The Hallmarked Man Real-Time Re-Read, Chapters 93-95: Sleepless in London and a full English breakfast.

I love the Strike-messing-with-the-Met chapters (see also Books 2, 4 and 6) and the Chapter 93 interrogation is no exception. 

Strike’s professional life had more often seen him as interrogator rather than interrogated, but in recent years he’d found himself on the uncomfortable end of a police interview far more often than he’d have liked. 

"Oo's grassed?" said Shanker furiously: Are seeds for a Sleep Tight, Evangeline plotline being planted at Barnaby's ?

One of the relatively successful guesses I made prior to The Hallmarked Man was that the Arsehole Cricketer case would really enrage Dominic Culpepper, which would result in retaliatory journalism that would necessitate Strike making contact with his father. True, I thought the scandalous story would involve Leda, not Bijou, (perhaps trying to implicate Rokeby, Strike or both in her death) and that Rokeby and Strike would have to team up because they both had a reason to block publication, but I was still close.  During this most recent re-read, I am seeing what could be hints for a future plotline, one that I think could bring disaster, or even tragedy, to everyone's favorite career-criminal-with-a-heart-of-gold, Shanker. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read: Chapters 89-92: Vodka-soaked gym clothes, crushed cars and two dead bodies.

Chapter 89 takes us back to Robin and Murphy, who make up over the weekend. 

Robin felt as though she’d been away from London for a fortnight, instead of the forty-eight hours that had actually passed. 

She meets RFM at an Italian* place for dinner Saturday night, and spends the night at his flat. On Sunday evening, as Robin is preparing for her Facetime with Wynn Jones, he decides to "do an hour at the gym" and leaves with his bag and infamous water bottle.  He has barely exited when Strike calls. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-Read, Chapter 88: Where Strike doesn't stumble.

As I mentioned in yeserday's post, Chapter 87 is my favorite in the book.  But, Chapter 88 comes close to being the perfect follow-up, largely because of how and why we get rid of the Kimphomaniac. 

The injury to Strike’s face looked even worse the following morning, the swelling slightly diminished but livid blue bruises dappling his skin. His face continued to ache and he chose not to shave, for fear of reopening the gash left by the spade.

Before heading back to the ferry, he and Robin walked a little way along La Coupée, which lay just beyond the Old Forge: a high, narrow isthmus connecting the main island from Little Sark. 

Like Robin's black eyes in Troubled Blood, Strike's injury looks worse the next day. And, as sorry as I was not to see them cross La Coupée on horseback, I was happy, as in Skegness, to at least let them see a windy view of the sea together. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read, Chapter 87- In which Murphy and Strike both do the right thing.

The plan for today's installment was Chapters 87 and 88.  But, there is so much to love about Spaghetti in Sark that I'm going to devote the entire post to that. I'll try to cover Chapter 88 on Sunday

The evening in the Old Forge B & B (authentic pictures, by the way!) is my favorite chapter in the book, perhaps the first time since Christmas Eve (Chapter 41, the end of Part 3!) that Strike and Robin seem genuinely well-suited to be more than platonic friends. Ironically, the fact that he chooses not to try to take them to the next level here is exactly what makes it so clear that he is the right life, as well as professional partner for her, Just as so many Strike fans were tempted to go out and buy a bottle of Narcisco after the Ritz, this chapter inspired me to try to prepare spaghetti carbonara for the first time.  I don't think it's as popular a dish here as it is in Europe; our restaurants tend to be very cautious about the potential for undercooked eggs. 

A Collection of Mind-blowing Speculations and Connections: Thoughts on The Hallmarked Man and Sleep Tight, Evangeline (plus one amazing anagram!)

There have been a lot of new bits of information sparking even more new ideas popping up on all sorts of Strike-related social media over that last couple of weeks, from Reddit to Twitter to assorted blogs and podcasts.  I wanted to make some notes here (primarily so I don't forget the original sources) and add my own thoughts to some of them. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-Time Re-Read, Chapters 84-86: RFM's most jerk move, and why Strike avoids the same mistake. Plus: Frozen peas!

Chapter 84 is pretty short and mainly consists of what, for me, is RFM's most jerk move in the entire book. We've known he was an alcoholic since TIBH; we had to expect he would fall off the wagon at some point and when he was caught, he at least had the decently to show some remorse and acknowledge that Robin would be 100% justified in leaving him. I can have some compassion for him over the vodka. What I can't abide is him acting like he can call Robin up any time of day, regardless of her work schedule, and expect her to have a heart-to-heart with him over their lost baby. 

