The Running Grave Initial Read-Through, Part 2, Spoilers for Chapters 1-22

As always. SPOILERS in BLUE.  

The Chapter 17 interview with Henry echoes a lot of the content of Hassan's Combating Cult Mind Control: specifically, the power of food and sleep restriction, constant contact and bombarding with cult propaganda, physical work and ritualistic chanting to wear down resistance to undue influence. Importantly, we see that having an ally when it comes to resistance is also important, as Henry tells us that seeing a "woman with a Buddah tattoo" say no is what gave him the courage to say no, too. That, and having his own wheels to make a rapid escape. Hopefully, Robin will find such an ally at the farm. 

Henry's descriptions show us the BITE model in action; I persoally was left wondering if Hassan is supposed to be the American expert Prudence consulted when she took on the case of her client. I'm also wondering if her client could be Flora Brewster.  

While I was desperately hoping Bea Groves' prediction that Charlotte was history would pan out, she turned up too often in the early chapters not to appear in the flesh. Despite my tongue-in-cheek prediction at the christening that Charlotte has a fatal disease, I, like Strike, find it hard to believe that she has cancer. He was correct to question the speed of her diagnosis; biopsies take time. Strike's response is not unlike his response to the news about Rokeby in TB: that sucks for you and your loved ones, but I'm not one of them anymore. So, we have Final Break #624, where Strike makes it clear that the kairos moment no longer has any meaning for him. One can only hope Chapter 58 of TB has replaced it in his mind. 

I am putting the IPCRESS File on my to-read/ -watch list.  Barclay was presumably talking about the 1962 novel or the 1965 movie, since the BBC series did not come out until 2022.  

A few interesting tidbits:

• Robin is on birth control pills and will have to stop taking them Friday morning. 
• Presumably she and Ryan will have farewell sex Thursday night. 
• Given that ovulation can happen as soon as a day or two after stopping the pill, and that sperm can live in the body several days. there is a chance. albeit slim, that she could get pregnant.
• Hopefully they use a condom. Still, with the references to birth control regarding Bijou...
• Robin putting her job before time with Ryan is starting to create Matthew-style worries. It appears Strike's plans to disrupt the relationship are working, which, as much as we know this relationship must eventually end. is pretty uncomfortable to see. If Robin catches on to what he's doing...
• Niamh Doherty has a yapping terrier, which historically, has been a good indicator of an important clue nearby. See Tigger and Rattenbury for details. 
• This pooch's name, Basil, could wind up being highly significant (see below). Strike's reasons for bringing Robin along on this interview may be underhanded, but my guess is that one or both of them will pick up some information that will be essential to the case later. Will we find out what was in those letters that made her father angry? 
• We have confirmation that Ralph did not think Lin was his child, which could connect Deidre to the legend of the Shrieking Pits. 
• Robin tried not to feel judgmental towards Niamh, who has married her boss and a much older man?  Hon, you are in love with your boss, who is ten years older and looks twenty!
• Strike: "We're trying to establish a timeline, find out who was there, and when."  Mr. Strike, when you figure out how to do this, please tell Mr. Galbraith. 
• It was very touching to see Strike tell Niamh about Dr. Coates' pedophilia, and urge her to get her sister some help. 
• Jordan Reaney is frightened of pigs.  This could connect to the PIGS on Kevin Pirbright's wall or the pig-headed demons he reported on the farm.

This seems a good stopping point. The next post will pick up with Robin's entry into Chapman Farm 

Names

Tasha:  Short for Natasha: "Born on Christmas."

Mayo: "Plain of the yew trees."  It's not clear what this could mean for the stalked actress client, but yew trees are rife with symbolism, as a frequent fixture of graveyards, a representation of eternal life and Voldemort's wand wood. 

Kurt: "Polite, courteous"  Jordan Reaney's first name. A bit ironic for an apparently career criminal. 

Reaney: "Counsel."  Well, the man could use a good lawyer. 

Basil:  Never overlook the name of a unruly terrier.  This one is a gold mine:  

Basil has so many myths associated with it, from being a royal plant to being a plant of poverty, a poison and a cure, both grown on the True Cross and transformed into a monster, that it's hard to even keep its magic straight.

We have the meaning "King," a legend of the plant growing on the true cross, and a shared name root with the basilik, for whose venom this plant is supposed to be a cure. I recommend reading the full story at the link above.

Nigel: "Champion" Naimh's much-older husband and former boss. He seems to be her "champion, having spared her from the post-cult misery that appears to have afflicted her father and siblings.

