The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-Read: Part 4, Chapters 42-44, Opals, alchemy and hopes for the Jowanet.

I hoped everyone enjoyed the delightful end of Part Three, with an intoxicated Robin opening her fabulous silver bracelet on the bathroom floor early Christmas morning, because we are heading into a downward spiral over the next two parts. Robin and Strike's relationship will, arguably, be tested more than at any point than when he fired her back at the end of Career of Evil.  Part Four culminates with a heartbroken and disillusioned Robin canceling the Scotland trip that would have taken them to a lovely and romantic Lake District hotel, and Part Five ends with her storming out of the Swan Taphouse in Ironbridge, leaving Strike to eat her meal. We are in for a rough ride. 

I'm going to continue to frame the conversation around the opening and closing quotations from each chapter. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read for 2026: The schedule for Parts 4-10

I had so much fun re-reading the first three parts of The Hallmarked Man during the approximate time of year (and ending with a Christmas Eve post on Christmas Eve) that I decided to continue the trend in the new year: start Part 4 during the first week of January with the goal of finishing on April 7th; the date of Strike's unfortunate encounter with Robin on the office stairs. This will mean a slower-paced read-through: roughly 3-4 chapters per bi-weekly post instead of 6-7. Given how complex this storyline will get, slowing down the pace is probably a good thing. 

Here's the planned schedule:

Tuesday, January 6th:  Chapters 42-44.

Saturday, January 10th: Chapters 45-47.

Tuesday, January 13th:  Chapters 48-51.

Saturday, January 17th: Chapters 52-56.

Tuesday, January 20th:  Chapters 57-59.

Saturday, January 24th: Chapters 60-64. 

Tuesday, January 27th:  Chapters 65-67.

Saturday, January 31th: Chapters 68-69. 

Tuesday, February 3rd:  Chapters 70-72.

Saturday, February 7th: Chapters 73-75.

Tuesday, February 10th:  Chapters 76-79.

Saturday, February 14th: Chapters 80-83.

Tuesday, February 17th:  Chapters 84-86.

Saturday, February 21st: Chapters 87-88.

Tuesday, February 24th:  Chapters 89-92.

Saturday, February 28th: Chapters 93-95.

Tuesday, March 3rd: Chapters 96-97.

Saturday March 7th: Chapters 98-100.

Tuesday, March 10th: Chapters 101-104.

Saturday March 14th: Chapters 105-106.

Tuesday, March 17th: Chapters 107-109.

Saturday March 21st: Chapters 110-112. 

Tuesday, March 24th: Chapters 113-115.

Saturday March 28th: Chapters 116-120.

Tuesday, March 31st: Chapters 121-123.

Saturday. April 4th: Chapters 124-125.

Tuesday, April 7th, Chapters 126-127. 

I hope folks will read along and join the discussion.  

Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott Timelines Updated

Several years ago, I drew up timelines of both Strike and Robin's lives, focusing on events that happened before the book series (IED explosion that took Strike's leg, Robin's rape at university) and those that happened between books (such as the hiring of various sub-contractors). These timelines were previously available on Hogwartsprofessor.com but were removed after I left that site to open the Farting Sofa Faculty Lounge. 

Note:  for the most definitive timelines within the books, I refer you to the invaluable resources on Strikefans.com. 

I have recently updated the documents to include information from The Ink Black Heart, The Running Grave, and The Hallmarked Man, including the lengthy history of the Nancarrow family revealed in the latest book. 

Inconsistencies and possible errors are highlighted in red. Examples include Ted's serving in the Falklands War (which occurred some twenty years after he left the Army), Strike's work on the Digger Mallory case (said to have happened after the IED explosion) and the exact time Leda and kids were at the Norfolk commune (Strike was either 8, 10 or 12, depending on where you read). 

The timelines are always a work in progress, and I welcome feedback, corrections and additions. In particular, I would like to hear from readers of more recent paperback editions, as continuity errors are occasionally corrected (e.g., Lucy was said to be a "newborn" when Strike was four and they were first left with Ted and Joan; that was later corrected to "2-year-old."

Robin's timeline is available here.

Strike's timeline is available here. 

I hope people find the links helpful. 

Happy New Year to All!

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"Fingal All the Way:" The legend behind the name of Strike's faux son.

As I mentioned on an earlier post, the funniest part of Lucy's dreadful Christmas party for me was Strike being manipulated into accepting paternity of a lad named "Fingal."

For the next hour he drank lager and made loud, empty conversation with various parents of children at Lucy’s kids’ schools. Some wanted to quiz him about his detective career, others wanted to tell him how lovely his sister was; a few, who were already drunk, seemed unable to place him from the school run, and were confused as to why anyone who didn’t take their children to the local school should be present. The exception was a sozzled, skinny woman, who was wearing a baggy dress that was probably the height of fashion, but which Strike thought looked like a postal sack: she insisted very loudly that she knew Strike "from taekwondo", and that his son, Fingal, was very talented and shouldn’t be allowed to give it up. In the end he agreed with her, and promised to preach perseverance to Fingal, upon which she hugged him and he discovered that she stank of BO.

