Author | Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling) |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Crime fiction |
Publisher | Sphere Books |
Publication date | 30 August 2022 |
Pages | 1024 |
ISBN | 978-0-7515-8420-2 |
Preceded by | Troubled Blood |
Followed by | The Running Grave |
The Ink Black Heart is a crime fiction novel written by J. K. Rowling, and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. [1] It was published 30 August 2022. It is the sixth and the longest novel in the Cormoran Strike series. [2]
After Strike and Robin visit The Ritz for Robin's 30th birthday, Strike attempts to kiss Robin; she evades the kiss. Feeling rebuffed, Strike starts a relationship with Madeline, an acquaintance of his ex-fiancée Charlotte, a relationship he keeps secret from Robin.
Edie Ledwell, an animator who co-created the successful cartoon The Ink Black Heart on YouTube and which is now being adapted into a film on Netflix, visits the agency. She asks Robin to investigate the identity of Anomie, an online figure who co-created Drek's Game, an online game based on the cartoon, and started harassing Edie after she criticised the game. Robin refers Edie to another agency with more cybercrime experience. Within the game, two moderators appear to have a dossier of proof that Anomie and Edie are the same. They share this with Josh Blay, the other co-creator of The Ink Black Heart and Edie's ex-boyfriend. Soon afterwards, Edie and Josh are tasered and stabbed while meeting in Highgate Cemetery, the cartoon's setting. Edie dies while Josh is paralysed.
The agency is hired to investigate Anomie's identity by a film producer seeking to adapt The Ink Black Heart. They investigate various individuals associated with the cartoon and the North Grove Art Collective. Much of the investigation takes place online with the detectives investigating Anomie's abuse and another figure, The Pen of Justice, who criticised the cartoon for being racist, ableist and transphobic. They also investigate Drek's Game, where Anomie openly confesses to the murder, something treated as a joke by the other moderators, including its co-creator Morehouse. Two moderators appear to be associated with the Halvening, the far-right group that compiled the dossier with fake proof and the police suspect committed the murder. Robin accesses the game and becomes an active player. Robin and Strike attempt to eliminate suspects by carrying out surveillance and examining who is otherwise engaged while Anomie is active in the game. They also receive phone calls telling them to exhume Edie's grave and open letters buried with her. In the game, Paperwhite, another moderator, and Morehouse appear to have a relationship, with Paperwhite sending a racy picture to Morehouse and including Anomie by accident.
After leaving Comic Con where Robin interviewed Yasmin, the former employee of Edie and Josh, they follow a suspicious individual, only for a man dressed as Batman to push him onto tracks as a train approaches. After Robin helps save his life, her photograph appears in the newspapers. It is revealed that she saved Oliver Peach, the moderator Vilepechora in Drek's Game and member of the Halvening. In the game, Anomie confesses this crime to Oliver's brother, LordDrek, before banning him from the game. Soon afterwards, a parcel bomb damages the office, although nobody is injured. The publicity causes Morehouse to discuss going to the agency with Paperwhite. Robin is able to speak to the moderator Fiendy1 on a personal level and discovers she is Edie's cousin. She is able to provide the identity of Morehouse and Strike and Robin decide to interview him, but Morehouse is murdered before they reach him.
Strike interviews Yasmin himself and discovers that she was being blackmailed by Anomie to log in as them on several occasions, rendering much of their work to eliminate suspects moot. Robin also receives the picture that was supposedly sent by Paperwhite to Anomie and is able to trace the girl to a Glasgow art student. They then figure out Paperwhite was a sock puppet account controlled by Anomie to keep tabs on Morehouse and the other moderators. She then receives a phone call, threatening to kill her. Strike realises that Edie's uncle did not bury Josh's letter with Edie. After reading misogynistic abuse in the letter, they deduce someone with access to Katya, Josh's agent, replaced the original letter.
