The Ink Black Heart, Chapters 38-43: Jessica meets Zoe; Strike takes a tumble.

 

Strike and Madeline's liaison in Chapter 38 is notable for three things.  First, and expected, Charlotte is sh*t-stirring, doing what she can to disrupt Strike and Madeline's relationship and arouse jealousy of Robin. Second, and more unexpected, we learn that throwing breakable objects was something Strike did during rows with Charlottes, something I had previously assumed was, like the physical aggression, exclusively Charlotte's MO. Third, we get further indication that this relationship is not especially good for Strike. Trying to avoid more discussion of Robin and Charlotte, he chooses to sleep in his prosthesis, further aggravating the already irritated skin of his stump. 

Strike and Robin's meet-up in Chinatown happened in Gerrard's Corner, a place I saw on my 2023 trip to London did not sample. Seeing Robin eat noodles gave me a weird feeling, knowing what her stay at Chapman Farm in the next book is going to do to her appetite for that particular food. Something similar happens when Strike passes on information from Wardle about how Philip Ormand's wife left him while he was still on the police force, given that Wardle will find himself in a similar situation the next year. Another connection to Lethal White comes up with the resurrection of Venetia Hall as an education-focused journalist. I wonder if Venetia will reappear in THM?

The Ink Black Heart, Chapters 32-37: Freemasons, Flavia and the Christmas pudding onesie.

We start this section with Robin still royally ticked at her partner, both for not telling her about Madeline and for adding the Jago Ross case to their books. Strike is continuing his physical and emotional breakdown with his stump getting progressively worse and feeling overstretched with both social and work demands.

Despite her irritation, Robin provides a printout on the Brotherhood of Ultima Thule, and she and Strike speculate as to whether this group could be a front group for the Halvening.  This leads me to consider a possible link to The Hallmarked Man. The first twitter header clue to the book's contents that we were given was a shot of the Freemason building on Great Queen Street in London. While the Freemasons are doubtlessly a more reputable bunch than the BOUT boys, there are also some dark sides, including associations with police corruption in the UK, and with the Mafia in Italy. Thus, we could have a leapfrogging echo between books 6 and 8 of a fraternal organization with a connection to some sort of past or present criminal enterprise.