Troubled Blood: Chapters 45-50. A spa town, a funeral and a nurse.

 

Good for Robin for sending flowers from the agency. And for shooting down Morris's suggestion of "Rich Bitch" for the client nickname. Just aa in the last section, where we saw Strike run the gauntlet of emotions and general sensitivity, we get to see Robin really come into her own as second-in-command of the agency, making decisions about clients, assignments and the trip to Leamington Spa on her own. She heads to the spa village and discovers the church yard where Margot was supposedly spied perusing the cemetery has no cemetery. She then has a moment in a pub when she spies someone who looks like Strike from the back, which sends her into a spiral of self-exploration (some would say self-delusion) about her feelings for her partner, and again convinces herself she feels friendship and admiration for him, nothing more. This sentiment will stay with her until she learns he is dating Madeline in TIBH. 

Notes on the Epigraph-Writer-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named: Spoilers for The Hallmarked Man preview

Robert Galbraith revealed on Twitter months ago that there are five epigraph sources for The Hallmarked Man.  Two quotations from John Oxenham's Maid of the Silver Sea have been published. Thanks to the audiobook preview, we now have a second source. . To find out more about it, and how it relates to the ther information we've been given, read on.  Spoiler warning. 

Troubled Blood Chapters 39-44: Prepare for an emotional roller coaster (and spoilers for The Hallmarked Man preview).

 This post will take us from the Dinner Party From Hell to Joan's deathbed. We'll see Strike in his most obnoxious and his most tender scenes and at his most inconsiderate and most responsible moments. While not all my pre-Hallmarked Man re-read of Troubled Blood posts will include spoilers from the preview (released on audiobook yesterday!) this one will. So, be forewarned and buckle up. 

First Hallmark Preview Released: Thoughts (and spoilers!!) on the Apple Books audio

 A five minute audio-preview of The Hallmarked Man was released today, and quickly transcribed on the Strike reddit board.  I know the fandom is mixed, with some (like me!) devouring the previews as soon as they are released and others preferring to wait until publication day to read any text. I have my thoughts on the preview below, so major spoiler warning. 

Hallmarked Hints Continue to Leak: What they might mean (possible spoilers!)

 This post refers to some recent pre-book publicity videos recently released by Robert Galbraith as well as some translations of publicity blurbs in other language editions that may or may not be accurate.  While the Galbraith videos can be considered official, everything else should be taken with a large box of salt. 

I do wonder if these videos will take the place of the typical preview, given the glitch last time that caused parts of the book to be revealed too early. 

Spoilers below for people who avoid all pre-publication information. 

Troubled Blood Chapters 34-38: The Phipps and the Athorns

Strike returns from Cornwall, glad to have visited but emotionally drained, grieving and stressed, craving only solitude as he returns to London and gets back to work. Alone in his flat on a Sunday evening, while making dinner and reviewing reports, he gets another message from Prudence, to which he responds quite reasonably, expressing interest in meeting her at some point but not in having anything to do with Rokeby. He dreams that night of having a fistfight with his father on a sailing ship and both get tossed into the sea. This is an odd bit of imagery, and as I read through this time, I wonder if this is some sort of foreshadowing of the silver neff sailing ship that was one of JKR's twitter headers for The Hallmarked Man.  Will that piece of hallmarked silver have some connection to Strike's father? Or does the dream symbolize Ted's boat, with Strike trying to stay afloat with his Nancarrow parents while fighting off his biological father's intrusion? 

Troubled Blood Chapters 28-33: Have Yourself a Lousy Little Christmas

One of the Hallmarked Man hints we have gotten from Twitter is that Dean Martin's "Silver Bells" will be significant, which, along with the hypothesized dates (late 2015 2016 to at least February 2016 2017) makes us think we will be celebrating Christmas with our favorite detectives in Book 8. I am really hoping it will be a happier holiday than we have seen before. In The Silkworm, we saw the lead-up to Christmas, including Strike buying revenge gifts for his nephews and Timothy Anstis, and even decorated a tree with Kath and Pippa. Our heroes were heading off to presumably enjoyable holidays with their families in St. Mawes and Masham at the end, but we don't see the celebration itself.  In The Ink Black Heart, Christmas itself was glossed over, with Strike going to St. Mawes but Robin volunteering to stay in London. Though we get to see how they spend New Years, we don't see any Yuletide festivities of the team in London or learn what our heroes got each other for presents. 

So far, the only time we have actually seen a Christmas Day is in Troubled Blood, and, frankly, it sucks for both of them, with Strike and Robin physically apart and both miserable for their own reasons. I was really hoping Robin would dump Ryan at the start of THM, and Christmas would see the start of them as a couple, but given the cover blurb, that seems unlikely. But, I am guessing that, as in TB, we'll see some sort of drama on the day itself. Maybe Murphy will surprise Robin with an engagement ring in her stocking?  Perhaps Ted, who will likely be residing in a London care home,  will spill some Strike, Nancarrow or Rokeby secret over a turkey dinner at Lucy's? At the very least, I hope Pat will be handing out tins of her famous fruitcake.