YMMV / Troubled Blood

• Anvilicious: The themes of "Women are undervalued" get so heavy handed and blatant that by the end of the book, it would have been more of a surprise if a woman wasn't the killer.
• Common Knowledge: Many people who didn't read the book and only knew about the controversy assume that the entire story was an anti-trans screed, not helped by some of Rowling's comments online. In reality, the Creepy Crossdresser is a small part of the story, merely presented as one of many possible options, and in the end turns out to be a Red Herring.
• Harsher in Hindsight: When Strike first visits Irene and Janice, Janice talks about her belief that it's a good thing to get your name and picture in the paper. Irene snarks "Not if you're Dennis Creed," before having an embarrassing fart. Later it’s revealed that fart was a symptom of Janice poisoning Irene, and that Janice actually likes the idea of getting in the newspapers even if it means being exposed as a killer.
• Jerkass Woobie: Steve. He cowardly ran from trouble when he could have solved the case years ago with his information, but the guy's had his life repeatedly and systematically ruined by the obsessed killer.
• Narm: The heavy use of Funetik Aksents can get extremely comical in what's supposed to be a serious detective story; as if JK Rowling was assuming her readers wouldn't get that said characters were meant to be cockney if they didn't speak as stereotypically as possible.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Despite the controversy (or perhaps because of it), the book still became a top seller.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The book is largely known for two things: being released when J.K. Rowling was starting to come under fire for her controversial views on trans people, and including a trope that people were quick to tie to said views.

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