History Literature / TroubledBlood

* TVTelephoneEtiquette: When Shanker is finished with a conversation with Strike, he simply hangs up the phone.

* WithFriendsLikeThese: A mutual version appears with [[spoiler: Janice and Irene. Irene browbeats Janice at times, tried to steal her boyfriend, and in their youth only hung out with her when there was a chance they might pick up men. On the other hand, Janice has spent years mooching off Irene and is constantly non-fatally poisoning her whenever she feels annoyed by her]].

* KavorkaMan: Robin and Cormoran are boggled by "Tufty", the faithless husband of one of their clients. He just doesn't have a pregnant mistress, he has a second wife and two more children, despite looking like "a balding baboon."

* ContinuityNod: Many references to previous novels. Anna notices the long scar on Robin's arm, which Robin has because she was stabbed by a SerialKiller in ''Literature/CareerOfEvil''. There are multiple references to the sexy green dress Cormoran bought Robin in ''Literature/TheCuckoosCalling'', which was the first time the two of them showed intimacy, and which pissed Robin's fiancé Matthew off badly. Robin remembers when Strike fired her in ''Career of Evil'' for disobeying orders and spooking a suspect into flight. Robin remembers digging for a body with Barclay, which was in ''Literature/LethalWhite''. Cormoran eventually gets an interview with Dennis Creed because Robin has the bright idea of getting in touch with Izzy Chiswell from ''Literature/LethalWhite'', who has many government contact.

* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Betty Fuller, an old prostitute in a nursing home, catches Robin and Cormoran by surprise by asking "You ever taken it... up the shitter... with a nine-inch cock?". A poker-faced Strike says "Can't say that I have." Dr. Fuller, Margot's partner who treated Betty's injuries from traumatic anal sex, became one of her clients.

** The ending reveals that [[spoiler:Margot was killed by a nurse at her clinic, Janice Beattie. It turns out that by that point Janice had been poisoning people for years--patients, a neighbor boy, her own son, a man she fancied--often fatally, just because she liked it. She murdered Margot because Margot had grown suspicious and was going to have some chocolate, chocolate that Janice had laced with poison, tested.]]

* WithFriendsLikeThese: A mutual version appears with [[spoiler:Janice and Irene.]] [[spoiler:Irene browbeats Janice at times, tried to steal he boyfriend and in their youth only hung out with her when there was a chance they might pick up men. On the other hand, Janice has spent years mooching off Irene and is constantly non-fatally poisoning her whenever she feels annoyed by her.]]

Meanwhile, there is the continuing theme of Cormoran and Robin's WillTheyOrWontThey relationship with each other, and the question of whether or not they'll ever get together or whether they'll let their fears and insecurities keep them apart.

* BodyInABreadbox: Margot Bamborough is found after forty years, entombed in concrete in the ottoman in the Athorns' flat.

* AloneWithThePsycho: Cormoran does it this time. It's all the more chilling for being a quiet, calm, scene, as befits a [[spoiler:master poisoner who's killed with impunity for forty-plus years.]]

* SerialKiller: Two.
** Margot Bamborough is thought to be a victim of Dennis Creed, a serial killer who was active in the area. Anna wants to know if her mother was killed by Creed, and where the body is.
** The ending reveals that [[spoiler:Margot was killed by a nurse at her clinic, Janice Beattie. It turns out that by that point Janice had been poisoning people for years--patients, a neighbor boy, her own son, a man she fancied--often fatally, just because she liked it. She murdered Margot because Margot had grown suspicious and was going to have some chocolate, chocolate that Janice had laced with poison, tested.]]

* ChekhovsParty: The barbecue at Margaret Barnborough's house. It was mentioned as the only time C.B. Oakenden met Margaret, which caused him to write the tell-all book, and where Gloria [[MorningSickness vomited]] so much that she realized she was pregnant by her abusive boyfriend. But all of this is just a RedHerring for the ultimate reveal, which is that Janice, a SerialKiller, had poisoned the punch and caused Gloria's illness, privately hoping to poison them all. While it didn't work due to the bowl getting broken, Gloria's illness was enough to make Margaret suspicious, and so Janice killed her.

* ContinuityNod: Many references to previous novels. Anna notices the long scar on Robin's arm, which Robin has because she was stabbed by a SerialKiller in ''Literature/CareerOfEvil''. There are multiple references to the sexy green dress Cormoran bought Robin in ''Literature/TheCuckoosCalling'', which was the first time the two of them showed intimacy, and which pissed Robin's fiancé Matthew off badly. Robin remembers when Strike fired her in ''Career of Evil'' for disobeying orders and spooking a suspect into flight. Robin remembers digging for a body with Barclay, which was in ''Literature/LethalWhite''.

* SequelHook: Several. Strike gets into contact with one of his sisters he’s never met, Prudence, towards the middle of the book. He decides he wants to meet her but he just had too much on his plate at that moment to do so. Rokeby has cancer (althoguh it wascuahgt in the early stages) and Strike remains firm in their estrangement even as others urge him to reach out. Strike hires a new subcontractor named Michelle they hire towards the end but she’s never introduced on the page. There’s also that the fact that the agency is getting a bit too successful for their undercover work. Robin and Strike’s relationship also seems to have turned a corner.

* SequelHook: Several. Strike gets into contact with one of his sisters he’s never met, Prudence, towards the middle of the book. He decides he wants to meet her but he just had too much on his plate at that moment to do so. There’s also a new subcontractor named Michelle they hire towards the end but she’s never introduced on the page. There’s also that the fact that the agency is getting a bit too successful for their undercover work. Robin and Strike’s relationship also seems to have turned a corner.

* AloneWithThePsycho: In a nice change of pace, it's Cormoran who does it this time. It's all the more chilling for being a quiet, calm, scene, as befits a [[spoiler:master poisoner who's killed with impunity for forty-plus years.]]

The plot takes place over more than a year, October 2013 - November 2014. Robin Ellacott has now joined her former employer, Cormoran Strike, as a fellow private detective and partner in his firm. Both Robin and Cormoran are dealing with problems in their private lives. Cormoran's Aunt Joan, who was a steady and dependable mother figure for Cormoran throughout his childhood (as opposed to his mother Leda, a rock groupie), is terminally ill with cancer. Robin for her part is going through a protracted divorce from her husband Matthew, one which should be easy as they have no children and few joint assets, but which Matthew is prolonging out of sheer spite. Other complications include Cormoran's neurotic, unstable high-society ex-girlfriend Charlotte, who keeps texting him despite now being a married mother of two, and Saul Morris, an investigator for the detective agency who keeps up a mild but unmistakable campaign of sexually harassing Robin.

** Speculated with Dr. Brenner, one of Margot's partners (who has died of natural causes). Janice says that his obituary revealed that he saw a concentration camp during the second world war and it's speculated the mental trauma of that might be why later in life he was an all around MeanBoss, had disturbing sexual tastes and was suspected of being addicted to pharmaceutical drugs. [[spoiler:This is subverted though with the reveal that Janice never even read Brenner's obituary and was probably lying about that.]]