Reading schedule for Pre-THM re-read of Lethal White

In keeping with my leapfrog predictions, I am re-reading all the even numbered Strike books in preparation for The Hallmarked Man.  I decided to make June Lethal White month,  then take a break from blogging in early July, then pick up with Troubled Blood* on July 21. 

Lethal White remains, to date, my favorite of the series, so I am excited about this read-through. I became even more excited after the release of the cover blurb on 5/28/2025, where we learn the client's name is Decima, the Roman counterpart to the Greek Fate Lachesis we met in LW. Between that and the swans that have turned up both in the neon sign store Twitter header and the Masonic temple room, it seems refamiliarizing ourselves with LW will enhance our enjoyment of THM. 

Here's the schedule: 

• Monday, June 2:  Prologue, Ch. 1-6
• Thursday, June 5: Ch. 7-14
• Monday, June 9:  Ch. 15-25
• Thursday, June 12: Ch. 26-35
• Monday, June 16:  Ch.  36-42
• Thursday, June 19: Ch. 43-50
• Monday, June 23: Ch 51-56
• Thursday, June 26: Ch. 57-65
• Monday, June 30: Ch. 66- Epilogue

Let's all saddle up those lovely albino steeds and gallop through this gold-medal volume. 

*Yes, I know this is not an even numbered book, but there is a reason I am including it in my pre-THM review, 

The Silkworm Finale: Showdown at the Chelsea Arts Club

 

The Chelsea Arts Club apparently gets repainted on a regular basis, but its Wikipedia picture has the decor that is described in the book. Nice of Al to get Strike in and interesting that Daniel Chard tries to have them kicked out. He must not have recognized that Al was with him; I doubt he would want to risk losing out on Jonny Rokeby's biography by offending his son. 

The moment were Strike toasts Liz Tassel with his glass is also quite priceless.  That's when I guessed she was the killer on my first read. While we are clearly supposed to guess Fancourt after he is summoned to the garden, it makes little sense, especially after John Bristow, that Strike would lure a killer out to a deserted garden with him. At least this way, they'll be two men versus one 60-year old woman when she's confronted. 

The Hallmarked Blurb: My initial thoughts

 As I said a few days ago, when covers come, can blurbs be far behind?  We got our answer today with the release of the first pre-publication blurb of The Hallmarked Man. 

There's a lot to mull over here, so tune in after the jump. 

The Silkworm Chapters 44-46: Polworth goes diving and the visit with Kath and Pippa

This section contains the relatively long chapter where Strike and Robin interview Kath Kent and Pippa Midgley in the former's apartment. bookended by two relatively short Polworth-centered chapters. In the first Strike asks him to undertake a mysterious and dangerous job for him, which truns out to be taking the plunge into Hell's Mouth in search of evidence. In the last, he comes through with the goods. To fully appreciate what Strike was asking, check out this video taken the following September, when a tourist managed to capture a giant rockfall into the cove. If that had happened 9 months earlier, cold would have been the least of Dave's problems.

The Silkworm Chapters 41-43: Busywork, Cheeky Monkey, Edna the Great and the Groucho Club, and why we should expect Catullus in The Hallmarked Man.

Chapter 41 is relatively brief, but we get a lot of personal reflection from Strike. After his revelation at the River Cafe, and with the knowledge of Charlotte's imminent wedding looming over him, he goes a bit stir-crazy, busying himself with pointless tasks. After a fruitless visit to Kath Kent's flat and call to Jerry Waldegrave, he holes up in the Tottenham, with Charlotte never far from his mind. He imagines her prepping for the wedding, waiting and hoping for him to stop it, but sticks to his resolution to let her "continue towards the prison of her own choosing: he would not call, he would not text." Instead, he does everything he can think of that might help free Leonora from the prison she did not choose. 

In the midst of this brooding, he has one of his flashes of insight where he seems to understand Robin's dilemma with Matthew better than she does herself, and better than he understands his own obsession with Charlotte.  

You and Matthew...Strike could see it even if she could not: the condition of being with Matthew was not to be herself.

 Robin is in the midst of a reverse-alchemical process that begins with her giddiness over her engagement at the start of CC and ends in the disastrous and mock-alchemical wedding at the end of CoE.  Ironically, as we learn in the start of the next chapter, Robin is, at this moment, having the conversation with Matthew that she thinks is going to fix everything; she's telling him about her longtime ambition to be an investigator. He agrees to support her. Unfortunately, like his agreeing in CC that it was her choice whether to stay with Strike, and his helping her rehearse her case for returning to work in CoE, it means nothing; as soon as they are married he'll be right back to complaining about her job and her salary. Because he's a Flobberworm. But I digress. 

Strike's emotional intelligence about Robin's love life does not stop Strike from making mistakes about his own. Once he learns that Charlotte has become Mrs. Jago Ross, he makes his first convenient use of a woman as a "restaurant and brothel"--or at least a brothel--as he makes plans to go sleep with Nina again, rather than spend the night alone. He'll ghost her shortly thereafter. 

The Silkworm: Chapters 38-40: Leonora arrested, the visit to jail and dinner at the River Cafe. Plus, the story of Holloway prison and a bonus Strike-related podcast!

