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. 

Once rid of Lawrence, Strike translates the cipher.

the | man | in | the| safe | was | dangerous | dick | delion | i | don’t | know | who | had | him | killed | but | he | is | on | TV

Chapter 27:

On Saturday morning, which was foggy and cold, Robin awoke, exhausted, in Murphy’s flat in Wanstead.

Robin's been up half the night doing online research, but she and RFM have a morning appointment to see another house. The poor Land Rover is at its final mechanic's visit. Strike's call interrupts "Do They Know It's Christmas?" on the radio, but Robin can't take it because of her need to keep Murphy from finding out about their investigation. I must say, I don't see any obvious significance with this charity song, originally released by Band Aid in 1984, (Robin's birth year!) to the immediate plot, but then, unlike the songs we've covered before ("I Saw Three Ships," "Silver Bells," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Good King Wenceslas") we don't hear any lyrics, just the title. 

The only possible connection I can see are with some of the more depressing lyrics, like

There's a world outside your window, and it's a world of dread and fear

Where the only water flowing Is the bitter sting of tears

And the Christmas bells that ring, are the clanging chimes of doom...

which could be a foreshadowing of the miserable Christmases Robin and Strike will both have, apart, with their only real happiness coming when they connect over Robin's thank-you texts.  What is interesting is that this song is another link back to Troubled Blood. When the flu-stricken Strike was holed up in his office, a car drove down Charing Cross Road, blasting "Do They Know It's Christmas?" from its speakers. 

Just as she and Murphy arrive at the house, Robin gets a callback from a very hard-of-hearing Dilys Powell. That conversation has one of the best-disguised clues in the book. 

“I’m very glad to hear from you, Mrs Powell. I’m a private detective, and I was hoping to talk to you about your grandson."

"What? You called me.”

“Yes,’ said Robin, speaking slowly and clearly. "Your great-niece told me you were in hospital."

"What?’

"I hope you’re better now?’ said Robin loudly.

"Well, I’m home," mumbled Dilys Powell.

Grandma Powell's hearing loss conveniently keeps her from understanding what Robin said; otherwise, Dilys would presumably have told Robin there is no great-niece--and probably no cat, either, and our heroes might have become suspicious of the Ironbridge lot much sooner. Nonetheless, Dilys agrees to Robin visiting her after Christmas. Robin decides she hates the house the second the glimpse of the child's bedroom prompts a hand-squeeze from RFM. 

Once Murphy is distracted and well out of earshot with a police call, Robin calls Strike back. She is stunned to learn that 1) MI5 has joined Shanker in warning them way from the case and 2) a coded note has informed them that the body is that of a porn star, killed on the orders of "someone on TV" --  which is remarkably consistent with Shanker's story. Strike decides they-- especially Robin-- need to take extra safety precautions. Robin catches Strike up on the call from Dilys and Midge's split from Tasha, but Murphy's return forces her to hang up before she can fill him in on her discovery of Sapphire Neagle, a missing teenager who had contact with "Oz" online. This is arguably one of the most important discoveries Robin made during the case, literally saving a life. 

“Strike, I’ll have to go," said Robin hastily. "I’ll tell you the rest later, but this is all getting—"

"Yeah," said Strike. "It is.”

Chapter 28's featured player is an example of a suspect who seems to start off thinking he is untouchable, but gets increasingly nervous and hostile as the interview continues. 

At a quarter to two on Monday afternoon, Strike headed out for Holborn to interview Jim Todd, the Ramsay Silver cleaner.

Robin, in the meantime, has discovered Albie Simpson-White (another good albedo name!) works at Harrod's, not Dino's, these days, and is on her way to the famous department store to try to find him. She and Strike speak by phone and she is able to pass on her finding about Sapphire Neagle. We also, sadly, learn of the final verdict on the beloved Land Rover; this is the next in a series of losses that makes this book very nigredo for Robin. 

She had a sentimental attachment to the old car she’d have found hard to explain to anyone who didn’t know how much she associated it with her escape from her first husband, who’d never liked it, and with the career that meant so much to her.

It's interesting that the old Land Rover was a gift from her parents, and Matthew hated it. The new Land Rover, though it technically will belong to the business, is really a gift from Strike, from his inheritance from Ted and Joan, and Murphy will resent that.  Strike shares her sentiment about the old car:

Call finished, Strike proceeded down the narrow street lined with shops, fast food restaurants and market stalls, thinking about Robin’s defunct Land Rover, now destined for the scrapyard. While not as attached to the car as Robin was, it seemed somehow to mark the end of an era, and it occurred to him that his Christmas present to Robin might need rethinking, in light of the news of the car’s demise. 

