"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.
It was very interesting to look back on the security tape footage with the knowledge of the case resolution. Was Ian Griffiths sure that Tyler wore the same suit every day and able to bring a clean one in the crate with him. Tyler's would have looked too big in Ian, who was a good 6 inches shorter and have been covered in blood. It is still not clear to me how Griffiths re-setting the alarm bought Jim Todd any extra time to clean up fingerprints.
I also wonder why, if Strike and Robin were so looking forward to spending the afternoon on the vault case, Strike just didn't ask her to work on paperwork for a couple of hours until he got back, or arrange to meet at a pub for lunch. It was presumably still mid-morning when Strike got the call, and he knows his meetings with Shanker tend to be pretty brief.
We also see one of several times Strike puts his own emotions over the needs to the case.
“So the case might be wrapped up by teatime?" said Robin, conscious of a faint disappointment, because she, too, had been looking forward to an afternoon together.
"I wouldn’t bet on it, said Strike, hoping he was right. He needed this case.
As with Robin and her jealousy of KFC, it's not a good look for our heroes to be hoping a case doesn't get solved. But at least she notices and compliments Strike's new blue shirt...
Feeling slightly more cheerful, he headed into the outer office to fetch his coat.
Chapter 21:
It took Strike forty minutes to reach Clapham Junction station.
Shanker, in yet another echo to Troubled Blood, warns Strike that he is endangering himself by pursuing a case involving a dangerous organized crime figure. Shanker's warning gives us one of the best bits of narrative misdirection of the series, because, atypically, Shanker's information, though largely true, has a fundamental error. He is right that 1) Rupert paid off Dredge the drug dealer and escaped 3) Jason Knowles had his snitch nephew killed, but disposed of the body at "Barnaby's," not the silver vault and 3) a wealthy and powerful freemason (Lord Oliver Branfoot) did want a double-crosser (Danny Deleon) dead and the mouthy hired hitman is claiming he did the job in the vault. But, what he's wrong about is the fact that the mouthy hitman is also double-crossing Lord B, and the Danny Deleon has successfully escaped to the remote island of Sark.
Once again, Christmas music pops up in the background and, in keeping with the theme of this read-through, it's worth examining. It is clear that the snatches of music our heroes keep hearing are serving as mid-chapter epigraphs that reflect the story. I didn't recognize the lyrics immediately as this carol because, like "I Saw Three Ships" of chapter 14, is not commonly heard or widely sung in the US. But, it's the second stanza of "Good King Wenceslas."
“Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou knowst it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?”
There are a number of ways this particular snatch of carol might be significant, During the entire conversation, Strike is asking Shanker who people are: who's the body, who's the hitman, and perhaps most importantly, who's the wealthy freemason who ordered the hit and who you think is a threat to me and my agency; this person would be the polar opposite of a peasant. More than once he demands that Shanker tell him if he knows ("If thou knowst it, telling?") He also asks "So where's Knowles now?" ("Where and what his dwelling?") The answer is Barnaby's, and by book's end, Strike will indeed know where and what that is.
But looking at the larger story of Wenceslas, a 10th century duke and saint of Bohemia, leads to some other insights. Wenceslas, like St. Nicolas, was know for his giving to the poor; note the resemblance to Santa in the video, above. The carol tells the story of the Feast of Stephen (December 26, aka Boxing Day) where the duke (he was named a king posthumously) observed a poor man gathering firewood. After learning from the page where the man lives, the king sets off with the page to personally deliver a hot meal and fuel to the man's home. A fierce blizzard arises and the page insists he can't go on. Wenceslas tells the page to walk in his footsteps, and the radiant heat of the duke's piety melts the snow and warms the page, allowing him to survive the journey.
Strike has already shown some care for the poor in this book, when he gives money to the impoverished Mandy and Daz, with special instructions that they get something nice for little Clint for Christmas. He'll show the same compassion later for Rena, when he finds her homeless and hiding under a bridge, and gets her to a hotel. We have seen this charitable side of him before, when he offered financial help to Leonora Quine and did everything he could to find Billy Knight. The TV production of Troubled Blood even inserted some extra-book material in which Strike buys a homeless man a meal of chicken tiki masala--- and this scene, like much of the TB BBC adaptation, takes place near Christmas.
