*Spoilers spoilers spoilers* the running grave spoilers thread.. (Content warning - mentions suicide)

[EggTheParrot]

Just as the title says really.. spoilers ok in this thread. Let's keep the other one spoiler free??

Oh my god why is Robyn going undercover!

Wonder if JKR has already made a start on book 8? Thanks heavens she's a quick writer

Agree that Charlotte had to be not around for Strike/Robin to work.

I think my problem with the baby trafficking was it just felt a bit added on, without much real explanation of how it worked. It just feels too big and weighty a topic to just be shoved in in a few paragraphs, imho. The cult was awful enough already.

The pronunciation of Oisin (I'm assuming it's Oisin he was trying for) and Doherty are also both incorrect.
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It's a shame they don't double check how to correctly pronounce foreign names

@MrsJagoRoss yes agree re the baby trafficking
@ThePlantKiller I would assume this one was finished a few months ago and therefore I am hoping the answer is yes. 🤞🤞

Also I completely missed that Strike had a younger halfbrother, I feel like Switch will feature again in the next book.

Yes - it's rather frustrating and takes you out of the story!

One thing that bothered me was that it was completely unsafe for Will and Quing to stay with Pat and not somewhere safe. I would have assumed that the Waces would have tried to get at least Quing back.

Wow that’s awful

Loved loved loved it.
I have a question - when Strike is speaking with Henry in the posh pub with all the bank notes, Henry tells him that what made him not join the UHC was seeing a heavily pregnant woman collapse whilst ploughing and no one helping her. Mazu came and just stood over her menacingly.
Was that important or just an example of Mazu's cruelty? I'd have thought that, what with the baby trafficking, they would have looked after the pregnant women carefully rather than risking potentially losing babies...

i think they just blamed mothers if babies died. They must have been running quite a production line of them😭

I guess an explanation was needed of where all the babies go, what with all the spirit bonding.

Plus the church needs money.

What I've loved about the whole series so far is Strike and Robin's slow progress towards each other.

At the start, Robin was immersed in family. From a stable, loving family, engaged to someone she'd known for years, assumed she'd have children etc. Over the series she's moved away from that. Separated and then divorced, realising that actually the job means more to her than having children and increasingly frustrated with her family. It was sad to see her at outs with her mum but I think it just did a good job of highlighting her movement away from ties and into independence.

Strike on the other hand has gone the other way. From someone who was actively resistant to family and emotional ties he's now built a more solid relationship with Lucy, we've seen more of his interactions with first Joan and also Ted. Ilsa and Nick have a child now which he's a god-father to and he's making tentative steps forward with Prudence too. This all makes him more family orientated.

They're meeting in the middle and I hope to God that JK gives us something concrete in the next book!

I think that was Deidre. And the baby was Wace's which is why Mazu was mad. I think the baby grew up to be Lin?

@QueenMabby an excellent post.

He really wasn't right for Robin until this book. Just relistening to Lethal White where it recaps his relationship disasters and inability to commit (most of which links back to Charlotte).

He sees love as the only thing which could justify the chaos and drama between them. Slowly Robin's gentle, semi platonic sort of love has broken through that, together with the way he has connected with Lucy, prudence, ted and Joan.

@23Oct YES!!! That's it! The dates fit as Lin is now 16 (as Pat says right at the end).
Thanks!

I love the portrayal, not often seen in fiction, of what it is like to really love your work and have that work satisfaction, even with the danger and frustration, as a central part of your happiness. That is what Strike gets about Robin that Matthew never did.

They definitely both are genuinely passionate about their work.

I suppose that having her Uni course demolished as it was :( and Matt also nagging her to ' get a proper job ' for ages maybe Robin feels she had much to prove especially as she is now a partner as well. Nothing should be off limits snd she wants to be the best at what they do. She is passionate about her job and wants success and enough money to live on. It's a tough old game for her, but she is definitely very good at what she does.

I’m rereading it at a much slower pace and picking up so many hints that I missed the first time. Abigail’s lodger hearing her say “cut it up smaller!” In her sleep 😢

What do people think Abigail said on the phone to Jordan and Cherie prior to them attempting to take/taking their lives? Did she explicitly tell them to end their lives, or just scare them enough so that they did it off their own bat?

The descriptions of Taio are reminding me of Severus Snape: the greasy black curtains, pointed face. I’m imagining an overweight Snape in a tracksuit!

I always rather had a thing for Snape, especially as portrayed by Alan Rickman. Taio is skin-crawlingly repulsive.

I think Abigail probably just told them their role in Daiyu’s murder would come out, and that their lives would be ruined. Jordan was already pretty low on the food chain in prison; add child killer to that and he’d be dog food! Cherie had tried so hard to escape and build a life, I can imagine she couldn’t cope with all that crashing down.

I've been mulling over how their relationship will unfold over the final 3 books. It's too early for a happy ending, but equally I don't think JKR will be so mean as to do anything really horrible for either of them.

Robin has to mature into being able to identify that it's unfair stringing on a boyfriend who she doesn't love as much as she loves her business partner. At the moment, I think she's so wrapped up in her trauma, and identifying with her past relationship with Matthew where he was the unreasonable one, that she can't see the wood from the trees. I don't know if we'll see Ryan being a PITA if she finishes with him or not, although it is likely.

I think the biggest spanner in the works will be that once they're in love and Strike has allowed himself to love her, then Strike won't be able to cope with her doing the jobs where she has to put herself in danger anymore. He already struggles with it, and I think it would be worse if she were his actual girlfriend. Like I said before, I also think that Robin may be in for some sort of mental health crisis having lived for months in such a state of high anxiety and starvation.

I think the end solution will be that they're together, and they have the agency, but they have to compromise on the field work, Robin will eventually get to this position herself I think. Or she'll explore work elsewhere in corporate investigation or something. I think they will grow together as romantic partners and their business partnership will cease to be as important to them.

Who knows if there are going to be unwanted pregnancies in the mix (Bijoux or Ryan), I think Robin being pg with Ryan's child is more likely and I think JKR would handle the storyline amazingly from a pro-choice perspective, whatever choice Robin made.

Peter Wimsey said to Harriet Vane, ‘But I know that, if you have put anything in hand, disagreeableness and danger will not turn you back, and God forbid they should.’

I think that’s an excellent example for Strike.

I imagined him as Paul Hollywood.