The Hallmark Man Publication Date Moved Up: Join me in a 200-day countdown!

 Serious Striker hearts were aflutter this week when the publication date of The Hallmarked Man was moved to one week earlier, on Sept 2, 2025!  I have updated the countdown and hastened in my planning for a 200-day THM Countdown Re-read.  

Last time we were awaiting a book, I re-read the entire series in preparation.  I decided that was a bit much this time, so instead, I am proposing a re-read of the four books I think most likely to connect thematically to The Hallmarked Man, per my double-wedding-band structural model. You can see more details here and here, but the gist of it is, like Harry Potter, the first seven Strike books formed a structured ring with connections between books 3 and 5, 2 and 6 and 1, 4, 7. (See John Granger's work on ring structure for more of this modeling). In addition to the leapfrog pattern which connects the odd-numbered Strike books to each other, and the even-numbered to each other, I hypothesize that the last seven Strike books will form their own 7-part ring.  In addition, Since The Hallmarked Man is book #5 on this second ring, we can expect it to connect to #5 on the first ring, Troubled Blood. 

Under this model, The Hallmarked Man will make connections to all even-numbered books, but especially 2 and 6, plus book 5.  I therefore am going to suggest re-reading those books, with a particular eye toward what has been revealed about The Hallmarked Man via Galbraith's twitter headers, emojis and other hints. In particular, I want to consider the one known epigraph source, Maid of the Silver Sea. 

I propose to start the re-read on February 14th, exactly 200 days before THM publication. With 200 days to cover 4 books, that gives us 50 days per book. Furthermore, I'm going to suggest reading them out of order, starting with the most recent (and one fresh of on our minds thanks to the recent release of the TV show): The Ink Black Heart. So, fittingly, we wll join Strike and Robin at their "first date" at the Ritz on Valentine's Day. Yes, it wll end badly, but Valentine's Days always seem to such in JKR/RG novels. We'll plan to finish with Harty and friends by April 4.

Here's the rest of the plan:  

April 5- May 24:  TIBH's ring-structure twin, The Silkworm. 

May 25-July 14:  Troubled Blood

July 14-September 1: Lethal White

That takes us up to Hallmark Day.  

I'll post more detailed reading schedules later, but my plan is to work through each book over that 50 day period, posting 2-3 days per week. 

I look forward to a great fresh look at the series and thoughtful discussion here. 

Tune in tomorrow for my review of The Ink Black Heart TV show, Part 3.