The sixth entry in the Cormoran Strike series has the private investigator and his partner Robin involved in another twisted case. When Edie Ledwell, co-creator of the popular cartoon The Ink Black Heart, shows up at their door terrified of an online troll, Robin doesn't think they can help him. After Edie is killed, Robin and Cormoran try to uncover the stalker's true identity.

First off, I read this book knowing all about J.K. Rowling's transphobia controversy, and I will say that the media incorrectly portrayed the premise of The Ink Black Heart as completely mirroring Rowling's own experience. The cartoonist Edie Ledwell is not trolled because of transphobic remarks but instead because some close to her obsessively hates her to a fanatical extreme. If the same story was written by any other author, I don't think critics would have batted an eye.

Caveats aside, The Ink Black Heart was way too long. Rowling could have easily cut out at least a quarter of the story. Since a dark humor cartoon is central to the case, you have to delve into the bizarre meanings of the creative work, which was a bit annoying but not as bad as The Silkworm. Also, the narrative heavily involves online activity and reading strings of chat messages gets really old really fast.

To be honest, the real reason I still read this series is for the will-they-won't-they relationship between Strike and Robin. For how long the book is, Rowling really rushed the beginning, jumping straight to a miscommunication that resets the relationship at maximum romantic tension. Just like any series, Rowling keeps adding drama to maintain a high tension, resolving nothing but developing the characters a little more.