Borrowed Robes Chapters 1-7 of Lethal White

 Hey everyone, I am back for one last blog post before we go back to the fabulous Louise. I will be covering my thoughts on chapters 1-7 of Lethal White. 

When going through these chapters, I couldn’t help but think of the concept of “borrowed robes” from Macbeth. All of these chapters involve characters that seem to be in roles that they don’t fit easily. From Robin as the unhappy Bride, to the man we now know as Nutley being a subcontractor, Billy trying to be believed, and Sarah trying to be a fiance everyone seems to be in roles that they don’t really belong to.  

The book starts with a pair of misbehaving swans and a photographer looking for the perfect picture of the least perfect couple. The photographer thinks about how he has seen everything after 20 years and assumes Robin has a scar from trying to commit suicide. This offers the first glimpse of a role that doesn’t fit. She explains it as a result of an assault, and yea that is the truth but, like Michael’s toast with no mention of her accomplishments, If she said “oh yea, I got that while physically assaulting a serial killer who was out for me.” That is so much closer than the truth. Yes it is out of character for Robin to say something like that. Still, the uncomfortableness for me comes from her following societal norms and being dismissive of what makes her a powerhouse of a woman and character. Both Strike and Robin have the exact same thoughts about each other and how they want to communicate “ask her/him-beg her/him if necessary…” Which is adorable, but makes me want to give them the first of 3 books worth of  dork slaps for not talking to each other. A few other take-aways from the wedding Stephen seems to be described as being similar looking to Strike but has Robin’s eyes which is an interesting choice. And I love him. I enjoy Martin’s need to talk about Robin’s acts and her career, as he seems to be the most excited about her career, but Stephen is the big brother we all want. I also have a bit of hope about Linda. After all her first argument is “It broke her heart”. I have to like that Linda basically acknowledge that she heard her daughter cry late at night, a thing Robin admits to in her thoughts later. From Robin’s point of view everything went further downhill when she realized Matthew deleted Strikes calls and blocked his number. But Robin is going to be a good daughter so she goes down stairs for their first dance even though she takes off her wedding band. They dance to “Wherever you will go” And Strike for the first  but not the last time in this series thinks “fuck this” before walking away. Thankfully, Robin noticed and ran after him and then, well of all the hugs in all the world this hug left them all behind.

We then get into the novel proper and we have a gap year. One year later in June of 2012 Strike is famous enough to be a joke made on a quiz show, which must have made him so uncomfortable. That said, can we take a moment and just rub it in Laing's face that his plan backfired spectacularly. I can picture him in a room in his jail seeing that joke made about Strike on the game show and the fury… Sucks to suck Laing. Any who, Strike has lost some weight. There are signs of PTSD in Robin and some in Strike as well. And they no longer act as friends. We get the history of the two weeks after Robin’s wedding. Strike missed her voice and when he found out she was on her honeymoon got drunk and slept with Coco, a red headed burlesque dancer. Robin has the week off so Strike decides to hire a new contractor after firing Nutley. So we get the one, the only dope vaping Glaswegian Sam Barclay. A man who was never trained in investigative work but noticed his superiors stealing. This drives me nuts later on when Robin considers herself to not be nearly as experienced as everyone else. She has the same training if not more than Sam.  I just feel like that needs to be mentioned at some point. At the end of the chapter it dawns on him that maybe a clinic appointment is not therapy but before he finishes the thought Denise, parrot-like in her talking, calls Strike to tell him there is a disturbed man in his office. 

2.

Billy is, in fact, a mentally ill young man in his mid 20s and is only able to give some scant details. There was a little girl strangled by the white horse, and that he was told later that it was a little boy but he saw it buried in a pink blanket. Jimmy saw it, but denies it. While Billy is clearly upset he is still able to hear Denise calling the police and pushes his way out of the office before the police can arrive. 

3. 