At the time, I thought the incident was merely tongue-in-cheek foreshadowing of Strike's later fears that he will genuinely be forced to accept paternity of a child he neither knows nor wants. But, thanks to Substack reader Bob Waite, I have learned of a legend behind the name of Fingal, that relates even better to Cormoran Strike. 

"For her name, and, perhaps, for Christmas...." Robins as Christmas emblems in the UK.

The "brightest and newest" of all the charms on Robin's Christmas gift from Strike was "a silver and enamel" robin. In addition to the lyrics of "Good King Wencleslas," one of the things I had to look up, as a US citizen plowing my way through the Christmas season with Strike and Robin, was the significance of robins to Christmas, a concept that was certainly unfamiliar to me.

In the US, robins are considered harbingers of spring; when we feature our backyard avian wildlife on Christmas cards, it's usually our bright red Northern cardinal. Join me for a look at Robin's name, the bird and why it is associated with Christmas across the pond. 

The Hallmarked Man Advent Adventure Postscript: Whither Boxing Day?

It's December 26th, Boxing Day in the UK and Canada and which I am increasingly convinced needs to be adopted in the US. As I learned in my study of Good King Wenceslas, it is also the Feast of Stephen. 

Troubled Blood is, to date, the only Boxing Day we've seen Strike and Robin celebrate, and it was not very festive for either. Strike was still holed up in his attic flat, recovering from the flu and. unknowingly, from ingesting poisoned chocolates. Robin is stuck in Masham with her family and, feeling miserable, she spends the day tipsy on mimosas and exchanging texts with Saul F. Morris, raising his hopes for a relationship with her and culminating in his drunkenly sending her a dick-pic. 

Part Four of The Hallmarked Man picks up with Strike tailing plug on New Year's Eve, so we don't see how our heroes spent the second day of Christmas, but we can guess, at least, that Strike had a much more pleasant day than Robin. 

Depending on how we interpret Robin's It's only four days thoughts on the night of the 22nd, and how we reconcile that with her telling the Flobberworm that they were staying until the 29th. Robin and RFM may be on the drive back to London. So, either long hours with her family in the crowded house, or in the car with the man she thinks, no, she knows she loves. Add that to the real possibility that she is still nursing the hangover from her over-indulgences of Christmas Eve, and we can assume she is not in a good place. She is undoubtedly still over-thinking the significance of Strike's gift to her and, as we know, she will keep

bumping back against the conclusion she’d reached in the bathroom of the Prince of Wales pub: that Strike, whether consciously or unconsciously, was playing some kind of game intended to weaken her ties to Murphy, lest she contemplate leaving the agency for a more settled existence.

until she convinces herself that is the truth. 

Strike is undoubtedly more optimistic, cheered by the quintuple-X reaction from Robin to the bracelet. He presumably woke up in his own flat, having escaped Lucy's as soon as decency would allow on Christmas Day. I can imagine him opening and re-reading Robin's thank you text multiple times.

His partner’s Christmas Day response to his foray into truly imaginative gift-giving had given Strike hope. She must have understood what he was implicitly telling her when she examined those silver charms, all of them freighted with memories and private jokes, mustn’t she? Didn’t opening his present in the early hours of Christmas Day indicate an unusual eagerness to know what he’d given her? The five kisses that had followed her thank you, the use of the word "love" – admittedly followed by "it" rather than "you" – could this be the behaviour of a woman trying to keep a man firmly at arm’s length?

Hopefully he got a couple of texts from Jack on maneuvers in Lucy's backyard, wearing his new camouflage make-up. 

As for other series, there is one Boxing Day of great significance in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows : the day of Harry's dip in the Frozen Pond to retrieve the Sword of Gryffindor and the occasion of Ron's reconciliation to him and the destruction of the locket horcrux. Three years ago I wrote an essay on the significance of Molly Weasley's hand-knitted sweaters to Harry. and particularly to this scene. 

Happy Boxing Day to all my readers, and thanks again for a wonderful 2025. My final gift to you is a picture of the charm Chat GPT gave me when I asked for a "fishing priest (small wooden bat)

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The Hallmarked Man Advent Adventure, Part 7: Ch. 37-41, The Christmas Eve finale and my Christmas card to my readers.

We are at the conclusion of the read-through of the first three parts of The Hallmarked Man.  Seven parts, one for each charm on The Bracelet, which fits with all the important sevens in the books of Rowling/Galbraith.  But, there are a few chapters and a lot of holiday awkwardness to get to before we unwrap the gift. So, if you want an authentic experience, go drink half a bottle of whiskey before continuing.