Charlie: From Charles, "Free man"  Could this be a signal that he has escaped the cult and growing up in relative freedom, physically and spiritually?  Or an indicator that he escaped the tragedy that befell the Charlie of Book 1?

Oisin: "Fawn, little deer."  Naimh's bother who drinks too much and has kids by two different women. 

Maeve: "Intoxicating, she-who-rules" Connected to the Irish Goddess of Love and Desire. Binge-eater.

Ava:  "Bird-like" Jordan Reaney's wife, manicurist who wants a divorce.  

Timeline

Before Robin leaves for the commune, Strike finally tells her of his own stay at Aylmerton Community, only to find that, good detective that she is, she already knew and has been handling the information with the same discretion she uses for his parentage. Unfortunately, our authors cannot even keep this revised timeline straight. Strike tells Robin he was there for six months in 1985. I understand the need to but a little more distance, timewise, between Leda's involvement and the pedophile scandal of 1986, when the Crowthers were arrested and Forgeman Farm shut down, but Strike would have been ten most of that calendar year, turning eleven in late November. In any case, not twelve. 

The Doherty family joined the UHC in 1999. Henry's tale about a very pregnant woman being mistreated, assuming this was Deidre, puts his experience, and Flora's in the early 2000's, which fits with Flora speaking to Fergus Robertson for his 2005 article. 

Harry Potter Echoes 

Taio Wace "puts Robin in mind of an overfed rat, his nose was long and pointed and his mouth unusually small."  As he seems to play the role of junior flunkie to the great leader, Jonathan Wace, it is possible he could be a Peter Pettigrew figure here. He certainly seems far less enthralling and command less respect than his "master," at least as far as the speech in the temple goes. If so, his odds of surviving the book aren't good. Certainly, Robin's instinctive revulsion, not unlike Strike's to Malcolm Crowther (and Whittaker) is something to which to attend. 

The full team uses maps and notes to figure out security around the farm. Sam, Midge and Dev had alternated traveling to the farm in disguise to help plan the mission, much like the Trio took turns going to the Ministry under the invisibility cloak prior to the infiltration. Interesting that Littlejohn is not on the list of sub-contractors entrusted to this task, which creates a nice two-guys-and-girl Trio, as well as reflecting Strike's lack of trust in the guy. 

The name Basil, as mentioned above, is linked to the basilisk. Given that a basilisk-venom infused sword and long-forgotten basilisk fangs in the Chamber of Secrets were essential for dispatching horcruxes in Deathly Hallows. we need to be alert to what weapon--information or photo--Naimh Doherty could be providing to our team here.

Ring Structure 

The "destruction of the shared mythology:" The kairos moment that Strike drunkenly confessed to Robin in CC is revisited by Charlotte herself and relegated to the ash heap by Strike. As in LW, Charlotte manipulated Strike into sitting with her in an eating establishment and tries to coerce him into returning to her. And, assuming she is lying about the cancer, that's pretty much as despicable as lying about a pregnancy, as she did in Books 1 and 4. 

While undercover, Robin is repulsed by an unattractive, animal-like man's hand on her back (LW's gecko-like Geraint Winn, TRG's rat-like Taio Wace) but has to fake friendliness to him for the sake of the case. 

A yapping terrier, a la Rattenbury, has turned up. I've already given you multiple reasons to pay attention to the name Basil, but given that Lethal White's Rattenbury's name was a clue to the killer's identity, we need to be on the alert to every word of the conversation with Naimh Doherty. 

• Naimh also has a child named Charlie, which evokes the memory of Charlie Bristow in Cuckoo's Calling. 
• The picture of blonde Deidre, in square glasses, could be significant, given that Basil again draws our attention by begging Strike for a cookie when Naimh goes to get the photo. 
• Lorraine MacNaughton's Tigger barked when Strike and Robin were shown the picture of the unrecognizable Donald Laing, the first indicator that Laing could drastically change his appearance. This was also when we learned of Mrs. Williams-next-door and her firefighter son.

Niamh evokes Anna Phipps, in her wanting to know whatever happened to her mother, and her father's refusal to mention her, and the possibility that she could be dead. 

Maybe it's her working class accent, but something about the way Ava Reaney said of Jordan,  "He's frightened of pigs" made me think of Billy's "I hated putting the horse on them."  And, the scrawl/chipped plaster of Kevin Pirbright's room makes me think of the carving on Aamir's bathroom wall. 

Literary Alchemy

At the Chapter 20 infiltration meeting, the wet weather is giving way to "watery sunshine" which "dazzles without warning. The map of the farm is covered in red ink.