The Hallmarked Man Advent Adventure, Part Six: Chapters 31-36, Jingle All the Way

Chapter 31: 

Strike doubted that MI5 would order an operative to grab Robin round the back of the neck and force a rubber gorilla on her in an attempt to make the agency back off the silver vault investigation, but the question of who was behind the assault was making Strike wonder exactly which of the hornets’ nests the agency seemed, unwittingly, to have kicked was responsible.

He is also disturbed to know that it was apparently a comment on Culpepper's article about his womanizing that outed Robin as Witness G in the Gorilla Mask rapist case. Little does he know that his problems with Culpepper articles are just beginning. 

The Hallmarked Man Advent Adventure Part five: Chapters 26-30: Going off the rails?

The new Ellacott dog bears the name
of the famous tea house Robin and
Linda visited in CoE. 

Full book spoilers for The Hallmarked Man. 

Strike and Robin start off Chapter 26 reviewing the information they got from Pamela and from Larry McGee's colleagues respectively. Unfortunately, the case is making less sense as they progress, with highly illogical things happening that neither the silver heist gone wrong or the professional hit disguised as a silver heist hypotheses explain. 

“But that’s so… weird," said Robin, on the phone to Strike half an hour later, while he was walking back to the office

Upon his arrival at Denmark Street, Strike encounters two significant developments in the case. First, he finds the pigpen cipher note. Second, before he can translate it, probable MI5 agent Ralph Lawrence* turns up to warn Strike against pursuing the Niall Semple lead, solidifying Strike's suspicion that Semple was in the Special Forces. Strike refuses to be intimidated by the agent, and, given that Lawrence will not provide proof that the body is not Semple, Strike resolves to continue the investigation, and sends off another Facebook message to Semple's wife, Jade. 

The Hallmarked Man Advent Adventure, Part Four: Chapters 20-25: Good King Wencestrike?

Full book spoilers for The Hallmarked Man. 

"Why have we got a fish tank?" 

So that we can have some of the most un-subtle symbolism ever written involving legumes, naturally. 

Chapter 20 gives us lots more than the tank that will eventually house Robin, Travolta (RIP), Elton and the oranda-with-a-death-wish, Cormoran. Robin and Strike meet to review the security footage from the silver shop But first, Pat reports the threatening phone call and Strike starts to investigate that, with the memories of the bombing of TIBH fresh on his mind. 

One notable part of this is Strike asking KFC whether there was a chance Plug had spotted her, immediately putting her on the defensive and causing her to insist that Plug never really could have recognized her, she's too good, and was just being extra cautious when she swapped jobs with Midge. If Strike didn't already know that was a set-up, he does now. Worse, the Kimphomaniac immediately tries to point the finger at Robin, saying she was careless in disguising herself, as if she were Robin's peer rather than subordinate. KFC not only wants to jump Strike's bones, she wants Robin's job! It would have been nice to see Strike remind Kim that it wasn't her place to critique one of the partners. 

The Hallmarked Man Advent Adventure, Part 3: Chapters 15-19.

Note:  full book spoilers for The Hallmarked Man.  

Strike glanced up at the camera over the street door as he and Robin emerged into the chilly afternoon. 

Chapter 15 finds our heroes heading out to the pub lunch they didn't get on Strike's birthday, to review what they learned at the silver shop. interestingly, one of the first things Robin tells him is that she liked the orb charm. 

Some of the interesting clues that pop up in this conversation:

• The silver itself, despite being valuable, was an odd thing to steal, given it would have relatively limited appeal outside of a very small niche group. 
• Tyler Powell is described as having "overlarge ears" and ears were one of the parts removed from the body. As best I can remember, he's the only corpse candidate described as having distinctive ears. 

The Hallmarked Man Advent Adventure, Part Two: Chapters 8-14.

The Hallmarked Man Advent Adventure continues.  This is a nice substitute for cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies, is it not?  I'm going to continue with quoting the first and last lines of each chapter.  Chapter 8:

The ex-wife of the cricketer Strike called "Arsehole" and Pat, "Mr. A" was driving in the direction of her flat in Chelsea. 

Strike takes advantage of the dull surveillance job to chat with Rupert Fleetwood's Aunt Anjelica, whose name is ironic give she seems to have graduated from the  Rufus Fernsby School of Loving Relations. Given that she clearly didn't want the child, and may have even suspected Rupert was not her late brother's offspring, and that Rupert apparently didn't come with a huge trust fund, you wonder why she didn't foist custody off on his Legard relations, especially since his Lord Uncle Ned seemed to want a relationship with the boy. But. if they had, Tara Clairmont would have wound up as his de facto stepmother, which would probably have messed him up worse than Auntie Dearest did. But, there is one significant clue: she has a reason to hate Dino Longcaster. We'll learn more about that, later. 

"That's all I have to say!  Good-bye!"

The line went dead.

Good riddance, madam. On to Chapter 9:

Strike Christmas Tree 2025: New additions and ornament giveaway

My office Christmas tree rivals the Ellacott family Land Rover (RIP) in age and decrepitude; it used to be in my mom's high school classroom and she retired around 2001.  I used to put it up in my faculty office to give the place a little holiday cheer during finals; one of my students called it the "Charlie Brown tree." Now that I am working from home, and have a newly remodeled office, I moved it here, set it up on top of my file cabinet and wrapped the base up in a Ravenclaw blanket. This year, I decided it would host all my Cormoran Strike ornaments, since I added substantially to my collection this year, mostly due to luck. My final count of new additions wound up at 1 made, 3 purchased, 1 gifted and 1 re-purposed. 

It's not an exclusively Strike tree (yet!) and still has an assortment of ornaments I collected during my student, faculty and ABA clinic days--- for instance, it's topped by a popsicle stick star made for me by one of my first clients-- and of course a few Harry Potter ornaments (though most of those have their own tree on the main floor) But I'm particularly looking forward to enjoying my Strike collection--- my equivalent to the charm bracelet, during this holiday season and as I walk through the Advent Adventure in my Hallmarked Man re-read. 

The Strike Advent Adventure, Part 1: Chapters 1-7

 

*Sniff*  It's the Ellacott Family
Land Rover's last Christmas!

Welcome back, Strike Advent Adventurers. I am so happy to have readers join me for a holiday re-read of the first three parts of The Hallmarked Man, finishing with the unveiling of Strike's Best Gift Ever. But there's a way to go before we get there, so let's get started.  

What struck me on this re-read was how well the tone for the rest of the book is set up in these early chapters. There was a darkness and an awkwardness, with some chapters seeming to end quite abruptly, and opening lines that set up long-term conflicts in the story.  I'm going to review the first and last lines of each chapter; if it seems helpful maybe I'll continue that pattern through the re-read.