files Podcast are doing on this book right now.  They are about halfway through, with Strike and Robin taking off for Devon in the last episode. I am particularly appreciating their look at the epigraphs, as they are teaching us a lot about the plays they came from, and how they thematically connect to the book.  Fascinating stuff!

To be honest, I am looking forward to shorter posts for this much shorter book!

Here is the schedule: 

  • Tues. April 8:  Ch. 1-6
  • Sat. April 12: Ch. 7-9
  • Tues. April 15: Ch. 10-13
  • Sat. April 19: Ch. 14-17
  • Tues. April 22: Ch. 18-21
  • Sat. April 26: Ch. 22-24
  • Tues. April 29: Ch. 25-27
  • Sat. May 3: Ch. 28-29
  • Tues. May 6: Ch. 30-34
  • Sat, May 10: Ch. 35-37
  • Tues. May 13: Ch. 38-40
  • Sat. May 17: Ch. 41-43
  • Tues. May 20: Ch. 44-46
  • Sat. May 24: Ch. 47-50


Saturday, March 29, 2025

The Ink Black Heart, Chapters 86-93: Bye-bye Charlotte, bye-bye Buffypaws and hello, Mads.

So, Strike and Robin return to London and to the Z Hotel near Denmark Street. Unlike the Marine Hotel of Whitstable, Robin does not enjoy her stay here, though Strike seems to find it an improvement over his drafty attic. Everyone arrives for a team meeting in the hotel cafe, and Midge brings the welcome news that the first Mrs. Jago Ross is going to file for sole custody of the daughters. Again, it seems a bit strange Strike didn't tell Robin that was part of the plan all along; she might have been less resentful of the case if he had just said, "If we can get evidence of abuse, we can both neutralize him and maybe persuade the girls' mother to go back to court to get them back with her full time." 

Strike also has the decency to thank the others for sticking with their business in the face of the terrorist threat. There is a bit of grumbling over the workload that Anomie is still imposing, but Strike, in what turns out to be very bad timing, assures them Robin will be in the moderator's channel soon. He also tells the team he plans to go see Jago Ross that evening, but gives no details.

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

The Ink Black Heart, Chapters 79-85: Unexpected Echos to Career of Evil.

Ring structure predicts connections between The Ink Black Heart and The Silkworm, and there are certainly many. (See here,  here and here.)  But, during this mid-section of the book, lots of connections to Career of Evil start popping up, as well, enough that I once wondered if this book wasn't originally intended as #5 in the series. (see here, here, and here for more of my now-discarded 5-6 flip idea). The getaway at the Marine Hotel is Strike and Robin's first overnight away together since the  Travelodge of Barrow-in-Furness in Career of Evil, and is one of the more feel-good segments of the series, for everything except Strike's leg. Some highlights:

  • Robin swapping keys with Strike so he can have the ocean view room.* 
  • Strike dumping Madeline. 
  • Robin's double-take and glance at the prosthesis as Strike tells her his leg "keeps moving of its own bloody accord."
  • Robin having what must be the most productive three hours of her detective career, making the Fiendy = Penny Peacock = @rachledbadly = Rachel Ledwell connection and setting the groundwork to meet with Rachel in person through a new @stopanomie Twitter account. 
  • What sounds like delicious food and Rioja wine in the hotel restaurant.
    • The dining room also includes the "corrugated white coral" decor, the sun-bleached element I predicted would occur as the "dry albedo" element to the "wet nigredo" that was Troubled Blood.
    • In the Book 7 midst of her misery at Chapman Farm, Robin would recall visiting seaside towns with Strike, "especially the dinner in Whitstable: the white coral on the mantlepieces set against the slate-coloured walls, and the sight of Strike laughing opposite her, framed against a window through which she watched the sea turning indigo in the fading light."

Saturday, March 22, 2025

The Ink Black Heart: Chapters 71-78. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

 

"Well, if everyone had your powers of observation and quick reactions, Mrs. Chauncey, our jobs would be a hell of a lot easier."

This police officer says it all. Pat shows her awesomeness not only because of her quick thinking with the parcel, but also with her observational skills, which rival the ones Robin showed when she got the severed leg. Robin echoed another CoE scene (Strike with Rona Laing's mother) when she fetched her a glass of medicinal port. 

But the fact that she has now faced physical danger alongside them, even though that is not an expected part of being an office manager, puts Pat on a similar footing to Robin, who had her own first life-saving and life-risking experiences in The Silkworm. She also connects with Strike as she shares about the death of her uncle in the Troubles: 

"Wrong place, wrong time. Hard to get your head around. Well, I don't need to tell you that."

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

The Ink Black Heart: Chapters 65-70: Lots of Highgate and a bomb. Plus: when did Hartella learn the truth about Lord Drek?

This section includes three chapters that are almost entirely Robin's adventures in the Highgate area; between her tour of the cemetery, her visit to Northgrove, her drink with Pez and her surveillance at Zoe's place, she covers quite a lot of ground and suspects. There's also one brief moderating chat and of course, the bombing.  A few other tidbits tossed in include Robin's invitation to be a moderator, her failed attempt to let Hugh Jacks down easily and Nutley's update on Kea, which leads Strike to the accusations on Reddit. 

Chapter 65 opens with one of Strike's very useful summary emails, which help us readers keep track of the many suspects in a Robert Galbraith book. The first time I read his "We're running out of original suspects" line I thought maybe they should be looking at someone already eliminated and guessed that Anomie might be played by more than one person, though I assumed the persona had been a group effort from the start, not something recent. But, after all, if people can take turns being Buffypaws, why not Anomie? 

At the office reading this email, Robin, while making plans to visit Highgate Cemetery before the North Grove art class, gets the welcome invitation to become a moderator and the unwelcome reminder from Pat that she needs to call Hugh Jacks and make her disinterest clear. She makes that call from the Highgate courtyard while waiting for her tour. 

Regarding Hugh Jacks: If I were Robin, Cousin Katie's invitation to my next wedding would be contingent on proof that she has managed to set Hugh up on a date with one or more of the following: 1) Irene Hicks-- with the meal including lamb bhuna 2) Tempest 3) Yasmin 4) Mazu Wace 5) Matthew's Aunt Sue or 6) Kea, with her mom and Ozzie the Cockatoo as chaperones. I would include Marguerite among the choices but I don't think Robin ever met her.