Wonderful Robin answers! Now for the definitive Strike moment. As was the case yesterday, we are looking for Strike moments, not Strike-n-Robin, which will be tomorrow's topics.
For me, it is, hands down, his interrogation of Dennis Creed. It is a pure good-versus-evil moment, comparable to Harry and Voldemort circling each other in the Great Hall. Like Voldemort, Creed is convinced of his superiority and, like Harry, Strike has the power and is able to turn the tables on him
As a pure sociopath, it never occurs to Creed that the Tucker and Phelps families could be cooperating; he's convinced it has to be one or the other. And, the "I know you never met Margot Bamborough; he was killed by a better killer than you ever were" was perfection.
Please share your choices.
My favourite moment is his vulnerable side during Lethal White with his dash to Jack’s bedside. As busy as he was and he was trying to dodge Lucy’s calls he was straight to the hospital as soon as he heard. His voice breaking when on the call to Robin as well
ReplyDeleteHis final chat with Janice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the Creed interview was perfection. Off the top of my head a couple more that I love are the 'Go on then, you cowardly little fucker' moment in LW, and also the Tony Landry interview in CC with his passive aggressive note-taking: 'Bristow off rocker', and flipping through blank pages of his notebook, just to push Landry's buttons.
ReplyDeleteThat was funny! I also liked his two parallel "resucues by phone" for Robin's LW attack and Charlotte's TB suicide attempt, where he's listening to the emergency unfold on his cell (and yelling at it to try to stop it) while trying to summon help on another phone.
DeleteI do love the Creed moment, but since that's been taken I must go with him confronting Ashcroft in IBH. Just the perfect mix of good intentions and meanness. Love him. -happyrachy
ReplyDelete“He might have struck a divine tuning fork; the word rang through the shabby office, calling forth an inaudible but plangent note in Strike’s breast. Bristow had located the pilot light Strike shielded when everything else had been blown to ashes. He stood in desperate need of money, but Bristow had given him another, better reason to jettison his scruples.” Chapter 4 of The Cuckoo's Calling.
ReplyDeleteThis moment is a favorite of mine because it tells us so much about this man we've just met. He didn't take the case because he needed the money (even though he did), he took it because of an inextinguishable passion for justice. We know he's flawed, but he's a good man who does the right things for the right reasons.
It's crude, but I also really like his take down of Donald Laing. In CoE we feel Strike's anguish about his childhood as he revisits one of the places they lived, and comes face-to-face with Whitaker - the man that got away with murder. He seems close to breaking point. Then the fight with Laing, who is physically beaten but tries to get a reaction by insulting Strike's mother. "Maybe so, but she loved me Donnie" is I think as close as we're going to get to why Strike emerged from his awful childhood as well as he did. And he loves his mom, which is nice to know. 😁
ReplyDeleteAgain, I like so many of the above moments. But I think I will mention a moment that is a more traditionally heroic type of scene: when Strike breaks down the door to the houseboat in LW, faces Raff’s pointed gun, then punches him out. Of course the really amazing thing is that he “twigged“ that the number on Robin‘s phone was the same as the number they had been searching at Scotland Yard. “Your memory!” I’m sure many would exclaim.
ReplyDelete