Do you need to refresh your memory of the events of The Ink Black Heart before reading The Running Grave?

Spoiler warning: This page doesn’t name the killer, but it includes some details about the case and gives a full summary of Strike and Robin’s relationship throughout this book.

Synopsis

The Ink Black Heart opens shortly after Troubled Blood ends, as Strike and Robin celebrate her thirtieth birthday with cocktails at the Ritz. They have a wonderful evening and enjoy each other’s company enormously whilst consuming several strong cocktails each. This combination of events leads to an unguarded moment as they wait for a taxi on the pavement outside, and Strike makes a move to kiss Robin. Her nervous expression stops him. Robin gets into a taxi and leaves, and afterward they do not discuss the moment, although both think about it with anxiety and regret.  

Robin goes on a New Year trip to Zermatt with her cousin Katie, who introduces her to Hugh Jacks, a divorcee. Despite Katie’s hopes, Robin does not respond to Jacks’ overtures. Meanwhile, whilst on surveillance on New Year’s Eve, Strike meets a woman called Madeline Courson-Miles — a successful jewelry designer — and they start seeing each other, something he does not mention to Robin.

There have been personnel changes at the agency.  Pat Chauncey and Barclay remain but soon after Michelle Greenstreet joins the agency, Andy Hutchins leaves.  Strike hires a new subcontractor — Dev Shah — to replace Andy.  

Later in January, Edie Ledwell, the co-creator of a popular animation called The Ink Black Heart, comes into the office to ask Robin for the agency’s help in uncovering the identity of ‘Anomie’, someone who is persecuting and harassing her online. Anomie somehow has access to a lot of personal information about Edie and inside information about the cartoon. They have also made an online game and chat room called Drek’s Game after a character in the cartoon. Although sympathetic, Robin declines the case as the agency does not have the expertise to carry out a cyber investigation.  

A couple of weeks later, the agency learns that Edie and her co-creator, Josh Blay, have been stabbed in Highgate Cemetery. Edie is dead and Josh seriously injured. A Met detective, Ryan Murphy, visits the agency to take a statement from Robin about Edie’s visit. A second individual, Angela Darwish, accompanies Murphy, but does not give her job title. When they are alone, Strike suggests to Robin that she may be from the security services. 

A few weeks after the murder, Edie’s agent hires the agency to find out Anomie’s identity as their continued online harassment is negatively affecting the development of the film version of The Ink Black Heart. Attempts to find out their identity through cyber-investigation have failed. Robin and Strike accept the case.

Soon after the investigation commences, Charlotte Campbell, Strike’s ex-fiancée, turns up in the office to ask for Strike’s help in getting information on her husband, Jago, to use in her divorce. Strike declines. Charlotte tells Strike that Jago plans to name him as co-respondent. Strike realises this will mean lots of publicity and effectively prevent him from doing his work. As she leaves the office, Charlotte tells Robin that Strike is seeing Madeline.

Robin is very shaken by the news that Strike has a girlfriend and finally admits to herself that she is in love with him. She then gets a call from Ryan Murphy, who is still investigating  Edie’s murder.  They discuss the case and then Ryan asks Robin out for a drink, which flusters her, and she declines. That evening she meets Ilsa for dinner and they discuss Strike and Robin’s relationship. Ilsa also confides in Robin that she is pregnant after many years of trying.

Strike decides to put Jago under surveillance in the hope that he can find something that will persuade Jago to leave him and his agency out of the divorce.

The investigation continues with Strike and Robin interviewing and conducting surveillance on anyone close enough to Josh and Edie to have access to personal knowledge about them and the cartoon. They interview Josh’s agent, Katya Upcott, and her family. They also meet with Philip Ormond, Edie’s boyfriend at the time of her death.

Robin manages to join Drek’s Game, Anomie’s online chat room, and goes undercover at the North Grove Art Collective, where Josh and Edie met and where many of their friends still live. She goes on a ‘date’ with Pez Pierce, one of their suspects, during which he kisses her. Strike listens to the recording of the interview and is disconcerted.  

Meanwhile, Strike and Madeline’s relationship is beginning to deteriorate. Charlotte, who is modelling for Madeline, is lying to her about Strike’s past, and Strike annoys Madeline by refusing to be her escort at public events.  

Robin’s dad has a ‘heart episode’ the day that he is meant to help her move into her new flat in Walthamstow. When Strike hears about this, he comes to help her instead, bringing her a pot plant as a gift, assembling her furniture, and staying to eat fish and chips.

The agency’s investigation into Anomie accidentally brings them to the notice of a right-wing terrorist group called The Halvening. The group believes they are the Agency’s target, which leads them to send a mail bomb to the office. Pat’s quick reaction means that she and Strike are unharmed, but the office is wrecked. The agency staff are interviewed again by Ryan Murphy, who suggests that they lay low to avoid further attacks.  Murphy asks Robin if she would mind if he asked her out again when they are both less busy, and she agrees. Murphy tells Robin he’s a recovering alcoholic.

As Strike’s flat has been damaged by the bomb, Robin offers the use of her sofa bed and Strike accepts. Madeline calls Strike and he lies about where he is, but Madeline hears Robin speak and guesses the truth. The next day Strike and Robin follow someone they wish to interview to Whitstable, where they again stay overnight in a hotel.  Strike calls Madeline and they have a row and break up.  The following day Strike and Robin discover the identity of the other Drek’s Game creator, Morehouse, and they drive to Cambridge to speak to him, only to find him murdered. They return to London and take rooms at a hotel in Soho as neither can return home due to the terrorist threat.

Michelle and Dev obtain evidence of Jago’s abuse of his older children, which Strike gives to Jago’s ex-wife and uses to persuade Jago not to name him in the divorce. Even with this evidence, Charlotte tells Strike that she will still allow Jago to have joint custody of their children, something that horrifies Strike.

Throughout the case Strike continues to struggle with his health. He injures his leg and is forced to go without his prosthesis for some time. He is aware that he is overweight and smoking too much, and starts making attempts to eat more healthily. 

Strike and Robin continue to interview suspects and put together evidence. As they are on the way to question a contact, they get a phone call — Anomie has gone on a murderous rampage. Robin runs into the house to help his victims, pursued by Strike on his crutches. Robin fights off the killer and helps to apprehend them, but not before Strike has been knifed.

The epilogue of the book sees Robin visiting Strike in the hospital recovering from a punctured lung.  Strike has finally given up smoking and is determined to quit forever. They discuss the aftermath of the Anomie case. Strike tells Robin that his half-sister Prudence, who he has never met before, is coming to visit him that evening, and that he has split up with Madeline. He also shows her a photograph of the new glass in the office door. It now says, ‘Strike and Ellacott Detective Agency’. Robin is touched and cries.

As Robin is leaving, Strike asks her what her plans are for the evening. She confesses that she’s going on a date with Ryan Murphy.

Robin leaves, and Strike is forced to confront the feelings for Robin that he has been denying for years.