Christmas holidays came and went for me and I was happy enough to be gifted this book. And so began the reading, and once I started, well, it was hard to put it down.
It’s been a while since I read a crime novel, focusing on lighter reads that I knew I wouldn’t have an issue with getting into, and I’ll admit that I was a little weary starting this book that I would not get into it. Judging that I read this in the nick of time, it was a pointless worry.
I devoured this book like I have any other of the series, let’s be honest here. It follows Robin and Strike on yet another case among many that they are already undertaking. And this new one is unlike anything any of them had seen before. There are the usual other characters that readers have grown used to, some of them will probably not be leaving for a while, and the more you read the closer you begin feeling to them.
There are so many characters within The Ink Black Heart that it was hard to keep track of. I did consider grabbing a piece of paper and writing them down, especially those that were involved in the mystery, almost acting like another investigator on the roster. Considering the principal suspects sit in the real world and the online world where people have varying usernames, that’s where the difficulty comes in, and wrapping your head around who is who kind of gets to you after a while. I suppose some of this unknown is where the fun comes in, and despite there being an overwhelming number of people, I didn’t entirely feel that it clouded anything. I must say, the element of mystery remains until the end, granted each reader is bound to have their suspects throughout the 1000-some pages, but of course, when the grand reveal occurs in the final chapter ahead of the ‘Coda’, everything clicks into place.
Overall, it’s a relatively easy read, despite the almost overwhelming number of characters and the complex relationship between them, the only greater ‘complexity’ is the plot, the actual mystery that I always try to solve along with the detectives (I always fail but once they reveal it, I see how the reader could have also gotten there themselves). The language, in all of the books from the Strike collection, is kept simple, it’s only when dialects get introduced that I find myself slowing down, and within this one, I am also intrigued as to how translators go about changing the dialect and internet speak into local languages.
As much as I enjoy mysteries, I really do wish that the action wasn’t solved almost at the last minute in the book, personally, I could do with an extra chapter or two following that. The climax happens and then the denouement happens in a blink of an eye, or in the flick of three pages. I feel like that asks for more, but the way the author summarizes everything doesn’t really leave room for more to be put in. Perhaps it is deliberate, each writer has their own quirk.
In the recent installments, I go in hoping something will happen between Robin and Strike, and alas it does not but I keep holding out hope – it’s almost a slow burn at this point and I am a patient reader. It is a little hard to tell whether there will be another installment and I don’t really keep up much with literature news these days, but something tells me there might be. In a way, I am not sure what new mystery can really be created, and perhaps that’s what is running over my mind now upon finishing. I am under the impression that the author has, for the most part, covered most mysteries they could have, though, I suppose the field is limitless, there are several writers that have created series on series of crime novels.
aga is reading 