The 3-5 links to The Hallmarked Man: One set predicted by Double Wedding Band, another not.

One of the reasons I was especially looking forward to the publication of The Hallmarked Man was that it was the first real test of the Double Wedding Band model. (See here, here and here for background information).  In short, I think we see three basic patterns in the Strike series that are best accounted for by viewing the 10-part series as two overlapping rings: the first staring with CC and ending with TRG; 

1. The basic "turtle-back" connections that are so obvious in Harry Potter should be seen in both rings, 
1. Book 2-Book 6
2. Book 3-Book 5
3. The beginning-turning point-end triangulation between Books 1-4-7. 
2. The "ring correspondence" connections, where Book 1 of the first ring (CC) connects to Book 1 of the second ring (LW) and so on. This gives us the following: (note that the starred connections are duplicated in the turtle-back triangulations, above).  
1. CC-LW*
2. Silkworm-TB
3. CoE-TIBH
4. LW-TRG*
5. TB-THM
6. TIBH-Book 9
7. TRG-Book 10. *
3. While not necessarily a part of the Double Wedding Band, there is also good evidence for the Leapfrog Effect: the tendency of odd-numbered books to pair with other odd-numbered, and evens with evens. This gives us 20 total pairings, four of which (2-6, 3-5, 1-7, and 4-10) are already listed above. 

It is the ring correspondence component of the model that got its first real test for predictive power with THM.  I originally came up with the Double Wedding Band to explain the large number of linkages between CoE and TIBH and between Silkworm and Troubled Blood. These two connections are not predicted by the turtleback or leapfrog effects, but are accounted for by the ring correspondence. 

Thus, I went into THM with two testable hypotheses:  

• First: If the ring correspondence model works, then The Hallmarked Man, as the 5th book of Ring 2 (and #8 in the series), should have lots of correspondences with Troubled Blood, the fifth book of Ring 1. 

Furthermore, the ring correspondence could potentially help answer the question that has been nagging us: what happens to the idea of Strike being a parallel series to Harry Potter once we hit book 8 and are out of Potter books? 

• The answer (and second hypothesis) is, we back up and look for connections to Book #5 of Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix. 

Did the Double Wedding Band model pass the test?  Find out below.

I'll answer Hypothesis Two first:  Yes, there are many Order of the Phoenix connections to The Hallmarked Man. I had the privilege of recording a Three Broomsticks podcast yesterday where that was a major point of discussion and where panelists were able to add to the list I had compiled. That episode will air sometime in early November and I hope to do a master list post around that time. In the meantime, you can find a partial list here. 

What about links to Troubled Blood?  Yes, again, there were many THM connections. I made notes on them as I read through the series, but this post will provide a complete list of the most specific, as I did earlier for the connections predicted by the Leapfrog Effect.  

But, there was one large set of connections that I wasn't expecting, but found, and for which many readers found far more than me. Those are connections to the third book of the series, Career of Evil. I am particularly indebted to Reddit user u/Random-Occurance365, who compiled a long list and gave me permission to use it on this blog. 

Probably the coolest connection is that the major case in THM begins very much like CoE, but finishes very much like TB.  In the beginning: 

• In CoE, we had a body part turn up (the leg delivered to the office) without a body and with an unknown identity. This left our detectives with two questions:
• Whose leg is this?
• Who killed and dismembered them and sent the leg to the office?
• In THM, a body is discovered with several parts missing. Once "William Wright" is shown to be a pseudonym, our detectives are left with two questions:
• Whose body is this?
• Who killed and dismembered them and left the body in the vault?
• In CoE, the police initially latch onto one particular suspect for the killer: career criminal Digger Mallory. Strike has his doubts and starts investigating and trying to get the police to consider three other suspects:  Noel Brockbank, Donald Laing and Jeff Whittaker. 
• The police eventually rule out Mallory.
• In THM, the police initially latch onto one particular candidate for the body: career criminal Jason Knowles. Strike has his doubts and starts investigating and trying to get the police to consider three other candidates: Rupert Fleetwood, Niall Semple and Tyler Powell.
• The police eventually rule out Knowles. 
• In both cases, the murder was made possible because the killer (Laing)/accomplice (Todd) gained the victim's trust and lured them into the place where the killing occurred. 
• Killer has almost unbelievable luck in their victim's resemblance to others,  resulting in multiple suspects. 
• Semple and Powell both had connections to the name William Wright and distinctive marks on their back. 
• Kelsey and Brittany both had similar scarring on their legs.
• Kelsey was originally thought to be a Ukrainian woman whose apartment she was borrowing; Digger Mallory was known to have dragged off a Ukrainian woman. 

