- Pretty poignant to read Robin’s opening scene and how excited she is, thinking she’ll be watching the ring glitter all her life, telling children about the proposal, etc. The contrast between her excitement at buying bridal magazines and how miserable she would be year later, on her actual wedding day is heart-tugging.
- Strike is pretty unlikeable in his first appearance. While the “Sandra” bit is funny in retrospect, it is pretty rude not to even ask your new temp her name. While it is quickly obvious that he is a good detective, his first impression is of someone pretty incompetent and particularly clueless about business practices. He can’t be blamed for Brian Mather’s nuttery, but to have multiple clients skipping out on their bills? No coffee or tea in the office? If there’s one thing we Yanks have learned from the Strike series, it’s that practically all British (rich, poor, business or private home) offer visitors a hot drink the second they walk in the door. He hasn’t even thought to buy a box of tissues for sobbing clients, knowing that his bread and butter is women with cheating husbands.
- I never noticed before that Strike is wearing a tie when we first meet him; he strips it off when Bristow turns up. That implies he had it on when the massive row with Charlotte started, which implies some sort of special occasion, or at least a night out at a smart restaurant. Yet he also mentions how hungry he is, which suggests he did not eat the night before. Is it possible the fight started in a restaurant or a party and resulted in an early exit, before dinner? If we ever learn more about Charlotte’s alleged baby, I think we may learn more about how this final row unfolded.
- Strike’s preparing for bed that first night is the first mention of the Norfolk commune. We won’t hear of it again until Lethal White, but after that, it will be mentioned in every book.
- Looking back to the initial walk-by of Lula’s flat, Strike touches on a remarkably high number of actual elements of the crime, including speculating that Bristow’s fixation on the Runner could be because Bristow thinks the Runner is a Black relative that Lula tracked down. He also mentions the possibility that the killer hid in the building long term.
- Strike mentions being in hospital with a “Welsh bloke who got blown off a building about that height. Smashed his legs and pelvis, lot of internal bleeding, but he’s still with us.” I assume this is the same man in Troubled Blood that be mentions being wheeled into his ward having lost both legs and genitals. If an individual from Strike’s past is mentioned twice, it’s worth paying attention to.
- I had forgotten that Kieran was the first to mention the blue writing paper to Strike, and the only one besides Strike who seemed to think it had any importance.
- Finally, those of you who are familiar with my Hogwartsprofessor.com posts know that I am fond of structural theories: particularly, 1) Ring Composition, which predicts thematic connections between books 1, 4 and 7, 2 and 6 and 3 and 5 and 2) Parallel Series, which predicts connections between the Cormoran Strike texts and each of the corresponding Harry Potter texts. (Click the links for John Granger’s detailed overview of both models). It seems that both structure models will have to be adjusted, given we now know that this is a 10 rather than 7 book series. This is perhaps one reason we see as many parallels between Troubled Blood and The Silkworm as between Troubled Blood and Career of Evil, and also many connections between The Ink Black Heart and Career of Evil alongside the predicted Troubled Blood-The Silkworm links. Similarly, after Lethal White turned out to have a huge number of parallels to Goblet of Fire, starting with identical one-sentence plot summaries: “During a major international sporting event, an unpleasant government minister is murdered by the estranged jailbird son for whom he had arranged an early release,” Books Five and Six turned out to both have connections to both Order of the Phoenix (see here and here) and The Half-Blood Prince. (See here, here and here for details).
Thus, while I think it is likely that elements in common with The Cuckoo’s Calling and Lethal White could turn up in The Running Grave (the Norfolk commune tops this list), I think it is also likely some could appear in books 8, 9 and 10. It really depends on when Mr. Galbraith decides to wind up the two major over-arching plots: the Strike-Robin romance and solving the mystery of Leda’s death.
On this re-read, I caught a connection between Cuckoo’s Calling and Philosopher’s Stone that I hadn’t noticed before: the sad sleeping situations of both protagonists. Harry has to sleep in a spider-infested cupboard under the stairs; Strike has to sleep in his dirty and smelly office (his inner chamber doesn’t get the cleaning efforts Robin gives the outer room, since she is trying to give him his privacy.
It has probably been a couple of years, at least, since I re-read The Cuckoo's Calling and I am finding it refreshing to start the series over from the start. I hope you are, too! Enjoy!
I like all those parallels; on some of my more recent re-reads I made a list of parallels between the books, and between Robin and Strike.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of the two mentions of wounded men in Strike’s hospital stay as being the same man. I would think that Strike would have met a lot of different guys while in the hospital recovering from an amputation. I would’ve assumed that the man who lost his legs and genitals had been blown up by an IED much like Strike had been but with greater detriment. Of course it’s possible that it was the same guy, but I pictured the other guy being broken up, but not having lost any body parts. Both times Strike thought of it or talked about it I would’ve like to know more about his experience in the hospital.
I assumed it was the same because the first guy was listed as having been "blown off" the building and I assumed the smashed legs and pelvis would lead to the amputations. The guy mentioned in TB was not listed as Welsh, though,
DeleteI like your comment #3 - it never caught my attention that strike was removing a tie and while it could be just to give the impression that he crashed, maybe drunkenly, on the office sofa it does seem a little too purposeful and would be great if it was a setup for a future memory. Great list! My first read of cuckoos calling I felt very defensive of Robin as strike considered her temporary, not as beautiful as charlotte etc. because she is just so likeable but future readings have always left me more reassured as I know we’re it’s going and it’s fun to see strikes transition in thinking.
ReplyDeleteI know some might think this a reach but I consider it confirmation from the start that Strike and Robin union is meant to be - while Robin is walking from the tube station to the office this happens:
ReplyDelete"The metal barricades and the blue plastic Corimec walls surrounding the roadworks made it much harder to see where she ought to be going, because they obscured half the landmarks drawn on the paper in her hand."
Never again are the plastic walls mentioned to be blue or "Corimec" and I feel like the writer is actually saying here: her mapped out life is now obscured by Cormoran Blue Strike surrounding her.
A bit tin foil hat but I stand by it.
Tin foil hats are always welcome!
DeleteNelli, I love this observation. JKR writes for the hat-wearers.
DeleteMy impression of Strike was perhaps not as harsh as yours - I remember thinking that this was clearly someone who was having a Bad Day with capital letters. And on bad days... yeah, you run out of tea, and don't think to have tissues, and so forth. I think seeing how quickly he pulled it together - actually provided a fairly accurate impression of someone who prioritizes work, and is resilient in a crisis.
ReplyDelete