So, if Strike is good King Wenceslas, who is the page? Despite the pub conversation, I don't think we can say Shanker-- though he is often of service to Strike, he can in no way be said to follow in his footsteps; in fact, they are on completely opposite life paths. If anything, Strike follows him in this scene, when he leaves the pub to return to the silver shop to buy the orb, which will become the centerpiece of Robin's bracelet.
I'm going to take a risk and say Robin is the page, particularly at the start of the series, during which she admired Strike (particularly his thirst for justice) and wanted to follow in his footsteps into the world of private detection. In doing so, she left behind the bitter coldness that had become her life with Matthew, in which she couldn't be her true self, and into the warmth of Strike's acceptance, friendship and eventual love.
Now, of course, they are far more equal partners than sire and servant. But this book is, in may ways, the story of Robin losing faith in Strike, and they both lose themselves as a result. Hopefully Strike can skip that assassinated by his younger brother part, given the speculation that young Switch Lavey Bloom Whittaker will return in books 9 or 10.
Back to Shanker. He's in legal trouble and his partner, Alyssa, has kicked him out. I'm still not sure how Strike hasn't figured out this Alyssa is the same Alyssa Shanker was sleeping with in 2011, and who posed as his temp for several days while they were trying to trap Donald Laing. And Strike asks after Angel by name, but apparently still hasn't connected that she is the child for whom Robin risked her job to save from sexual abuse. In any case, Strike takes Shanker's advice about a gift for Robin.
Slipping his vape pen back into his coat pocket, Strike set off again, not for Denmark Street, but for Wild Court.
Hopefully Ramsay is in the shop to tell him exactly which charm it is.
Strike phoned Robin at home that evening to inform her that Rupert Fleetwood had somehow scraped together two thousand pounds to buy off the drug dealer with a grudge against his housemate, and to relay Shanker’s warning about the body in the silver vault.
Chapter 22 shows us some more uncomfortable truths about RFM: Robin feels she has to hide case details from him (just as she did with MFC) and we are getting indications of how badly Murphy has been doing on his shooting case. Can someone please give me some ideas on what significance the dream Robin has of herself and Strike in the silver shop, with all the silver replaced by plush toys, could have? The only thing I can think of is that her subconscious is trying to emphasize how much she, like Strike, doesn't want kids. Strike couldn't understand how anyone would want a "pile of masonic crap"--- just hs he isn't a things person, he's not a kids person. By being in the shop with him. Robin is trying to acknowledge that she feels the same way. If so, this doesn't bode well for the plush dog Murphy will give her on Valentine's Day.
In fairness, I never could figure out what the dream about Strike and Rokeby having the fistfight on the ship was about either. Paging all dream interpreters....
Robin gets a nice surprise when she drops a hint about the type of scarf she'd like.
"Too late, I’ve already chosen your present," said Strike. "I’m going to have to go, I can’t hear a bloody thing. Speak to you later."
He hung up, leaving Robin in a state of mild surprise.
I was a bit surprised, too.
The substitution of Two-Times for Mr A meant that the agency was once again working at full capacity.
Chapter 23 is a good news/bad news tale. Good news: Mitch Patterson is convicted. Bad news: the court buys Farah Navabi's crocodile tears, meaning she's set up to make trouble later. Still more bad news: the first of Culpepper's scandalous news articles about Strike appears, linking him to Patterson and supported by quotations from Nina Lascelles. I guess I have to put one check in Charlotte's good qualities box; it looks like she did actually help block the earlier story. Back in The Hallmark Man I was suspicious that her claim to have done so was another one of her lies. The article also quotes Lord Oliver Branfoot. introducing him for the first time; unbeknownst to first-time readers, he is the rich freemason who Shanker told us about two chapters ago. This was a curious line:
While Strike didn’t know exactly why Lord Oliver Branfoot should want to attach his name to the excoriation of a man he didn’t know, he could think of one obvious reason why Branfoot might want to thunder in print that the private detective business ought to be far more stringently regulated.
I don't think Strike has any reason to suspect Branfoot of being the freemason that Shanker spoke about. He would know that Branfoot was forced out of office due to scandal. Was a PI involved in breaking that story? Or does Strike suspect Branfoot has other skeletons in his closet?
