Final Predictions for The Hallmarked Man (Spoilers for the Chapter 1 preview at the end)

I've made predictions here and there over the course of my pre-THM re-read and assorted other posts, podcasts etc.  I wanted to put this together to have my ideas in one place. I'm going to organize them by category and rationale.

 As far as spoilers go, I have read the part of chapter 1 that was released on audiobook, but nothing beyond that. Predictions that take events from that excerpt into account will be listed at the end after a graphical spoiler warning. The rest of the predictions include spoilers for the cover blurbs, Twitter headers and other pre-publicity releases from RobertGalbraith.com

The Troubled Blood Re-read Finale: Tying up loose ends and donkey balloons, Plus, possible connections to The Hallmarked Man and spoilers from the last Galbraith video.

I must say, I think the ending of Troubled Blood might be my favorite of the series. I like the fact that it doesn't end with either of the detectives in physical danger or fighting for their lives. Strike, Robin and Barclay all play an important role in solving the crime, with Robin and Sam "digging" the body out of the ottoman, while Strike confronts Janice. 

But, before we get to the real case, we get my favorite Strike scene of the entire series, the confrontation with Dennis Creed. I love this scene so much that I just submitted an abstract on it for the Harry Potter Academic Conference. I love the way Strike turns Creed's own trick of pretending to walk away against him to get the clue about Louise. Also, one fatal error that trips Creed up is that it simply did not occur to him that the Tucker and Bamborough families could be working together to secure Strike's services for this interview. It reminds me of Dumbledore's classic statement about Voldemort:

Of house-elves and children's tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped. 

Farting Sofa FAQ Part 2: The author's biography, its use and misuse.

Please note:  This is a spoiler-free post, so please no spoilers in the comments. I also have not committed to reading the 12 chapters recently released in German, so this site will remain free of those spoilers for the time being. 

I am postponing my conclusion of the Troubled Blood reread because I think it is important to clarify my position on this topic before the excitement of reading The Hallmarked Man sets in. I have been asked my opinion recently about what I think of the literary analytic method known as biographical criticism, particularly as it applies to living authors like Rowling/Galbraith. As with the Double Wedding Band Model, I thought it best to respond with a public FAQ. 

FAQ 1:  Do you think it is appropriate to interpret fiction in the context of the author's biography? 

Answer:  Certainly. I have done so multiple times. This process is called biographical criticism and is nothing new or original. My experience with this approach includes

• My English term paper from my junior year in high school, where I read a couple of biographies about playwright Noel Coward, and looked at spousal relationships in his plays in light of his own family history. 
• My senior English term paper, when I compared religious poems of T.S. Eliot before and after his 1927 conversion to Anglo-catholicism. 
• I'm happy to say I got A's on both.
• Interestingly, none of the six literature classes I took in college (1 classics, 3 English, 2 Spanish) ever assigned a paper with this approach.
• I used Veronica Roth's published statements about her psychology studies and her past "obsession" with personality testing to  support my argument that the factions of her Divergent series were based on Five Factor personality theory. 
• Interviews with JK Rowling about her experiences with clinical depression and cognitive behavior therapy helped inform the depression section of my first peer-reviewed Harry Potter paper, on psychological disorders whose symptoms are depicted in the Wizarding World. 

Here are some guidelines for biographical criticism for people not familiar with it. 

My new idea for a bad guy to return in The Hallmarked Man: Mild spoilers from the latest pre-publication video (But none from the chapter preview)

Please note: This post includes cover blurb and RobertGalbraith.com video spoilers, but nothing from the Audible clip. Please observe those limitations in the comments.  I also have not committed to reading the 12 chapters recently released in German, so this site will remain free of those spoilers for the time being. 

The latest of Robert Galbraith's videos reveals a few more mild spoilers for The Hallmarked Man. Read on for a transcript and my thoughts, including which villain might make a return appearance. 

Farting Sofa FAQ Part 1: Reading, structural models and the evolution of the Double Wedding Band.

Please note:  This is a spoiler-free post, so please no spoilers in the comments. I also have not committed to reading the 12 chapters recently released in German, so this site will remain free of those spoilers for the time being. 

