The Troubled Blood Re-read Finale: Tying up loose ends and donkey balloons, Plus, possible connections to The Hallmarked Man and spoilers from the last Galbraith video.

I must say, I think the ending of Troubled Blood might be my favorite of the series. I like the fact that it doesn't end with either of the detectives in physical danger or fighting for their lives. Strike, Robin and Barclay all play an important role in solving the crime, with Robin and Sam "digging" the body out of the ottoman, while Strike confronts Janice. 

But, before we get to the real case, we get my favorite Strike scene of the entire series, the confrontation with Dennis Creed. I love this scene so much that I just submitted an abstract on it for the Harry Potter Academic Conference. I love the way Strike turns Creed's own trick of pretending to walk away against him to get the clue about Louise. Also, one fatal error that trips Creed up is that it simply did not occur to him that the Tucker and Bamborough families could be working together to secure Strike's services for this interview. It reminds me of Dumbledore's classic statement about Voldemort:

Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped. 

Another great thing here is the vindication for Brian Tucker. He deserves the true credit for discovering Louise's body, thanks to the decades of research he had done about Creed's life. Had he not told Robin about the well at the Archer during their first meeting, our heroes would have been hard pressed to make that connection. I don't begrudge him all the talk show appearances, after 40 + years. 

Regarding Robin and Barclay's search for the body, having recently scored some chocolate Penguins at the local Foods of all Nations, I can appreciate Samhain's addiction to them. I love that Bluey and Billy Bob are twittering as they open the ottoman. I am always a bit surprised Janice continued serving as the Athorn's social worker "Claire" for 40-odd years. That is a lot of work.  I would have thought she would have figured out some way of hauling that damn ottoman away---  couldn't she make up a story about the Athorns filling it with concrete themselves--?  and then do away with them, just to free herself of the responsibility. 

As Janice recites her autobiography, it becomes obvious she was inspired by Nannie Doss, aka "the Giggling Granny, " an American serial killer who, though not a nurse, poisoned multiple family members with arsenic, killing her mother, sisters, daughters, grandchildren and four out of five husbands.  And I'm always happy to see George Layborn get the chance to arrest Janice; his dad would have been proud. 

I was struck in this re-read on how much Strike reminisces about his own past in the aftermath of this case. Galbraith said on a recent video how both Strike and Robin connect to their past in this book, so that Danish blurb may have been right!. He remembers getting the call about Leda's death, and the trauma of the IED explosion. About a year ago, I participated in a Three Broomsticks podcast that talked both about parallels between Books 5 and 7 in both Harry Potter (see Sophia Jenkin's great essay here) and in Cormoran Strike. Specifically, a number of elements in 5 seem to foretell events in 7 (for example, Moody's successful rescue of Harry from Privet Drive in OotP and his disastrous one in DH; Charlotte's attempted suicide in TB and actual suicide in TRG. As readers are aware, I am already excited by how many TB elements seem to be coming up in THM, per the Double Wedding Band.  I am now wondering if this memories that wash over Strike here are prophetic leads to what we might see in THM:  more about Strike's Army career, and more about Leda's death. Another potential echo is the theme of the past, with the cold case of TB and Strike and Robin's pasts possibly been explored more in depth in THM. 

The reunion at Anna and Kim's is very much a do-over of the chaotic meeting at Broom House, complete with rain and Strike shoveling lots of cake into his mouth. If you have listened to the Strike and Ellacott files prediction episode, you heard more than one person speculate that THM will be a father-centric book. Looking back at TB, it struck me that, even though the mystery is about a murdered daughter, there are a lot of important fathers in it, too, from the grieving Brian Tucker finally burying his daughter, the way Greg Talbot and George Layborn honor their fathers by helping with the investigation, to the reconciliation of Anna with her father Roy, and all topped by Rokeby's efforts to make contact with Strike. This may prove to be yet another connection between TB and THM. 

As readers may remember, I began my pre-THM re-read nearly 200 days ago, and started with The Ink Black Heart. It was interesting to finish up here, right before the Ritz scene that opened Book 6. As heartwarming as it is to see Strike thoughtfully planning a birthday surprise, putting n his special-occasion cologne and taking Robin out for fancy drinks, it is a little bittersweet to realize what the aftermath of the Ritz is going to be and how Strike and Robin's relationship will be set back several steps with the missed kiss. 

This concludes the Pre-The Hallmarked Man re-read.  In slightly more than two days, the book will be here!  Thank you to all who have reviewed four key books with a view to what's coming ahead, I can't wait to see what comes out of Gabraith's Lake and Shed this time.