Pizzas eaten, Strike and Robin emerged half an hour later from the Bel Air and set off up the Avenue beneath a sky still threatening rain, and following the verbal directions given to them by the helpful barman.

They find the house with no problem and spy the gardener who is almost certainly their quarry, but Strike has to approach him alone (despite the clear evidence that the DeLion brothers are a potentially violent sort) because RFM picks that moment to call and try to determine, yet again, Robin's precise degree of emotional distress over an ectopic pregnancy that occurred almost three months earlier. 

A Little Strike Chick Humor: Plus, an invitation to share any funny fan creations that you know of.

 

One of the best parts of being part of a fandom is getting to laugh about your favorite, or sometimes least favorite, aspects of your favorite series. It's why people come up with nicknames for characters like Matthew "Flobberworm" Cunliffe, Sarah Shagsalot, the Kimphomaniac and the SE Files' ludicrous moniker for the Sweary Therapist of Sleep Tight, Evangeline, Dr. Broccoli. A few Halloweens ago, there was a series of very funny adult costume memes created for Strike characters. 

When I was trying to create an AI image of the famous Christmas charm bracelet, I decided to also create the worst possible charm bracelet Strike could have given Robin.  I know I have seen a few other fan creations online, such as completed employee satisfaction reviews, posted in various online venues. 

So, last week, I responded to the call from The Strike and Ellacott Files to submit pictures of chickens that looked like Strike's assorted girlfriends, I got a little too enthusiastic about the endeavor, and wound up getting asked to submit a guest blog post, which you can find here.  Check it out; the article includes a few more of my thoughts on fan-created parody materials, as well as a few other links to some funny fan-fiction and character twitter accounts. 

If you know of any other good, fan-created Cormoran Strike humor pieces that are available on the internet, please drop a link in the comments.  I've love to have a centralized location for sharing, while we wait for Sleep Tight, Evangeline. It's going to be a long wait, and those of us determined to read the depressing Longfellow poem many need an antidote. 

In the meantime: 

Subscriptions and comments are easier for some on the Substack version of this blog. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read; Chapters 80-83: From dog bite to a pizza in Sark.

I started this Real-Time Re-Read with the goal of covering The Hallmarked Man at roughly the same time of year in which the story played out from November 2016 to April 2017.  I intentionally timed it so my Christmas Eve post would correspond to the bracelet gift.  Now, by luck, I've hit on another post in which the dates correspond exactly, and on another holiday. So, happy Valentine's Day, dear readers and please don't think of that dreadful Longcaster son when I say it. 

“Jesus fucking Christ – what was in that bottle?" gasped Strike, who hadn’t put on his seatbelt, being unable to see, tears flooding from his eyes.

Though it doesn't start off that way in Chapter 80, we will actually wind up with the first happy Valentine's Day we've ever seen in an JKR/RG book, thanks, not to that stuffed pooch from RFM, but to Lennon, the attack dog* who has just taken a chunk out of Strike's thigh, prior to being pepper-sprayed by Robin.  As our pair races away from the scene of the incident in a car, a very strong  echo of the punch Robin took to the face in the American Bar unfolds, but is gender-reversed, with Strike the one trying to both staunch his bleeding and soothe his rapidly swelling eyes, while Robin apologizes and does as much as she can to comfort him. 

Strike Nine is "Sleep Tight, Evangeline": Who are the Whiskey Shambles and what could this mean?

Some lucky super-Strikers were able to meet "Robert Galbraith" in person (in his J.K. Rowling persona, of course!) and got a sneak peek at the title of Strike Book #9:  

To say this title is a surprise is an understatement.  Sleep Tight, Evangeline is the title of a song by a relatively obscure American band, the Whiskey Shambles, whose repertoire is described as 

Hollering tales of murder, debauchery and long dark Saturday nights of the soul. Stripped raw, bruised and cracking a bloody, split-lip grin, the Shambles deliver a loud, belligerent style of demonic hill-stompblues that almost... but not quite, betrays an air of subtle sophistication lingering just around the edges.  "Rough garage rock & dirty basement blues that kicks you right in the gut bucket."

This hardly sounds like a soundtrack for a Cupid and Psyche story.  More on the group, and the song, below. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read, Chapters 76-79: The bad dogs of Valentine's Day

Strike’s anxiety about the results of the DNA test had become acute by the fourth afternoon without news, so he called Bijou while walking towards the shabby street in Holborn where the vanished Jim Todd, or Todd Jameson, as Strike now knew him to be, had lived until very recently.

