Mulholland Books The Ink Black Heart

First and foremost the book is brilliant. I am thoroughly enjoying it and it’s wonderful to be back in the company of Robin and Strike.My issue is that these reviews are surely meant to be about the quality of the text written not an opportunity to point out errors with formatting on a kindle? I think this needs to be looked into as it can be deceiving to a prospective buyer and unfair to the author.

Having enjoyed the previous Robert Galbraith novels, my 74 year old mum was keen to read this, however i have seen just how many pages are on line chats which to my mum have made no sense with the abbreviations she is not used to. What she could glean from the book is that it was completely boring! My mum NEVER gives up on a book and is a keen reader but unfortunately once she had got a third of the way through, she had to call it a day, What a waste of money (got the hardback) and what a huge huge disappointment! I know J K Rowling is against online chat groups having been on the receiving end of abuse but to incorporate it into a book which should be for all adult ages is just plain wrong!

Arrived today! Two hours in and I’m loving this book, it has to be the best Strike so far.

An excellent story, bit too technical to start with, but stick with it. You’ll find it difficult to put down.

First and most important - the plot development and writing are well up to 'Galbraith's' usual standard. I found the flow a little easier than the last book, but that might just be me. There are a lot of characters and these are multiplied by their on-line handles, so I was struggling at times to keep track of who is whom, but a glossary would be entirely inappropriate as discovering that information is the substance of the developing case. However a short glossary of acronyms etc. for those of us who are sad enough not to use social media very much would have been helpful - e.g what are the meanings of SJW and rofl?Fortunately I don't have the Kindle version but even in print following the parallel chats was definitely a challenge and the minute typeface doesn't help those who suffer from diminished visual acuity. However that format does eventually make sense, and that's all that I should note for those yet to read the book.Not wishing to make any reveals, but the usual will they/won't they running gag of course - with complications, plus a better bunch of sub-contractors with less issues (bar one) helps, with several side investigations to add to the workload, and one more that seems to finally bring to an end a longstanding problem for Strike. Less family and more investigations, plus some unanticipated twists and turns add to the overall theme - all of which make it possibly the most intriguing and most un-put-downable book in the series so far. My only concern is that once again the eventual subconscious insights rather than pure detection and logical analysis are the tricks that lead to solving the case.Looking in forward to re-reading in depth, to the next in the series (please!), and any tv adaption will be definitely be worth waiting for.