The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read; Chapters 80-83: From dog bite to a pizza in Sark.

I started this Real-Time Re-Read with the goal of covering The Hallmarked Man at roughly the same time of year in which the story played out from November 2016 to April 2017.  I intentionally timed it so my Christmas Eve post would correspond to the bracelet gift.  Now, by luck, I've hit on another post in which the dates correspond exactly, and on another holiday. So, happy Valentine's Day, dear readers and please don't think of that dreadful Longcaster son when I say it. 

“Jesus fucking Christ – what was in that bottle?" gasped Strike, who hadn’t put on his seatbelt, being unable to see, tears flooding from his eyes.

Though it doesn't start off that way in Chapter 80, we will actually wind up with the first happy Valentine's Day we've ever seen in an JKR/RG book, thanks, not to that stuffed pooch from RFM, but to Lennon, the attack dog* who has just taken a chunk out of Strike's thigh, prior to being pepper-sprayed by Robin.  As our pair races away from the scene of the incident in a car, a very strong  echo of the punch Robin took to the face in the American Bar unfolds, but is gender-reversed, with Strike the one trying to both staunch his bleeding and soothe his rapidly swelling eyes, while Robin apologizes and does as much as she can to comfort him. 

Strike Nine is "Sleep Tight, Evangeline": Who are the Whiskey Shambles and what could this mean?

Some lucky super-Strikers were able to meet "Robert Galbraith" in person (in his J.K. Rowling persona, of course!) and got a sneak peek at the title of Strike Book #9:  

To say this title is a surprise is an understatement.  Sleep Tight, Evangeline is the title of a song by a relatively obscure American band, the Whiskey Shambles, whose repertoire is described as 

Hollering tales of murder, debauchery and long dark Saturday nights of the soul. Stripped raw, bruised and cracking a bloody, split-lip grin, the Shambles deliver a loud, belligerent style of demonic hill-stompblues that almost... but not quite, betrays an air of subtle sophistication lingering just around the edges.  "Rough garage rock & dirty basement blues that kicks you right in the gut bucket."

This hardly sounds like a soundtrack for a Cupid and Psyche story.  More on the group, and the song, below. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read, Chapters 76-79: The bad dogs of Valentine's Day

Strike’s anxiety about the results of the DNA test had become acute by the fourth afternoon without news, so he called Bijou while walking towards the shabby street in Holborn where the vanished Jim Todd, or Todd Jameson, as Strike now knew him to be, had lived until very recently.

Bijou now seems not nearly as eager to get the results as she was previously, and, when he calls her in Chapter 76, reminds him that the company probably doesn't process tests on weekends. After annoying Robin by saying he wants to put surveillance on Lord Branfoot in hopes of discovering his covert film studio, he goes off to interview Jim Todd's neighbors, where he learns someone else has already come calling for Todd, sometime the previous week. We get yet another of the instances---there are several in the book-- of witnesses to Ian Griffiths failing to note that the man is only five feet tall, while noticing other details like his glasses and his limp. 

Linking the Bracelet to the Emojis: The "surprise inside" theme, alchemical rings and the return of "Grave-digging Buddies?"

On an earlier post, I connected the numerous walled cities that have popped up in the Pre-Book Nine Twitter hints with the Bracelet o' Clues' Trojan Horse charm.  This time, I want to make a connection with some of the charms on the bracelet to one of the emoji hints. 

Tha Hallmarked Man Real-Time Re-Read, Chapters 73-75: Two restaurants and a hotel room

"The dimly lit basement room, which was swathed
in greenery to suggest the rainforest" 

In Chapter 73, Strike surprises Robin by subbing for MIdge and joining her at a restaurant for surveillance. 

At eight o’clock the following evening, Robin, who’d been informed by Two-Times that his wife would be celebrating a female friend’s birthday at Coya, a Latin American restaurant in Mayfair, sat down to watch his so far blameless spouse drinking and eating with seven other women.

 The date is presumably Wednesday, Feb. 8th. Robin is wearing her Ritz outfit (blue dress and opal pendant) but also the matching earrings that RFM gave her for Christmas. This chapter is primarily an information dump, though naturally it is accompanied by Robin's "electric shock in the pit of her stomach" when Strike turns up. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read, Chapter 70-72: A new Land Rover and an old friend

The first thing we notice in Chapter 70 is a significant time-jump, after pretty much daily coverage since Chapter 45. It was Thursday, January 19th whe Robin interviewed Fiola; now we've jumped ahead until Tuesday the 24th

On Tuesday morning, Strike sat down to eat breakfast beside an attic window fogged with condensation, and saw that Robin had emailed him overnight. Ever since she’d told him she wasn’t coming to Scotland with him to interview Jade Semple she’d chosen to email when, normally, she’d have phoned.

In addition to still giving Strike the cold shoulder, Robin is only now getting around to emailing the Fiola Fay audio, which seems atypical. She has also discovered that porn producer Craig Wheaton was once a resident of one of Branfoot's homes for boys, though we are not told how she learned this reasonably sensitive bit of information. Strike calls her, but unfortunately, his praise for finding the "link" between Branfoot and de Lion reminds her of his "weak link" line, and she's not ready to forgive that. Strike is trying to pretend things are back to normal but it's not working. 

Will City Walls be to Book Nine What Bridges were to The Hallmarked Man? Connecting the charm bracelet to other clues.

I'm not sure when we've had this many clues to an upcoming Strike book before the title is released.  In addition to multiple twitter hints and headers and the now traditional emojis (much thanks the Strikefans.com for compiling them!) , Galbraith dropped a jackpot shortly before Christmas in the form of a charm bracelet in which all of the charms are promised clues. Many people have talked about this bracelet with far more eloquence and creativity than I could manage, so I will direct you to:

• Nick Jeffery's excellent essay where he identifies all of the charms.
• This mind-blowing blog post by Beatrice Groves on the symbolism of charms, with particular attention to the Psalm book.
• The most recent and very interesting Strike and Ellacott Files podcast. 

What interests me more is looking for possible connections between the clues. Here's something that has jumped out at me recently:  the use of walls and fortresses. As you may recall, bridges abounded in the pre-Hallmarked build-up, and emerged as a central theme in the final story. I am wondering if we might be seeing something similar with walled cites for Book 9.