The Hallmarked Man: Part 4: Spoilers for Chapters 1-56.

Well, so much for my hope that the beautiful Christmas gift scene was going to turn things around for Strike and Robin. Remember Linus's  classic line from the Charlie Brown Christmas special: "Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem." Robin Ellacott has to be the only person who can take the world's most perfect Christmas gift and turn it into an occasion for anxiety and guilt. 

This whole storyline is getting a bit too cliched and soap-opera-ish for me.  I was so hoping there would not be the question of Strike being the father of Bijou's child. And Strike and Robin are back to the chronic misunderstandings and jumping to conclusions. And over stupid things... Robin thinking Strike will be annoyed if she asks about his leg; Strike getting his nose out of joint because she doesn't ask about his leg. C'mon, you've been doing this dance for seven years.

It's a bit ironic that Ilsa, one of the people who most wants Strike and Robin together, is inadvertently the reason of the current animosity. 

Unfortunately, if my next guess is correct, the soap score is about to jump way up.  The one explanation I could think of for Rupert to go to see Valentine Longcaster, then tear up the lucky shirt he was wearing when he found out he was about to be a father, is that he collected a DNA sample from one of them, had it tested ("William Wright" also claimed to be carrying a blood sample), discovered Dino Longcaster is his father and therefore Decima his half-sister.  I floated this storyline after reading only Part 1 and I've never been that good at guessing the outcome of a Strike novel, so I really hope I'm wrong on this one. 

On the other hand, it was mentioned that Valentine and Decima looked nothing alike, so maybe both mothers slept with the husband's best mate, in which case they would not be half-siblings after all. 

Also, weren't we told this would be a Pat-heavy book? We're now half-way through and the only thing I see that she has done outside of routine receptionist duties is accidentally buy a fish tank. I can only hope she is going to spend the second half of the book slapping some sense into Strike and Robin. 

My favorite part of this section was the selling of the Nancarrow home to a nice local family and Strike offering to loan Robin the money for a new Land Rover. 

Ottolie, the name of Bijou's baby, means "wealth" or "riches."  Fitting, as the baby is what Bijou conceived as her ticket to a wealthy husband. 

As the book is moving in a much less enjoyable direction for me, I am seeing fewer thematic connections popping up to other books popping up, even as references to other incidents/ characters increase. 

Connections to even-numbered books: 

Lethal White:

• Robin's phone call to Ilsa reminded me of her call to Sir Kevin, where she extracts a lot of information by pretending to already know it. 

The Ink Black Heart: 

• .Jim Todd's escape in a crowded tube station was a lot like Anomie's. 
• Strike irritated his stump by sleeping in the prosthesis at Madeline's house in TIBH. 

Connections to #5 books

 Troubled Blood:

• Sofia Medina seems to have some similarities with Gloria Conti: raised by older religious parents, fantasizing about getting involved with a criminal boyfriend.