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Strike: do Robin and Cormoran Strike ever get together, according to the books?

Warning, book spoilers ahead for Ink Black Heart


robin strike© Photo: BBC
Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
December 20, 2022
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Warning, book spoilers ahead for Ink Black HeartBBC’s hit drama Strike: Troubled Blood came to a conclusion on Monday night, and saw Cormoran and Robin solve yet another case.

MORE: Strike: Troubled Blood viewers saying same thing about dramatic series finale

The one thing they didn’t solve, however, was their ongoing confused feelings for one another - and plenty of viewers were left frustrated when (and spoilers for those who have yet to watch it) the pair didn’t get together romantically once again. So do they ever actually embark on a romance, according to the books? Find out here…

WATCH: Cormoran and Robin have sweet moment in season 4

JK Rowling’s latest Strike novel, The Ink Black Heart was published in 2022, and is the follow-up to Troubled Blood - and while there are more novels planned in the Strike series, it appears that the two of them still aren’t together. However, there are certainly some revelations in the sixth novel.

Firstly, the pair have a near kiss at the opening of the novel after they go out to celebrate Robin’s birthday. However, Robin pulls away over - leading Strike to believe he had overstepped and she isn’t interested in him, while Robin allowed her fears of ruining their friendship to stop her from kissing him, despite wanting to - and later in the novel realises that she is in love with him after he begins a new relationship with a jeweller, Madeline.

robin strike balloon© Photo: BBC

What happens in The Ink Black Heart?

"She’d been kidding herself too long.  This wasn’t friendship or mere fondness: you didn’t feel as though all your intestines had been seared with dry ice when you found out your friend was sleeping with someone new."

MORE: Where is Strike: Troubled Blood filmed?

MORE: Is BBC One's Strike: Troubled Blood based on a true story?

However, in the final moments of the novel, when Cormoran is in hospital after being injured helping to save Robin from the murderer that they had been looking for, Cormoran tells her that he and Madeline have broken up, only for her to tell him that she was going on a first date that she had organised while Cormoran was in a relationship. Will the pair finally get together in novel number seven? We can’t wait to find out.

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