Rings, Double-bands, Stars and Asterisks: Which model works works for a ten-book Cormoran Strike series? (Plus: who it predicts killed Leda!)

Several weeks ago, I made the first efforts at a revised structural model , the "Double Wedding Band" or a ten-part Strike series, based on the connections seen between volumes to date.  To my surprise, that proved to be one of the most popular posts that has provoked some great comments. I have been eagerly waiting to see what other Serious Strikers would think of the connections The Running Grave makes to other Strike novels. 

I got my wish a week or so ago. Dr. John Granger is back to doing what he does best and recognized, as ring structure predicts, that The Running Grave does, indeed, "latch" to The Cuckoo's Calling, in the same way that the first Harry Potter book, Philosopher's Stone, latches with the seventh and last, Deathly Hallows. John literally wrote the book on the ring composition of Harry Potter, and I encourage Strike fans to check out his application of both the "turtleback" and the "asterisk" to Cormoran Strike.  I also encourage readers to answer his call for more CC-TRG echoes, which, as of this posting, no Substack reader has heeded, although some contributions can be found at the wordpress placeholder post.  Lest anyone think I am being secretive, I did link to my own long list in a comment, which, amusingly, Dr. Granger apparently choose to remove. 

Unfortunately, Dr. Granger's turtleback and asterisk models, which very elegantly account for Harry Potter series echoes, fail to account for all the echoes we see in the Strike-Ellacott series. For example:

1. The Silkworm-Troubled Blood connections: The many connections between these two books initially inspired my 2022 idea that TB was originally intended as a Book Six albedo. At the time, even Mr. Granger called the idea a "convincing" "brilliant" and "radical piece of reverse prognostication", but I had to eventually dismiss the idea when Rowling herself denied it. 
2. The Cuckoo's Calling-Career of Evil connections:  The most obvious connection is the in vino veritas confessions i the Tottenham, Strike to Robin in CC, Robin-to-Strike in CoE, but there are certainly others.  This was originally part of my Double Pentagram proposal, which had some advantages, but did not work so well when TIBH turned out to have the connections it did. 
3. The Troubled Blood- The Running Grave connections: Both the Strike and Ellacott files podcast and the Three Broomsticks predictions episode foresaw these, based on the number of Lethal White-The Ink Black Heart connections observed. This prediction certainly came through, in spades. It is, I believe, the only list that comes close to rivaling Lethal White-Goblet of Fire connections in sheer number. In fact, the overall large number of connections between non-adjacent books inspired my Leapfrog post. 
4. The major exception to the non-adjacent connections rule: the thematic links and resetting processes that happend in Troubled Blood and The Ink Black Heart.  Not only do the main murders connect, with Gus as an amalgam of the three TB killers, the books themselves invert the expected dry-nigredo/ wet-albudo pairings and several progressions between the "best friends" are reversed or reset in ITBH. 

My efforts to account for all the echoes we see in the Strike series, rather than just the ones that were most salient in Harry Potter, is what let to the Double Wedding Band model. 

Although the diagram is dishearteningly complex, the premise is relatively simple:

• The orphan "Part Two" in the middle of Lethal White is not an indicator of the second half of a 7-part ring composition that will end with The Running Grave, but instead signals the start of a second 7-part ring composition whose turning point is TRG and which will be complete in Book 10. 
• Hence, in the middle of LW, our heroes find themselves in a situation very similar to how they started in CC.  
• Strike has just walked away from Charlotte, again, at the Paralympian Ball. 
• Case-wise, Strike and Robin are almost exactly where they started on Robin's first day; investigating the apparent suicide of a famous person at the wealthy family's behest, because the family suspects murder. 
• The expected ring composition connections are present in both 7-part cycles:
• The first and seventh books of each ring form beginning and ending latches.
• The fourth book of each ring connects to the ring latches and serve as turning points in which the protagonists' toxic relationships finally end for good. In LW, Robin frees herself from Matthew; in TRG, Strike is freed from Charlotte. 
• The turtleback connections between the second and sixth, and the third and fifth books are seen in both rings.
• In addition, the "leap-frog" pattern creates connections between even-numbered and odd-numbered pairs, producing Stars of David within the circles. 
• Because Troubled Blood and The Ink Black Heart are, like Lethal White and The Running Grave, points of overlap on the two rings, they make additional asterisk-style connections to their partners across the circle. 
• Troubled Blood connects to The Silkworm (Book 2) because it is Book #2 on the second ring. Similarly, The Ink Black Heart connects to Career of Evil (Book 3) because it is Book #3 on  the second ring. 
• This results in a mishmash of both the expected alchemical imagery and the connections to corresponding Potter books.
• TB and TIBH also connect thematically to each other in a way that is not typical of other consecutive pairs of books. 
• JKR/RG main have originally planned a series of five or seven books that was later expanded to 10.  This is why progress on the Strike-Robin romance stalled and was re-set in TIBH. 