Bijou now seems not nearly as eager to get the results as she was previously, and, when he calls her in Chapter 76, reminds him that the company probably doesn't process tests on weekends. After annoying Robin by saying he wants to put surveillance on Lord Branfoot in hopes of discovering his covert film studio, he goes off to interview Jim Todd's neighbors, where he learns someone else has already come calling for Todd, sometime the previous week. We get yet another of the instances---there are several in the book-- of witnesses to Ian Griffiths failing to note that the man is only five feet tall, while noticing other details like his glasses and his limp. 

Linking the Bracelet to the Emojis: The "surprise inside" theme, alchemical rings and the return of "Grave-digging Buddies?"

On an earlier post, I connected the numerous walled cities that have popped up in the Pre-Book Nine Twitter hints with the Bracelet o' Clues' Trojan Horse charm.  This time, I want to make a connection with some of the charms on the bracelet to one of the emoji hints. 

Tha Hallmarked Man Real-Time Re-Read, Chapters 73-75: Two restaurants and a hotel room

"The dimly lit basement room, which was swathed
in greenery to suggest the rainforest" 

In Chapter 73, Strike surprises Robin by subbing for MIdge and joining her at a restaurant for surveillance. 

At eight o’clock the following evening, Robin, who’d been informed by Two-Times that his wife would be celebrating a female friend’s birthday at Coya, a Latin American restaurant in Mayfair, sat down to watch his so far blameless spouse drinking and eating with seven other women.

 The date is presumably Wednesday, Feb. 8th. Robin is wearing her Ritz outfit (blue dress and opal pendant) but also the matching earrings that RFM gave her for Christmas. This chapter is primarily an information dump, though naturally it is accompanied by Robin's "electric shock in the pit of her stomach" when Strike turns up. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-time Re-read, Chapter 70-72: A new Land Rover and an old friend

The first thing we notice in Chapter 70 is a significant time-jump, after pretty much daily coverage since Chapter 45. It was Thursday, January 19th whe Robin interviewed Fiola; now we've jumped ahead until Tuesday the 24th

On Tuesday morning, Strike sat down to eat breakfast beside an attic window fogged with condensation, and saw that Robin had emailed him overnight. Ever since she’d told him she wasn’t coming to Scotland with him to interview Jade Semple she’d chosen to email when, normally, she’d have phoned.

In addition to still giving Strike the cold shoulder, Robin is only now getting around to emailing the Fiola Fay audio, which seems atypical. She has also discovered that porn producer Craig Wheaton was once a resident of one of Branfoot's homes for boys, though we are not told how she learned this reasonably sensitive bit of information. Strike calls her, but unfortunately, his praise for finding the "link" between Branfoot and de Lion reminds her of his "weak link" line, and she's not ready to forgive that. Strike is trying to pretend things are back to normal but it's not working. 

Will City Walls be to Book Nine What Bridges were to The Hallmarked Man? Connecting the charm bracelet to other clues.

I'm not sure when we've had this many clues to an upcoming Strike book before the title is released.  In addition to multiple twitter hints and headers and the now traditional emojis (much thanks the Strikefans.com for compiling them!) , Galbraith dropped a jackpot shortly before Christmas in the form of a charm bracelet in which all of the charms are promised clues. Many people have talked about this bracelet with far more eloquence and creativity than I could manage, so I will direct you to:

• Nick Jeffery's excellent essay where he identifies all of the charms.
• This mind-blowing blog post by Beatrice Groves on the symbolism of charms, with particular attention to the Psalm book.
• The most recent and very interesting Strike and Ellacott Files podcast. 

What interests me more is looking for possible connections between the clues. Here's something that has jumped out at me recently:  the use of walls and fortresses. As you may recall, bridges abounded in the pre-Hallmarked build-up, and emerged as a central theme in the final story. I am wondering if we might be seeing something similar with walled cites for Book 9. 

The Hallmarked Man Real-Time Re-read, Chapter 69: The road back begins.

The good news is , we hit the low point at the end of Part Five, so things will only go up from here. Although, that is not inherently obvious from the opening lines of Chapter 69. 

So that was that, thought Robin: Strike had lied to her face. He who berated her for not immediately informing him of a minor incident (for the purposes of her present resentment, it suited Robin to minimise the impact on her of the gorilla-faced, dagger-waving stalker) was deliberately concealing a further risk to the agency of scandal and press intrusion (and it suited her to attribute all her rage and hurt to this, rather than investigate the weight in the pit of her stomach, which grew heavier every time she thought of Strike as a father).