As we approach the publication of The Hallmarked Man, I am getting more direct questions from other Strike fans about the Double Wedding Band Model. where it came from, and how I think it might apply to the Strike series going forward.  I have chosen to respond in a public post in hopes of clarifying what I think this structural model can and cannot do. 

The Double Wedding Band model emerged from earlier models that I developed, and then discarded when it became clear they weren't working. That work, in turn, grew out of much earlier efforts that started around the publication of The Silkworm, by myself and other faculty on the Hogwarts Professor site. There, we analyzed the Strike series, almost from moment Robert Galbraith was unmasked, with many of the analytic tools that were useful in Harry Potter studies and which were pioneered by site owner John Granger. My favorites to use were literary alchemy, ring structure and the parallel series idea. Looking for and documenting parallel scenes, imagery, plot lines and characters between Strike books, and between Strike and Harry Potter books became my sub-specialty.

People curious about earlier models and how my thoughts on the structure of the Strike series have evolved over time can read my earlier posts on this blog, and my old Hogpro posts, many of which are now available on the Farting Sofa Faculty Archives.  You'll find all of the links below. However, for the benefit of those who don't want to dig through past writings, I'll try to provide a more readable summary here.  

Troubled Blood: Chapters 63-67: The plot thickens, and quickens.

 

Please note:  This is a spoiler-free post, so please no spoilers in the comments. I also have not committed to reading the 12 chapters recently released in German, so this site will remain free of those spoilers for the time being.

Chapter 63 shows our heroes continuing to work on the Bamborough case through the end of August. SB conveniently shows up willing to pay the agency to dig up dirt on Shifty, so they are able to resume that job.  It is this point at the narrative that the pace of the Bamborough mystery really picks up, with witnesses who have eluded them for a year suddenly popping out of the woodwork, with Strike locating Douthwaite the day Robin gets permission for him to interview Creed, then Gloria Conti magically finding the emails her husband had deleted and contacting them on the day of the Douthwaite. This is one of several ways TRG runs in parallel with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in which the trio, after taking months to find and destroy the locket horcrux, are able to identify, find and destroy the cup, the diadem and the snake within a couple of days. 

Robin meets up with Jemma in an upscale bar, where she is able to befriend her after learning her boyfriend "Andy," who has ghosted her, is actually Saul Morris.  After lots of tea wine and sympathy, Robin finally gets the dirt on Shifty, who sexually harasses his PA, sexually assaulted her when she was drunk on a business trip, and is insider training. After the encounter, Robin gets the welcome news that Strike will be allowed to interview Dennis Creed in September. She calls him to find he has news of his own: with a stroke of luck almost equal to his chance sighting of Samhain Athorn, he deduced Douthewaite's newest surname and has located him in the beach town of Skegness. Amusingly, Robin's cracking the Shifty case, which has been preoccupying the agency for more than a year, is relegated to almost an afterthought ("Shifty? Yeah, he's insider trading, but...), as she, after insisting she doesn't want to to upstage Strike (oh yes you do, girl!) tells him about Creed. 

I think it is another subtle bit of commentary on exploitation of women that, after multiple sexual crimes, including probable rape, it is the financial crime that will likely bring Shifty down.

Troubled Blood, Chapters 57-62: The part that contains Chapter 58. Plus, a small Hallmarked Man spoiler (cover blurbs and Galbraith interviews, not the chapter preview!)

I must say, the description of the "5-star" American Bar, decorated with pennants and baseball caps, seems a bit incongruous to me, given that so many very casual sports bars in the US have that type of decor. I mean, I'm sure it is classy (and expensive) but....  pennants?

I know I have mentioned this before, but I am always bothered by Robin's statement that this was the "very first time" she'd told Strike she knew who his father was bugs me. While perhaps technically true, this absolutely should not be an issue that concerns her. Strike heard Robin say "That's very kind of Mr. Rokeby" during a talk with Peter Gillespie back in Book one, she met his brother Al Rokeby in Book 2, they had a talk about Leda, the Deadbeats and "old Jonny" in Book 3, and stood side by side reading an article on her phone that called Strike "the illegitimate son of rocker Jonny Rokeby" in Book 4. There has also been tons of annoying press coverage, and Rokeby would have been mentioned in any story about Strike. Strike's parentage is like the camp bed in CC, she knows, he knows she knows, and she knows he knows she knows. The idea that she is giving away some big secret here is absurd.