I've just finished up with one of my favorite weekends of the year, the annual Harry Potter Academic Conference at Chestnut Hill College. This year I hosted a panel called "The Mirror of Rettopyrrah: Wizarding World reflections in post-Potter books."
My contribution was "A Serial Killer's Rebounding Spell: A Deathly Hallows echo in Troubled Blood."Please check it out.
A big feature of the Double Wedding Band model (see here, here and here for background information) is that it incorporates one of the more obvious patterns of the Strike series: the Leapfrog effect, or the tendency of odd numbered books to connect with odd numbers and and evens with evens. The Hallmarked Man continues this pattern
What I am most excited about is those connections that have, thus so far, turned up in all four the even-numbered books. I'm going to call this the "Truly Appreciated" list, both because I was happy to see them and because I think they should top the list of predictions for book 10.
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!
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 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 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.
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.
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