Soon afterwards, Katya's daughter calls them, screaming for help. After driving to Katya's house, Gus, Katya's son, now revealed as Anomie, tasers Strike. Robin sets off a rape alarm before fleeing upstairs, where she sees Gus's father's corpse. A machete-wielding Gus pursues her until he is distracted by neighbours alerted by Robin's alarm, allowing her to hit him in the back of the head.
In hospital afterwards, Strike tells Robin that her name has been added to the office door, which brings her to tears, and that he has broken up with Madeline. Robin, who believed he was still dating Madeline, reveals she is now dating the officer, Ryan Murphy. After she leaves, Strike reflects that he may have missed his chance to date Robin.
The Ink Black Heart sold 50,738 copies in its first week on sale in the UK, placing it first on the UK Official Top 50 book sales list. [3]
Jake Kerridge from The Daily Telegraph rated the book 3 out of 5 stars, describing the series as a whole as "good comforting crime fiction", but criticising The Ink Black Heart for its length, stating it "[does not] seem to have more depth, or to cover more emotional territory, than the earlier ones did". [2] The author Mark Sanderson, writing in The Times , similarly criticised the length. [4]
Kirkus Reviews called the book "[a]n overblown whodunit", citing length and extensive focus on online conversations as reasons to skip it. They concluded the review by saying "[a]fter a thousand pages ... the reader is likely to no longer care" who the murderer is. [5] Darragh McManus from Irish Independent gave the book a positive review, praising it for "dozens of characters, multiple plotlines and, most crucially, lots and lots of things going on". [6]
The plot, in which a woman is killed after being accused of various prejudices, particularly transphobia, [12] drew comparisons to Rowling's real-life previous controversial comments surrounding transgender people, leading to allegations of self-insertion. [13] Rowling denied the claims that the book was inspired by her own controversies, stating, "I had written the book before certain things happened to me online". [14] [15] [16]
The book was shortlisted for the 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. [17]
The Ink Black Heart is set to be adapted as part of the Strike television series starring Tom Burke as Cormoran Strike and Holliday Grainger as Robin Ellacott. [18]
Joanne Rowling, better known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote Harry Potter, a seven-volume fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has sold over 600 million copies, been translated into 84 languages, and spawned a global media franchise including films and video games. The Casual Vacancy (2012) was her first novel for adults. She writes Cormoran Strike, an ongoing crime fiction series, under the alias Robert Galbraith.
Hermione Jean Granger is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She first appears in the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), on the Hogwarts express as a first year student on her way to Hogwarts. After Harry and Ron save her from a mountain troll in the girls' restroom, she becomes best friends with them and often uses her quick wit, deft recall, and encyclopaedic knowledge to lend aid in dire situations. Rowling has stated that Hermione resembles herself as a young girl, with her insecurity and fear of failure.
Lord Voldemort is a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter novels. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was published in 1997, and returned either in person or in flashbacks in each book and its film adaptation in the series except the third, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which he is only mentioned.
Prof. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. For most of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts. As part of his backstory, it is revealed that he is the founder and leader of the Order of the Phoenix, an organisation dedicated to fighting Lord Voldemort, the main antagonist of the series.
The Order of the Phoenix is a secret organisation in the Harry Potter series of fiction books written by J. K. Rowling. Founded by Albus Dumbledore to fight Lord Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters, the Order lends its name to the fifth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The original members of the Order of the Phoenix include Sirius Black, Emmeline Vance, Benjy Fenwick, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Edgar Bones, Lily Potter, James Potter, Sturgis Podmore, Caradoc Dearborn, Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Dorcas Meadowes, Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Hestia Jones, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Aberforth Dumbledore, Dedalus Diggle, Minerva McGonagall and Marlene McKinnon.