So, what does this model predict for future books?  Naturally, predictions may change once we see JKR's Twitter headers, but Book 8 is Book 5 of the second ring. I therefore think it will have thematic connections with both Troubled Blood and with The Ink Black Heart, and possibly other links to its reflection on the first ring, The Silkworm. This could mean reconciliation with Al Rokeby, or a reconnection with Roper Chard publishers, both of whose existences we were reminded of in TRG. Maybe the promised Rokeby biography will finally appear? 

Young Switch LaVey Bloom Whittaker, who was also mentioned in TRG, is more likely to turn up in Book 9, since he was first mentioned in CoE.  Perhaps his dear papa, as well?

Because both Book 2 and Book 3 dealt with Strike's Army life (Anstis appears in 2, Hardacre in 3) either 8 or 9 would be a great opportunity to finally learn how Strike got his medal. If my Dean Shaw idea is correct and the accidental shootings in mentioned in both Books 2 and 6 are the same incident and in some way related to the medal, then Book 8 is a more likely pick. If the medal relates to the sex trafficking case Strike told Jonathan & Co. about in TB,  or the negligent staff sargent mentioned in SW, it's more likely to turn up in Book 9. 

If there are Harry Potter echoes in Book 8, they will be most likely be with Order of the Phoenix. Alternately, RG may be done with Harry Potter echoes and move on to Rowling's other works, as Evan Willis has predicted. 

Finally, would this model help predict who killed Leda?  Loathe as I am to give up on Grandpa Whittaker, TRG has pretty much forced me to. Multiple readers, including myself and Dr. Granger, noted the similarity of Daiyu Wace's murder to Charlie Bristow's: both believed to have died in a tragic accident as children, but actually killed by jealous older siblings, with parents who either knew or suspected the truth but chose to conceal it, which allowed the culprit to kill again. Given this parallel in the 1-7 latch, and assuming Leda's death, rather than a case the agency is hired to solve, is the big murder reveal of book 10, the Double Wedding Band model predicts a resolution similar to Lethal White: an apparent suicide that is in fact a two-person murder committed by the victim's spouse and child.

In this case, Whittaker would indeed be the killer, as Strike has always believed. For the offspring accomplice, we can safely eliminate the toddler Switch from the suspect pool. I will also rule out Strike himself. Although it would certainly be a John Bristow echo-to-beat-all-echos if our protagonist himself turned out to be the killer, it would put a pretty big damper on the Robin-Cormoran honeymoon to have the groom jailed for life. And ending up with the Ellacott-Murphy or even Ellacott-Barclay Detective Agency as a series finale just doesn't cut it for me. 

This leaves only two others who could fulfill the role of matricidal accomplice: Leda's daughter Lucy or her de facto foster son, Shanker. I must admit, I find it hard to see either of them as cold-blooded, Raff-style killers. If we are going to have a sexual coupling between the killers, it would have to be Lucy, and I would assume a sexual assault by Whittaker rather than a seduction of (or worse, by) the now-adult stepdaughter. It is also possible Lucy could have been driven to kill to protect her younger brother, but then the question is, why kill Leda and not Whittaker?  

If Shanker or Lucy was in some way an accomplice to Leda's death, I would have to fall back on my "murder by inaction" idea, where the offspring/accomplice somehow knew Leda had overdosed, but failed to get help for her, the opposite of what Strike did for Charlotte in TB, but not entirely dissimilar to his actions in TRG. It's hard to see exactly how that would have happened; we have been told Shanker was off on a drug deal when Leda died, while Lucy was apparently in St. Mawes with Ted and Joan--- Strike recalled reacting to the news while the four of them were in Joan's kitchen. 

Could Leda have called one of her children, begging for help, and been dismissed or ignored?  It's hard to see how that scenario would but them any closer to proving that Whittaker intentionally injected her. I must say, this would not be a particularly satisfactory conclusion to the mystery for me, so, on that front, I'm going to hope my model doesn't hold this type of predictive power.  With any luck, the Agency will land another patricide/mariticide case in Book Ten and Mr. Galbraith will come up with a better solution for Leda. 

As always, comments and other ideas are welcome. 

Additional note:  please do not disparage other Serious Strikers, bloggers or websites. I reserve the right to delete any comments I feel cross the line into a personal insult.