The Hallmarked Man Part 5: Spoilers for Chapters 1-68

My urge to slap these two is getting stronger---  if Robin really thinks this poorly of Strike, she needs to find a new place to work. And she's been in this place before, feeling relief when she was not with Matthew, and she's crazy if she doesn't see the red flags. 

Strike looking up Reata Lindvall's murder made me want to check dates. 

Rupert, age 26, would have been born around 1990, and moved to Switzerland about 1992. 

Reata was born in 1972, so about 2 years older than the Strike and Charlotte and 4 years older than Valentine.  Orphaned in 1982, age 10. ran away 1988, age about 16. By 1993, she is a mother of Jolanda and working as a chalet cleaner in Switzerland. Thus Jolanda was the right age to know Rupert as a child. More importantly, there is potential for either Peter Fleetwood (if he slept with a chambermaid on that final ski trip) or Uncle Wallner to be Jolanda's father.   

Interestingly for a Swedish woman, Reata is a name of Spanish origins, meaning reins or bridle. Jolanda means violet, so keep an eye out for any of those flowers to pop up as a clue to this mystery. 

Valentine was born about 1976 and Decima was born about 1978. This makes it possible that Dino Valentine was Reata's father.

Connections to even-numbered books: 

• We got both Strike reading Latin and Catullus (albeit not from Strike) again!!!  This makes a streak for all four even-numbers books
• Omnia in numeris sita suat means "Everything is contained in numbers." It is quoted in Pike's Morals and Dogma, one of the epigraph sources.  Numerology is apparently important in Freemasonry. 
• Quid si non aliud potest, ruborem ferreo canis exprimamus ore, the Latin quoted by the vile Valentine Longcaster (heretofore to be known as Vilelentine) is from Catullus 42.  It translates as "If nothing else can be done, let us draw a blush from that brazen bitch's face. 
• This is one of Catallus's more angry and aggressive poems, about a woman, likely a prostitute, who has stolen the poet's tablets. Catullus is enlisting male friends to help him threaten and humiliate her into giving them back. 
• If Robin manages to remember the quotation and asks Strike what it means, I don't like Vilelentine's chances of escaping with his nose unbroken.  

The Silkworm:

• Strike travels to Scotland by sleeper train. 

Lethal White:

• The "PP" nickname Charlotte apparently gave Robin sounds a lot like the Chiswells calling Kinvara TTS. 

Connections to #5 books

 Troubled Blood:

• Strike flashes back to Dave Polworth's "hole at home" speech on marriage. 
• Strike and Robin eat outdoors at a pub despite the cold weather. 
• The row in Ironbridge sounds a lot like the one Strike and Robin had over her visit to Mucky Ricci.  It starts over Robin taking risks and not informing Strike, although it certainly expands into other areas. It ends with Robin storming out, having resolved nothing and leaving the partners angry at each other. 
• Robin's "Yes, I'm capable of retaining something you told me two minutes ago" sounds a lot like her "Yes, I learned counting in school."