Before we plunge back into the Silkworm re-read, I'd like to plug a podcast this week on which I was a guest. If you've read this essay, you know I strongly disagree with the idea that Charlotte Campbell could have been murdered.  The Three Broomsticks decided to have both Nick and me on to discuss the matter. Hopefully, I defended the suicide angle competently. 

Back to Book 2!

After a Quine-heavy three chapters, we get a bit of an interlude into the agency's other cases in Chapters 38-40. First we jin Strike in munching his Egg McMuffins and capturing evidence of Miss Brocklehurst's infidelity--his first time completing a task for the client who will eventually be known as Two-times and who will patronize the agency far more times than that, appearing in both CoE and TB. We haven't seen him in a couple of books now.  I wonder if he settled down and got married to a nice brunette, or if the agency just got successful enough that they no longer needed his business.

The Silkworm, Chapters 35-37: The misremembering bookseller, Simpsons on the Strand and Pippa, plus the cover of The Hallmarked Man!

Before I continue with the pre-The Hallmarked Man re-read of the Silkworm, I want to share a bit of important Strike news: the release of the Hallmarked cover!

This is certainly the closest look at a building we've gotten on any cover to date, and of course, the building is recognizable as the Freemasons' Hall of London, the same building pictured in an early Twitter clue. As I said when the clue was first revealed, there could be some very cool connections to other books:

But what about the Freemason building?  I suspect that will relate in some way to our heroes' major mystery. As some have pointed out, the United Grand Hall is a popular event venue, so it is possible a visit there would have nothing to do with the Freemason organization itself. But, the most interesting thing about the Freemasons to me is their association with police corruption in the 1970's, apparently as a result of some Met cops being in the same lodges with career criminals. This makes me think of gangsters like Mucky Ricci, whom the police were clearly powerless to stop and makes me wonder if the mystery will involve some dirty cops, past or present.  If so, that could certainly complicate things for Robin and Murphy.  More importantly, it could be a connection to some of themes of TB, which also involved looking back at police work in the 1970's.  That would be an interesting link between the two Book 5's of each ring.  

Fans have also been told to pay particular attention to Temple #17 in the lodge, which apparently features an elaborately carved swan as part of its decor. Swans, of course, are a favorite bird to Strike fans, from the ones tha did not swim together at Robin and Matt's doomed wedding, to the single swan on the pub near the unhappy couple's marital home, to the double swans that close out LW to the kissing swan towels at Steven Douwaite's hotel. There is also the mythological connection to Strike's mother Leda. 

The swan is also a common symbol in literary alchemy, representing the albedo, or purification stage of transformation. I was struck by the similar, albeit darker color scheme as The Running Grave, with the combination of yellow and grey. This is more evidence that we are headed for as second albedo volume, in Book 8, paired with the water-washed and baptism-filled seventh volume. That certainly fits with all the silver images seen in Twitter headers, to date.

The Silkworm Chapters 30-34: Burger King, more creepy marble sculptures and the Michael Fancourt Show.

 

Yes, work matters have me falling behind on blogging again.  I'm doing my best to catch up; I'm going to try to post at least every other day until I get caught up. 

Chapter 30:  The Burger King conversation is one that I look back on with special fondness, mainly because it is simultaneously precursor, echo and inversion to one of my favorite from the entire series: the breakdown on the verge and the subsequent chat at the racetrack of Lethal White. Here we see Strike giving Robin a bit of "tough love"-- bluntly pointing out the problems her working as a detective with him will create for her marriage, and showing remarkable insight into the tensions her work has already created for them. Even Robin's sensation of "being unexpectedly winded" foreshadows her full-scale panic attack on the verge. Here, Strike points out that "you're getting married to someone who hates you doing it!"; on the verge, Robin will deliver the welcome news that she is getting un-married from the same man. Here, Strike tells her "You're the one who is going to have to work it out;" on the verge, he is bold enough to imagine "a few corrective measures from which he thought Matthew might benefit. But every time I read this, I am inwardly urging Robin to get that damn coffee to go. 

The Silkworm: Chapters 28-29: "Her practical thoughts for his comfort"

Despite my feelings about Robin risking missing the funeral, Chapter 28 is a personal favorite of mine for a number of reasons. 

• First, it is the first time Robin (and we readers) see Strike using crutches, and the vulnerable state that leaves him in. Hearing about the inconveniences and indignities this entails (having to search for a safety pin for his pants leg, sliding down the stairs on his butt like a child) helps us appreciate how important the prothesis is for his life and his work. 
• Second, this is perhaps Robin's best opportunity to shine since she modeled the green dress at Vashti's. She shows her house-elf like efficiency, getting a practical four-wheel drive car for the journey, packing coffee and shortbread for the journey and navigating the snowy highway in a way that almost immediately appears to neutralize Strike's conditioned aversion to any non-professional drivers (especially women ones). This is before she shows off her advanced driving skills and saves them from a near-certain pileup with the jack-knifing center. 
• Third, we see Strike letting his guard down around Robin for the first time in a while---  and no eleven pints of Doom Bar to facilitate the sharing. As he puts it: "His antipathy to discussing his leg had been dissolved by warm coffee, their discussion and her practical thoughts for his comfort."