As the case proceeds:

• The detectives take the case in both TB and in THM not knowing if their target is dead or has gone away voluntarily. 
• Both targets, Margot Bamborough and Rupert Fleetwood, have surnames relating to locations  in northern England. 
• Margot was a mother of an infant; Rupert was a soon-to-be father. 
• Both targets' partners and co-parents insist the person would never have abandoned their child and therefore believe the target is dead. 
• Strike is particularly looking forward to working the Bamborough and Silver Vault cases with Robin. 
• Shanker provides crucial information about organized crime figures connected to both cases,  but also warns Strike away from investigating.
• In TB, the detectives investigate and ultimately learn the fate of three missing (and, as it turns out, dead) women: Kara Wolfson, Louise Tucker and Margot Bamborough.  
• In THM, the detectives investigate and ultimately learn the fate of three missing (and, as it turns out, dead) men: Jason Knowles, Niall Semple and Tyler Powell.
• Both Jason Knowles and Kara Wolfson were police informants, killed by the patriarch of an organized crime family (Lynden Knowles, Mucky Ricci).
• In the end, the detectives and the police are confident that they know what happened to both, but it is not clear if their bodies will ever be found or if the killer will ever be brought to justice. 
• The detectives are able to deduce the locations of both Louise Tucker's and Niall Semple's bodies and inform the authorities, who quickly locate them. 
• Both bodies are submerged in places associated with water (a well, a river). 
• Both families get closure once they know what happened, and are able to hold funerals and burials for their loved ones. 
• One major contrast:  Brian Tucker seeks lots of publicity regarding his daughter's case and want the detectives given public credit for solving it. Ralph Lawrence needs as little publicity as possible about Semple's death, and tells Strike information that cannot be publicized. 
• Both Margot Bamborough and Tyler Powell turned out to have been killed by serial killers (Janice Beatty, Iain Griffiths) because they had information that would have exposed the long-term crimes of the killers. 
• Both were good people who were trying to help a young woman get away from an abusive situation (Chloe, Gloria). 
• Robin intentionally set out to "get to know" Margot by sampling her perfume and listening her her music. She also feels like she "got to know" Tyler by the end "without realising it."
• Both killers were able to conceal their crimes long-term by being the type of people that don't draw suspicion (nurse, hippy musician and single father). 
• Both killers concealed a woman's body (Margot's, Chloe/Jolanda's) in amateurishly poured concrete.
• The detectives also track down two living men as part of the case (Steven Douthwaite, Danny de Leon).
• Both men changed their names, fled London and were found in a place by the sea (Skegness, Sark).
• Both men left because they were ashamed of bad choices they had made and because they knew the identity of a criminal but were afraid to come forward. 
• Both are confronted by Strike and Robin when they visit the men in their new home, and a family member who witnesses the confrontation gets very angry. 
• Both are finally convinced to go public with their information.
• Strike and Robin wind up having an enjoyable and meaningful visit to the seaside when they go to find these men. 
• They enjoy a simple but delicious meal together (fish n chips, spaghetti carbonara) and have a personal chat in addition to discussing the case. 
• Before they leave, they take a walk by the windy coast to view the sea.
• Strike has to decode the astrological symbols in TB; he has to decode the cipher from Fiona Freeman in THM. 
• The mystery of the long-ago disappearance of Reata Lindvall is solved, like Margot Bamborough's was. 
• Like Margot, some people claimed to have spotted Reata after she disappeared. 
• Some people speculated that Margot and Reata did not really want to be mothers and therefore abandoned/killed their child. 
• The basement lair where Griffiths chained, starved and raped his victims and hid their bodies was similar to Dennis Creed's. 
• Though not a one-to-one correspondence, there are also some connections between the suspects in CoE and the body candidates in THM: 
• Both Donald Laing and Niall Semple are brain-damaged ex-Army men who married a small-town girl while in the service. 
• Both wives miscarried a baby. 
• Both marriages were troubled. 
• Both Noel Brockbank and Rupert Fleetwood had incestuous relationships with a sister. 
• Interestingly, while Fleetwood and Semple had some behavioral similarities to Laing and Brockbank, neither was an abuser. Both were, instead, victims of circumstances they could not be blamed for. 
• Tyler Powell is the polar opposite of two suspects in CoE,
• Jeff Whittaker abused and pimped out his girlfriend, Stephanie. Tyler tried to save his girlfriend Chloe from Griffith's sex trafficking. 
• Brockbank and Whittaker both sexually abused their stepdaughters. Brockbank molested both Brittany and Angel; Whittaker exposed himself to and sexually taunted Lucy. 
• Tyler tried to save Chloe from the sexual abuse of her surrogate father, who had impregnated her. 
• However, Tyler is somewhat like Laing's victim, Kelsey Platt.
• Tyler and Kelsey are both de facto orphans, with Kelsey's parents dead and Tyler's moved away and not caring about him.
• Both had difficult relationships with their remaining relative (Kelsey's sister Hazel, Tyler's grandmother Dilys. 
• Hazel trusted Laing and thought Kelsey had a good relationship with him, but he murdered and dismembered Kelsey. Dilys trusted Griffiths, and thought Tyler had a good relationship with him, but he murdered and dismembered Tyler. 

