The Ink-Black Heart, by Robert Galbraith

The latest Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott murder mystery delves into the murky world of online trolling, toxic gamers and incitement to hatred. Thrown in for good measure is a far right terrorism cell, a paedophilia angle and a large dose of misogyny. That is is a lot. An interesting topic and two appealing detectives should provide a meaty story, but there is so much flab on the meat it gets exhausting. The structure of online messages between a huge range of suspects and hangers on is very small print and therefore difficult to read, and difficult to follow when three threads run at once. Although it does give a clear picture of the tone of online interactions and how they can be manipulated and get out of hand. At the same time there are so many characters with so much going on that it becomes really confusing as to who exactly knew what and when. The actual mystery is underpinned by the URST between the business partners, which after five years is getting kind of tedious. While the state of their feelings is progressed by the end of this book, there is clearly still a long way to go and the progress is achieved through an array of flabby subplots that pad out the action. The result is a novel of more than a thousand pages, which is just ridiculous. By the time you finally get to the end and discover the killer, you almost don’t care, it’s just a relief to finally finish.