The Ink Black Heart

In Galbraith’s stellar sixth whodunit featuring London PIs Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott (after 2020’s Troubled Blood), Ellacott is consulted by a distraught Edie Ledwell, the cocreator of the hit animated series The Ink Black Heart. The bizarre program features a disembodied heart, a ghost, and other residents of a graveyard, and proved so successful on YouTube that it was purchased by Netflix. That switch, and rumors of a movie adaptation, infuriated some members of the passionate fandom. Edie has been persecuted online by someone called Anomie, who has shockingly accurate information about her personal life. Robin declines to help, citing a full workload and lengthy waiting list, only to feel guilty when two people affiliated with the program are stabbed, one fatally, in the cemetery that inspired the show’s setting. She gets a chance at partial redemption when her firm’s retained to identify Anomie. Galbraith (the pseudonym of J.K. Rowling) captures perfectly the venom unleashed when people can hide behind virtual personas and egg each other on, and plausibly sustains suspense, despite the book’s length, about the murderer’s identity until the end. This impressive series shows no sign of losing steam. Agent: Neil Blair, Blair Partnership (U.K.). (Oct.)