Given that there are so many direct parallels between the two main cases, I would say both books definitely pass the specificity tests. But there are other connections as well, either not connected to the main case, or not as specific. 

For Career of Evil:

• 
  
  An individual with a history with Strike has a personal vendetta and hopes to destroy the agency by trashing Strike's reputation.
• Laing wants to frame him for murder; Culpepper wants to portray him as a sexual exploiter. 
• Robin is stalked in both books.
• She is distracted and makes a wrong turn while talking on the phone with Strike when Laing attacks her with a knife. 
• She is talking on the phone with Ilsa when Wade King threatens her with the Masonic dagger. 
• She is distracted and forgets to lock her car door when Wade King physically assaults her. 
• During both physical assaults, she defends herself through her self-defense training and use of a defensive weapon she packed for this purpose (rape alarm, pepper spray).
• Both times, both she and the villain get caustic stuff sprayed in their eyes.
• Both times, the noise alerts helpful bystanders, who provide assistance.
• Because of the stalker, Robin has to work from home and gets stuck doing what she thinks are pointless computer tasks. 
• We learn of Robin's rape in CoE. We learn of the long-term consequences of the rape in THM (infertility).
• In CoE, Robin fears the revelation of the rape will cause Strike to see her has weak. After Wade King uses Robin's rape history as a means to intimidate her, Strike unfortunately characterized Robin as a weak link. 
• Robin's love life is a mess because she insists on staying with a safe, handsome man when she really loves Strike. 
• She is constantly mentally correcting herself about her feelings (she has to; no, she wanted to marry Matthew; she thinks; no, she knows she loves Ryan)
• She's unenthusiastic about the wedding preparations, just like she is unenthusiastic about house-hunting, but goes along with it.
• Both Matthew and Ryan are resentful of Robin's job and jealous of Strike; he dislikes both men and thinks Robin is making a mistake by being with them. 
• Something the partner hoped was in the past (Matthew's affair with Sarah, Ryan's drinking) resurfaces.
• The revelation causes Robin to call off wedding to Matthew and the house-buying with Ryan.
• After reflection and tears from the man, Robin takes them back. 
• In CoE, Strike rushes after Robin to her wedding at the last minute because he needs to try to get her back as his detective partner. In THM, Strike rushes down the stairs after Robin at the last minute  when she is going to the Ritz (probably to get engaged) because he needs to try to get her as a life partner. 
• Linda has whispered conversations with Matthew in CoE, and with Ryan in THM. 
• In CoE, Robin remembers a plush elephant Matthew gave her for Valentine's Day. In THM, Ryan gives her a plush dog for Valentine's Day. 
• Interestingly, both connect to detective cases. Laing's apartment is in Elephant and Castle; side case in THM is dog-fighting ring. 
• Strike and Robin take their first overnight car trip in CoE, and their first plane trip in THM. 
• Both times, Robin is glad to escape the difficulties with Matthew/Ryan, is annoyed by the text messages he is sending her, and wishes the trip could last longer.
• In Barrow-in-Furness in TB, Strike hears a small-town funeral song and thinks of Ted, hoping he would have 10-20 more years before his friends would similarly mourn him. Sadly, with Ted's passing in THM, it was only five. 
• Strike was touched by Polworth's words at the wake, though, 
• Strike looks at Elin's daughter's room and feels trepidation at the thought of being "Mummy's boyfriend" to a little girl. 
• He feels even more fear--sheer terror, in fact--at the thought that he might be the father of Bijou's daughter, 
• Wardle's brother dies in the hit-and-run in CoE. We see the long-term consequences of this for Wardle (mother's hastened death, his responsibility for his brother's children, possible damage to his marriage). 
• We see Culpepper's first annoyance at Strike when Strike refuses to share the scoop on the severed leg story. Culpepper's anger at losing Strike as a source is magnified in THM, and is part of the reason for his vendetta. 
• Interestingly, the first hint of sexualizing Strike's relationships with women with whom he works appears in the decoy piece that Culpepper writes at the end of CoE, when he calls Robin Strike's "glamorous assistant." 
• Robin tried to put the idea of leaving Craig Wheaton into Fiona's head, just as both Strike and Robin tried to get Stephanie to leave Whittaker. 
• Strike travels to Scotland by sleeper train in both books.
• Strike consults Graham Hardacre about the case in both books. 