Presumably, this is when he decides to add a Land Rover charm to Robin's bracelet. Replacing the old, broken-down vehicle with a shiny silver charm not only foreshadows his eventual replacement of the car, but gives us a nice bit of alchemical imagery, with the old broken down for scrap, and a new sterling silver version taking its place. 

Strike meets up with Jim Todd at the pub. In retrospect, everything that Todd either declines to talk about or gets testy over is a clue to the mystery; most of what he volunteers (Wright's interest in Temple 17, the big male lurking around the shop several days before the robbery) is extraneous information designed to mislead. When shown pictures, Jim comments on every corpse candidate but Tyler Powell, and his manner becomes "prickly" when the Accused and Abused website is mentioned. He also becomes "pugnacious" when Osgood is mentioned and "aggressive" when Strike starts asking about his past and catches the hint that he knew deliveryman Larry McGee was dead. Strike's detective instincts really seem to kick in here, and his suspicions about Todd are elevated. 

Such men needed friends if they were to survive with any degree of comfort in the outside world, and it seemed to Cormoran Strike that, unenviable though Todd’s life might appear, he was being given an unusual degree of quiet assistance that neither his personality nor his talents seemed to justify.

Robin, in the meantime, is sleuthing in a very different environment. Chapter 29 shows us her successful search of Harrod's for Albie Simpson-White. He agrees to meet her after work, and Robin decides to shop for Christmas treats before she meets him, While she's browsing, she gets a text from her mother announcing the adoption of Betty, a black Lab puppy. 

As Robin is selecting a tube of Christmas jelly beans for little Annabel, one of the most surprising twists of the series happens. Robin is grabbed by the neck from behind, a toy gorilla is pressed into her hand and then she is shoved into another shopper as her attacker escapes. 

If I had to pick one moment where the book seriously starts to go off of the rails for me, I would have to say it is this turn of events. There are issues of believability, of continuity and a general over-the-top aspect to this plotline that take the story out of the credible murder mystery zone and into more of a soap-opera whose aim it is torment the heroine. As reader Albus said on Substack: "It's as if RFG wants to hit her with the kitchen sink in this book." 

The problems I have:

• In CoE, Robin managed to remember her self-defense training and fend off Laing. Here, she freezes, not just during the attack (which might be understandable, given her trauma state) but immediately afterwards, as well. She doesn't do a darn thing about the attack other than tell Strike. 
• I find it hard to buy a crowded store as an ideal place for an attack like this. Robin has assured Strike dozens of times that it is safe to be somewhere because there are lots of people around. And suddenly we are supposed to believe this perp choose to attack her because there are so many people around? Robin is supposed to be packed into a crowd of people so dense she can barely navigate. How does no one see a grown man grabbing a woman by the neck in the middle of the aisle?
• For the record, I thought that Gus Upcott being able to change his disguise and get away in the subway crowd also strained credibility. But at least then, the crowd would have been distracted watching poor Oliver Peach about to get run over by the train. There was no such distraction with Robin. 

Neck still throbbing, Robin turned and stood on tiptoe, and thought she saw a slight disturbance at a distant doorway, as though someone was forcing their way out of the food hall at speed, but it was impossible to see her assailant through the forest of heads.