Harry James Potter is a fictional character and the titular protagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of eponymous novels. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Harry, who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard. Thus, he attends Hogwarts to practise magic under the guidance of the kindly headmaster Albus Dumbledore and other school professors along with his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry also discovers that he is already famous throughout the novel's magical community, and that his fate is tied with that of Lord Voldemort – the internationally feared Dark Wizard and murderer of his parents, James and Lily Potter. The book and film series revolve around Harry's struggle to adapt to the wizarding world and defeat Voldemort.
The Silkworm is a 2014 crime fiction novel written by J. K. Rowling, and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It is the second novel in the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels and was followed by Career of Evil in 2015, Lethal White in 2018,Troubled Blood in 2020 and The Ink Black Heart in 2022.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a book of fairy tales by author J. K. Rowling. There is a storybook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final novel of the Harry Potter series.
Ginevra Molly "Ginny" Weasley is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novel series. Ginny is introduced in the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as the youngest sibling and only daughter of Arthur and Molly Weasley. She becomes Harry's main love interest and eventually marries him at the end of the series. She is portrayed by Bonnie Wright in all eight Harry Potter films.
The Casual Vacancy is a 2012 novel written by J. K. Rowling. The book was published worldwide by the Little, Brown Book Group on 27 September 2012. A paperback edition was released on 23 July 2013. It was Rowling's first publication since the Harry Potter series, her first apart from that series, and her first novel for adult readership.
The Cuckoo's Calling is a 2013 crime fiction novel written by J. K. Rowling, and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It is the first novel in the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels and was followed by The Silkworm in 2014, Career of Evil in 2015, Lethal White in 2018, Troubled Blood in 2020 and The Ink Black Heart in 2022. A seventh book The Running Grave was released on 26 September 2023.
Cormoran Strike is a series of crime fiction novels written by British author J. K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The story chronicles the cases of the fictional British private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott. Seven novels in the series have so far been published. Rowling said after the third novel that she had plans for at least another ten. The seventh novel, titled The Running Grave, was released on 26 September 2023. As of February 2024, the series has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and been published in more than 50 countries across the globe, being translated into 43 languages.
British author J. K. Rowling, writer of Harry Potter and other Wizarding World works, has garnered attention for her support of the Labour Party under Gordon Brown and her criticism of the party under Jeremy Corbyn, as well as her opposition to the Republican Party under Donald Trump. She opposed Scottish independence in a 2014 referendum and Brexit during the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.
Career of Evil is a 2015 crime fiction novel written by Robert Galbraith, a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling. It is the third novel in the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels and is followed by Lethal White in 2018 and Troubled Blood in 2020.
Strike is a British crime drama television programme based on the book series Cormoran Strike by J. K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The programme was first broadcast on BBC One on 27 August 2017, after receiving an advance premiere at the British Film Institute on 10 August 2017.
Lethal White is the fourth novel in the Cormoran Strike series, written by J. K. Rowling and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The novel was released on 18 September 2018.
The Ickabog is a fairy tale by J. K. Rowling. The story was published in installments by Rowling online, before its official publication in November 2020. The Ickabog is Rowling's first children's book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in 2007. Upon release the book received generally positive critical reviews and emerged a bestseller.
Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. She evolved from an unnamed peripheral character in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire into a major antagonist in subsequent novels. In the final installment of the story, Rowling established her as Lord Voldemort's "last, best lieutenant". Bellatrix was the first female Death Eater introduced in the books. Bellatrix had a fanatic obsession with the Dark Lord although she was clearly fearful of his magical abilities and absolute power over his forces. She is almost as sadistic and homicidal as Lord Voldemort, with a psychotic personality.
Troubled Blood is the fifth novel in the Cormoran Strike series, written by J. K. Rowling and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The novel was released on 15 September 2020.
All the Young Dudes is a fan fiction written by Archive of Our Own (AO3) user MsKingBean89 set in the Harry Potter universe. It was written from March 2017 to November 2018, is over 500,000 words long and contains 188 chapters. The story takes its title from the song, "All the Young Dudes", by the English rock band, Mott the Hoople and interweaves music from the 1970s in its chapters.