For Troubled Blood:

• 
  
  Kim Cochran is a female Saul Morris.
• Both are new subcontractors with police background. 
• Both have the hots for one of the agency partners. 
• Both are good-looking enough to inspire jealousy in the other partner when they think there could be some attraction. 
• Both are fond of showing off their body (wearing shirts that ride up, or tight/revealing clothing). 
• Both send sexually inappropriate texts to the partner to whom they are attracted. 
• Both get people drunk and try to use sex to get information from them (Shifty's PA, police contacts).
• Both dismissive of Robin and challenge her authority as their boss. 
• Both get satisfying comeuppance at the end, that includes Strike threatening to stop them from working as a detective elsewhere. 
• Strike and Robin both have unhappy Christmases.
• Robin is miserable at home in both books, particularly because she is overwhelmed by baby talk. 
• She drinks too much both Christmases. 
• She stays home ro avoid Matthew and Sarah, who are visiting Masham, in TB. She goes out to pub and sees Matthew and Sarah in THM.
• Strike is miserable at home in TB when he would rather be with family; he is miserable at Lucy's in THM when he would rather have been at home. 
• Strike has terrible vomiting episode in TB, Robin has one in THM.  
• Prior to holiday, Robin visits fancy London store (Fortnum and Mason; Harrod's) to interview a witness and buys/considers buying a gift for Annabel there. 
• Strike shops at Liberty's, but is unhappy and confused about what to buy. 
• Major contrast:  Robin hates her gift from Strike in TB and leaves it at home; she takes her gift from Strike with her in THM and loves it. 
• Valentine's Day isn't much better.
• Strike and Robin row in TB; Ryan and Robin row in THM.
• But, in contrast to TB, Strike and Robin make up after the dog bite and finish the event closer than they've been in a while. 
• The confrontation with Branfoot and Kim in the Goring is a lot like the one with Carl Oakden at the American Bar. 
• Branfoot and Oakden both arrive thinking they've got the goods on Strike; he turns the tables on them.
• He has more dirt on Oakden and Branfoot/Kim than they have on him.
• Strike tells Oakden he can pay for his own sandwich; Branfoot tells Strike he can pay for his own meal. 
• Joan dies in TB; Ted in THM.
• Strike has a long drive through rain to get to Joan's deathbed; he has a long drive through rain immediately after Ted's death.
• Both journeys hurt his leg. 
• Robin is annoyed with, but tolerates and pretends to laugh at the off-color emojis texted from Winn Jones, just as she puts up and pretends to laugh at the off-color jokes from Morris.
• Both Betty Fuller and Fiona Freeman are examples of how sex work is exploitive for women. 
• Gloria Conti and Sophia Medina are both women with old-fashioned and religious parents/guardians who get into bad situations after seeking out "dangerous" men. 
• We get two "some women like porn" statements from women who Strike really finds annoying: Courtney of TB and Marguerite of THM.

Whew! Thank you to everyone who has read this far. While it is hard to quantify number and specificity of connections, I have to conclude that there are substantial and comparable numbers of connections between The Hallmarked Man and Troubled Blood (as the Double Wedding Band model predicts) and between The Hallmarked Man and Career of Evil (as DWB does not predict).  As is typical, I am going to need to revise the model with the publication of a new book. 

I have two new ideas: one that involves a minor tweak to DWB, and one that means scrapping DWB entirely and replacing it with a new, and possibly simpler model.  Even better, I have some testable hypotheses that may help distinguish between them.  Details to come in a future post. 

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