• A packed "forest" of people, yet the assailant managed to make his way to a "distant exit" in a matter of a few seconds with only a "slight disturbance?" There should be an entire channel full of shoppers he has just knocked aside shouting their outrage at the guy. 
• Even assuming the attack goes unnoticed and the perp is nimble enough to thread his way through the crowd and out of the store, why on earth did Robin not seek help after the attack? If there is one thing upscale stores packed with luxury goods have, it's security cameras. The entire attack could have been caught on tape from multiple angles, and the exits are certainly monitored, not just by cameras but by doormen. Kenneth Ramsay may have shoddy security; Harrod's does not. 
• 
  Finally, the gorilla. I'm sorry, but this is just overkill. As Robin has said, her identity as 19 year-old witness G was protected. Even if the "Gorilla Mask Rapist" made national headlines, it was 13 years ago. Let's assume the commentator on the news article-- the Nina one, which accused Strike of being a womanizer, not a criminal; Candy is yet to come-- decided that Robin's status as as a rape victim was worth outing her** and even helpfully included a link to an article on the original case that included the gorilla mask detail. Would Griffiths et al., who have no proof that that claim is even true, decide that gorillas are the thing to use in their terror campaign, when Robin's name as so much more recently been linked to the UHC case? I'd find it more believable if they had stuffed a picture of the Drowned Prophet, or an axe, or some pigs, into her hand, with reminders that there are plenty of ex-UHC members who still believe in the Waces and would like to see Robin dead. 
• I get that the theme of the past coming back to haunt us is huge in this book. But the point that the rape has long term consequences has already been made, early in the book, via the ectopic pregnancy. For the rape history to come up here, again, as a means of threatening Robin, is just too much. 
• Not only that, but, when the past is brought up and becomes central to the plotline, it would be nice if Galbraith could keep the details straight. But, there are several continuity errors here that are a bit jarring.
• This is the first confirmation we had gotten that Gorilla Man was a murderer as well as a rapist, though it was hinted that some victims might have died when Robin told Prudence that there were "two others who survived him" that could not testify in the trial. 
• Two others? We are told here that he attacked Robin and six other girls, "two of whom died of strangulation." This means there should be five survivors, including Robin. 
• We were also told before that Robin's testimony and evidence were crucial to convicting the man. But once this became a murder case, that seems less likely. 
• True, Robin's sharp eye for details and presence of mind that let her notice things like th dilated pupil and the vitiligo may have been crucial to identifying the perp, so kudos to her for that. 
• But, we know the guy did not use a condom: hence the chlamydia and Robin's fears she could have gotten pregnant. Once the DNA from Robin's rape kit matched the dead victims, it would have been a pretty clear-cut case for murder, which would presumably have gotten the guy life even if he wasn't convicted of Robin's rape. 
• But, with his DNA inside of two women dead from strangulation, plus four other victims, does Gorilla Man's defense that this was rough consensual sex make any sense at all?
• Maybe someone more knowledgable about the British legal system can share some insights. 
• Maybe it's a bit unfair, but Robin's clear-headed thinking and courage in enduring the trial and brutal cross-examination, even while still in recovery from the trauma, is all cheapened slightly by the added details, which no longer make her actions seem as necessary. 
• Finally, it bugs me that these threateners, who have no idea how many cases the agency is handling right now, continue to be vague about which case the detectives are supposed to drop. Griffiths has no way of knowing that Fleetwood is the main target in the Silver Vault or who Albie Simpson is, so for all they knew Robin was on some other case in Harrod's. They can't expect her to infer that it is the Silver Vault case she is being warned off, based on where she was when attacked. 

Remarkably, Strike keeps the lid on his temper when Robin calls to tell him, and does not insist on either joining her or that she get off the streets. 

“Just be vigilant," said Strike, and she could tell he was exerting maximum self-restraint not to say it more forcefully, "all right?"

"I will," said Robin. "I promise.”

Thus, in Chapter 30, she keeps her appointment to interview Albie Simpson-White, despite her recent scare. 

Albie emerged from the staff entrance shortly after eight.

If Robin's interview with Pamela reminded me of her sandwich with Stephanie, this one reminded me of her dinner with Raphael Chiswell; Robin has that same "I know there is something you're not telling me" tone with both him and Albie. Perhaps the most interesting part of this interview is the first indication that Rupert Fleetwood is actually a decent guy, despite his silver thieving and the apparent abandonment of his pregnant girlfriend. Robin learns that Dino Longcaster is shallow and cruel, apparently mistreating both his daughter Decima and Rupert, including calling him "Jellyfish" and making tasteless jokes about his parents' death. Albie says Rupert "didn't really" want to leave Decima, and stops himself from saying Rupert "had to" and turns red. Robin is certain he is being untruthful about not having been in contact with Rupert and not knowing where he is. Albie departs, asking Robin to tell Decima Rupert genuinely loved her and with a mysterious, "Sometimes you're better off not knowing things."  As longtime readers know, I initially suspected the incest angle when reading the initial Books-a-Million preview; this was another piece of evidence that guess was correct. 

Robin keeps her promise to Strike to stay vigilant as she departs from the pub. 

She set off in the opposite direction from Albie, keeping an eye out for a vacant taxi, thinking about all Albie had just said, but also checking regularly over her shoulder.

That's it for today!  Tune in Tuesday for Culpepper and Candy and Rokeby, oh my!  

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*Is it just me, or did Lawrence sound a lot like Michael Fancourt on the audiobook?  For that matter, Pamela sounded a lot like Kinvara Chiswell. 

** I still suspect Courtney from the Dinner Party From Hell.