Robin initially responds in a way we would likely expect of her: anger at the writer (and her boyfriend for bringing up the story) and protectiveness of Strike. I think this is part of the reason readers were surprised that she started giving the stories more credence as they got worse. she takes the call from Dilys's supposed grand-niece, gets early relief from following Mrs. Two-Times and decides to take advantage of the time to go interview Pamela Bullon-Driscoll.
She hung up, checked the route on her phone, then headed off along High Holborn, turned into Chancery Lane and finally entered Southampton Buildings.
The Silver Vaults’ entrance was a discreet wooden door with a small glass awning.
I know Freemason's Hall will go on a lot of Strike fans' list of places to visit next time they're in London; personally, I think I would prioritize a visit to the vaults. They sound awesome!
Second, we get to see Robin at her best in this chapter, in contrast to so much of the rest of the book. Her encounter with Pamela very much reminds me of her encounter with Stephanie in Career of Evil, except that she had been observing Stephanie for days; this was her first encounter with Pamela. But, in both cases she happens on the woman in a very emotionally vulnerable situation, offers comfort to the sobbing witness (sandwich for Stephanie, coffee for Pamela) and manages to both listen sympathetically *and* find out what she needs to know. We learn that there was no love lost between Pamela and her brother-in-law Kenneth Ramsay, and that Strike's assessment of Ramsay's business practices was probably correct. Several of Pamela's observations of Wright suggest strongly he is not Rupert: the typos in his resume would be unlikely in a graduate from and expensive prep school, as well as her characterization of him as "not refined." We also see that Pamela is very distressed about her husband, as well as her eyes. Robin leaves the interview with confidence, having succeeded where Strike failed.
I love it when Strike gives Robin the credit she deserves.
“Ellacott," said Strike’s voice, audible even over the roar of the surrounding traffic, "you’re a f*cking marvel.”
Chapter 25:
Strike’s trip to Ipswich yielded a small amount of further information about the friend of Plug’s whom Kim had identified as an ex-embezzler.
The significant point is that Plug's embezzler colleague has a conviction on his record for animal cruelty. With animal welfare on his mind, he returns to the office to find three fish in the aquarium, including the black oranda that will become his namesake.
The bulk of this chapter is devoted to Strike checking out the late Larry McGee, delivery truck driver who delivered the Murdoch silver to Ramsay's shop. He is clearly an unsavory character who would get no good reference from the auction house, between being suspected of thievery, observed watching porn at work and making inappropriate remarks to and about young women on the job. His ditching his co-coworker and disappearing with the truck for three hours prior to the delivery indicates he was certainly in cahoots with Griffiths and Todd; the only question is the extent of his involvement. As it is unlikely Griffiths could have nailed himself in the crate, McGee presumably cooperated not only with switching the labels but in concealing Griffiths and his equipment in the box. Perhaps that is why he refused to carry the box downstairs, for fear of discovery; I imagine most drivers would be happy to help with that task in exchange for a hefty tip.
There are two questions for which I was expecting answers that we never got:
- Did McGee think he was only participating in a heist of 150K pounds' worth of silver, that would give him the windfall he needed to leave his job? It is suggested by book's end that he was expecting not only money from the heist but sex with Sophia Medina (or perhaps one of Griffith's other captives); did he know that the plan was to kill Sophia and "Wright?"
- Was his very conveniently timed death truly from natural causes? As we learned from Janice Beattie, with a man already predisposed to heart disease, it doesn't take much--a dose of ephedra or another stimulant-to kill them in a way unlikely to arouse suspicion. I fully expected to hear in the epilog that an exhumation and autopsy showed him to be someone else Griffiths killed in order to keep quiet. I would think that Griffiths, after he double-crossed McGee and denied him the windfall he was expecting, would be as afraid of him talking as Jim Todd.
- Personally, I think it is far more likely that Larry McGee was murdered than Charlotte Campbell-Ross.
- But, although Todd's slip-up (first claiming not to know McGee, then knowing he was dead) was key to drawing Strike's suspicion, at the end of the day McGee wasn't important enough a character to warrant more words in an already long book.
“Proper catch for a hot young blonde," said Carter, and Bradley sniggered.
That's basically the most anyone cared about him.
Tune in Tuesday for Chapters 26-30!
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