Robin goes to her therapy appointment. She is paying out of pocket for therapy and has decided to no longer attend therapy as she feels like her therapist is pushing her. But the good news is CBT is working. This chapter reads so differently now that I have gone to therapy and also worked on CBT exercises. They are in fact incredibly helpful. She thinks back to her wedding and how everyone converged on their suite and their argument which led to her agreeing to go to the Honeymoon just to figure out where they stand. For some reason she gives into his need to constantly check her phone. I guess it is a good thing Strike didn’t have her number memorized. But Robin also needs to hear Strike’s voice and so she uses a landline to call the office knowing it would go to Strike. This leads me to some questions. Wouldn’t the number of the hotel be left on his phone? Would it have come up as an international number? Why didn’t Strike go back and check his phone??? Because if he had there would not be three more books of will they won’t they… but that is just from a writing point of view. Robin deserves a gold metal for her mental gymnastics to say that she is not in love with Strike. Those bends and stretches are so impressive.  In current time Robin continues to walk through a graveyard when Strike calls, interrupting her thoughts. It seems he no longer has an individual ringtone. Which is just sad, did she do that because of Twatthew as well? In telling about Billy, Strike is able to reconnect a bit with Robin. However, he did miss the fact that a year previous she would have said his girlfriend Lorelei’s name was a ludicrous moniker. He agrees they will both attend the house party and Robin passes a single swan on a pub sign. 

4. 

Not a lot happens in this chapter. Strike is watching Dodgy Doc. He has a partial address for Billy and the only other thing of note is “He liked to set limits on her rights to his time” (60). As he will never sleep two nights in a row at his Lorelei’s house. Ouch!

5.

For a man who says don’t go on hunches, Strike does it an awful lot and here he does it again. With 200 plus houses on the road he only goes up to select people, and houses, but when one looks run down he follows his gut instinct and it just so happens to be the house of Jimmy Knight, Billy’s brother. He follows a note posted on the door and sees that Billy’s brother is a socialist protesting the upcoming Olympics. He hears Flick Purdue attempt to fit in by changing her accent and speech patterns. He also sees an Asian man and an undercover cop. 

6. 

Strike follows the group to a pub. Flick wears her heart on her sleeve and can’t help but give away some serious clues here. When Strike approaches them the first thing she does is say “Chizzle sent him”. Strike makes another Batman allusion, which makes me a bit sad that he went with Darth Vader instead of the Dark Knight. He is again accused of being wealthy which just goes to show how much of a disconnect there is between people and the concept of fame and how  salaries work. He thinks that Flick would believe him about joining the army to kill children but it makes me wonder what the full thought process was when he decided to leave Oxford for the Army. While it is not quite the leap that Robin took in thinking she has just a crush, Did Strike always want to join the army? I guess if History was his course of study it isn't out there. But what did young Strike plan to be when he grew up?

7. 

The last chapter I will cover again shows Robin in a role that she doesn’t fit. She has moved into a rental house with Matthew and while everyone else is in bright jewel toned dresses Robin is in gray because Matthew “Likes her pale” (77). Everyone assumes that because they are renting it is a sign of their marriage being on the rocks, which I am not sure why. And Matthew thinks there is no reason not to still hang out with Sarah because she now has a large diamond on her left hand. Funny, with Strike, it is not the rock that really keeps him away, and with Matthew it is not the rock that keeps him away either but for very different reasons. Strike discovers that Robin is now friends with Vanessa, a woman Matthew doesn’t like because she is cold. Or is it that she left her fiance the first time she caught him cheating? Tom Turvey, Sarah’s fiance, tells Robin she should pay more attention at home because he is wearing a shirt Matthew also owns but somehow in the next book he had no clue that Sarah was cheating on him. Though honestly I would have dumped her after she spent the night of the party making fun of his hairline.  Robin continues to feel insignificant, especially after seeing Lorelei, who looks like a pin up with Veronica Lake hair (if you don’t get that reference she has Jessica Rabbit hair), hold Strike’s hand. The hand that bears a matching scar to Robins. Again bringing about that feeling of not belonging. Sarah announces that she and Tom got tickets to ping pong and Matthew mentions getting tickets to boxing. Funny Sara bounces between her fiance and Matthew like a ping pong ball and Matthew and Robin are going to spend the rest of this book fighting. Both couples are going to events that mimic their lives.  Strike also looks at Robin’s figure and the fact that she is drinking wine and goes through his own gymnastic routine, maybe she just started IVF… it feels like a bit of a weird thought going straight to IVF. Then again maybe there is a part of Strike, buried so far down it is even past the point where he recognizes his feelings for Robin, that causes his mind to go there because it could be a dig at Matthew??? Though now I may be doing my own routine. The chapter ends with my favorite three words of Vanessa Ekwensi “Blame sea-born bacteria” and Lorelei telling Strike “Your Robin has boring friends.” Even Lorelei knows Robin is his, now if only she could figure out that he is Robin’s.  Once again confirming that most of the significant characters in this book are wearing borrowed robes.