Queen City Mischief and Magic 10-year celebration: a new Sprout and a Strike Easter Egg

This weekend is the 10th Annual Queen City Mischief and Magic festival in Staunton, VA, one of the loveliest towns in Virginia.   The festival originated as a joint activity by some local businesses to celebrate Harry's birthday and the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in July 2016, and they were hoping for a few hundred people.  When over 5000 showed up, several downtown streets had to be closed to prevent people spilling off the sidewalks from being run over. The next year it moved to the much more seasonable late September (much better for all the people walking around in robes and house scarves) and has had as many as 30K attendees. Despite having to go online for two years during COVID, it's still going strong. 

While I have been involved with the festival since it started, this is the first year I have been asked to be one of the costumed characters. I will be playing one of the Professor Sprouts in the greenhouse on the Hufflepuff Block. I have even added a special Phyllis the Philodendron to the greenhouse as an Easter egg for Strike fans; I am wondering if anyone will notice. 

In addition to stopping by the greenhouse to poke my paper mache Mimbulus mimbletonia, you can watch professors and students disembark on the train, catch a production of Puffs, hear wizarding music by the Waynesboro symphony, and attend Bill and Fleur's wedding reception.  Local restaurants will be serving Potter-inspired dishes and the Butterbrew will be flowing!  

I hope some one my online friend will stop by and say hi!

Guest post from a guest house: Two-and-a-half rooms, 26 Denmark Street, London

Note:  Super-Strikers BadlyWiredLamp (@badly_wired) and SukiLewis (@suekmoorhen) took the ultimate Strike Fan pilgrimage for the release of The Hallmarked Man, spending two nights on Denmark Street in Strike's flat, now converted into butler-staffed lodgings that can be rented for a book-reading getaway (even if that isn't the typical use!)  I am delighted that they were willing to share their account of the adventure (and pictures!) here.   -Louise

The idea of a stay at 26 Denmark Street first occurred to us the day before we watched the filming of The Ink Black Heart on Denmark Street in March 2024. It seemed like it would be a cool thing to do, but a perusal of the Chateau Denmark website and noting the prices gave us enough of a shock to have only an "ooh, but wouldn’t it be a great experience" conversation before we moved on to another exciting Strike topic. We, the Strike.Fans crew, had managed to wangle a guided tour of the apartment that would have been the Office, so that was exciting for us all and satisfied our thirst, at the time.

The thought of staying at No. 26 stayed with me, and as the date of the release of The Hallmarked Man approached, Badly_Wired and I pondered the possibilities of where we should read the book. We had already agreed that we would read it together this time both to provide emotional support and counsel and, of course,  to have someone to share the experience with. We had already dismissed Sark, noting that we would all want to do that once we had read the book and knew the locations that we would need to visit. Going on an expensive trip to Sark beforehand and missing some key locations would have been a travesty!

I think we both wanted to do Strike’s flat if at all possible, sod the expense--well kind of, after all we haven’t got Jonny Rokeby’s money! I am lucky to be able to visit London quite frequently; work often dictates that I am there, plus, I have a good friend who lives not too far from Central London who puts up with me crashing at her place! On one such visit in June I called into to Chateau Denmark and told them about my interest about the specific apartment and why I wanted to book. Luckily ‘Strikes Apartment’ was empty at the time, so I managed to bag a tour and then, of course, I was sold and had to book! A quick check with Badly_Wired to make she was on board with my plans and a flick of the credit card--I closed my eyes--and it was all done and dusted. We were going to spend two nights in STRIKE’S ATTIC FLAT!

The Hallmarked Man: The Strike series answer to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child? (Spoilers for both!)

The thematic connections between the first seven Cormoran Strike books and the corresponding Harry Potter books is something I and other Strike enthusiasts have written about extensively.  Some examples include:

• My Harry Potter Academic Conference talk from 2023. 
• The Troubled Blood-Order of the Phoenix parallel noted at the time of publication. 
• Irvin Khaytman's essay on the connections between The Ink Black Heart and The Half-Blood Prince
• Beatrice Groves' magazine article on the same topic.
• Connections between The Running Grave and The Deathly Hallows
• Links to dozens of other posts on the topic. 

The thematic similarities between the first seven Strike books and the Harry Potter series makes me think it is highly likely that, as reported by UK Sunday Times Arts editor Richard Brooks in February 2014, Rowling initially planned the Strike series as seven books. The Times was, after all, the paper that used forensic literary analysis to document similarities between Cuckoo's Calling and other Rowling works, and it seems unlikely they would publish that claim unless they had reason to believe it was true, although their source of information may have been out of date  Galbraith immediately denied that seven books were planned and by July 2014, announced there would be more than seven books, perhaps even an open-ended series.  By April 2023, the author had decided the series would be complete at ten. The simplest explanation is, after being outed much sooner than planned, "Galbraith" rethought the series plan. And, as we well know, whether writing as Rowling or Galbraith, this author is selective about how much of the planning process is shared. 

So, is there any point in considering the Parallel Series Hypothesis, now that we've hit #8 in the Strike Series?  Find out after the jump. 

My Latest Three Broomsticks Appearance: The Downton Abbey Crossover

 In the excitement of the publication of The Hallmarked Man, I forgot to post about my latest appearance on The Three Broomsticks podcast, a special crossover between Harry Potter and Downton Abbey.   Please join us for fascinating discussion on a variety of topics, including classism in both series, the extent to which did the late great Dame Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess attract Potterheads to the franchise and the similarities between Thomas and Snape. 

I haven't seen the new movie yet, as my husband and I are re-watching the previous ones first, but I''m looking forward to to seeing it soon, and perhaps reviewing it here. 

On another note, I hope anyone within a decent driving distance of Staunton, VA will join us for the Queen City Mischief and Magic festival., on September 27-28. For the first time this year, I've been asked to be part of the cast of characters and will be hanging out as Professor Sprout in the Hufflepuff Greenhouse. If any readers plan to attend and would like to get together for an informal chat about Strike over Butterbrew, send a message through the contact form on the site. 

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The Hallmarked Man: What I think may come next.

I would have to call The Hallmarked Man, in one sense, the most predictable of the Strike series we have seen to date. I say this not because it wasn't a very original storyline with lots of twists and turns, but because, atypically for me, I made several predictions that turned out to be a lot closer to true than I normally get. For example:

• The agency would make an enemy of Dominic Culpepper that would lead to him publishing scandalous stories. 
• Yes, I thought it would be the Strike/Leda/Rokeby angle, not the Strike's sex life angle, but 
• I was correct in that the need to neutralize Culpepper would be the occasion for Strike to meet Rokeby. 
• Strike would find a male body in the victim's secondary residence. This was fulfilled when Todd was found in his mother's apartment, where he had been staying. 
• Carmen and Martin's baby would be born with disabilities, possibly fetal alcohol syndrome
• We got arm paralysis instead, but given Carmen's behavior at Christmas, I wouldn't rule out FAS yet. 

Once the book started, I guessed

• The incest angle, as soon as I put together Decima's and Rupert's somewhat confusing family tree. 
• That Chloe was Jolanda, as soon as I saw the violet bracelet.
• That Ted's inheritance would be used for the agency.
• I initially predicted new office space, but then when the Land Rover died I figured it would go for that. 

So, I've been consulting my creosote-colored tea leaves to  consider what might happen after the explosive ending.  Here is my idea. 

The Hallmarked Man's Final Chapter: What I liked and what I didn't.

I'm not sure I have ever written an entire blog post on a single seven page chapter of a Strike book, but there is a first time for everything. This scene, like the rest of the book, is such a mixed bag with parts that make me melt and parts that make me cringe.  Both Strike and Robin behaved sensibly at times and acted like complete idiots (and completely out of character) at others. Let me make if clear, it does not bother me that they did not become a couple. It did bother me that they seemed to be so out-of-character at the time.  So, here goes!

The Hallmarked Man Epilogue: First impressions and full book spoilers.

Wow!  That was not the ending many people expected (or wanted!) I was left with a lot of mixed feelings, loving parts of the final chapter, while at other times feeling like I did pre-Sark in this book.  In other words, feeling like I'd like to slap both Strike and Robin silly.  

While it was certainly kind of Strike to go to Niall Semple's funeral, it was rather foolish of him to give up the trip to Sardinia with Robin. I think it is likely they could have had a more reasonable conversation there than in the stairwell. Looking back, given that Strike remembers investigating suicides in the military and expresses worry for Wardle in his depression, we should have expected that suicide was a possibility for Semple.