Troubled Blood - *Spoiler-laden discussion*

[EllacottObsessive]

Setting this up for Strike and Ellacott fans to talk about spoilery things.

@BebeStevens

Hi Frouby! Now watch the TV! 😉

I may do, haven't watched anything good on the tv for ages!

All I'd say with the adaptation is expect Burke to capture the emotional essence of Strike, rather than be the exact same man to look at. Most people who I've seen disappointed tend to be those expecting the big hairy pube-headed man-bear to look at, and I think it's short-circuited their appreciation for the way Burke nails the taciturn emotional undercurrent.

I never really have any expectations for TV/film adaptations of books, in terms of what characters look like. I’m also no good at being able to tell how good someone is or not in a role

One thing I’ve wondered about is the fact that it’s Michael Fancourt in the book but Andrew Fancourt in the TV show. I wondered why the change.

Just finished the book yesterday - feeling quite bereft now I have read them all! I so hope she is going to write more. Personally I feel that if Strike and Robin ever do get it together it would have to be the end of it though so I kind of hope they don't just yet! Also watching the series which is very good, the casting is absolutely spot on.

One thing I’ve wondered about is the fact that it’s Michael Fancourt in the book but Andrew Fancourt in the TV show. I wondered why the change.

There's quite a few little name detail changes like this throughout the adaptations. I'd love to know what the reason is. The Silkworm is an intriguing one given that it's the literary world that Rowling knows, so there are possibly name changes to make doubly sure no one sues? (Complete guess on my part here !)

Ooh, I know this! It's because they can't use an unusual name that actually belongs to someone. So they could use "John Smith" because it's sufficiently common that it won't be linked to a specific person but they had to change Bobbi Cunliffe because there's only one or 2 of them in the country.

Interesting

YES.

She's seeded it throughout the stories, and when discussing the characters, Rowling has said with absolute authority that 'Strike's mother was murdered'. She hasn't said 'Strike believes his mother was murdered', she's spoken about it as a bald fact.

The smart money is on a whacking great twist in a future case that reveals that it was murder, and how it was done.

Right, well, good news for those who care, after a very difficult Christmas I've completed my first draft and notes for the fourth podcast. With tweaks and the faddly exercise of picking audio clips, I think I should probably have it done by the end of the week.

That’s brilliant news @EllacottObsessive although I’m really sorry it’s been a difficult Christmas. @parentalhelpline that pulls together a few half thoughts that have been in the hard to reach bits of my mind very neatly! Maybe Strike has to get answers in order to be able to move on happily? If his father is also perhaps very ill, I wonder if their eventual reunion will be in the form of a death bed confession? I don’t think he killed Leda necessarily but perhaps yet more neglect?

My friend got me Troubled Blood for Christmas, I finished it yesterday morning at 3:00 AM. First one of the Strike books I've read, so I'm going to go back and read the rest. I was utterly hooked.

So, thoughts. JKR is actually very sweary, which I love, the line 'radical feminist witch' had me howling, both because of Rowling's views and what she's best known for, and the way 'sex work' is portrayed is just as it should be, showing how dangerous it is for women (the bit where the students are talking and Strike talks about what he saw in Kosovo was brilliant, if rather harrowing.) There was the recurring theme of men who desire women but actually hate us, which gave me pause for thought.

I've wondered if Leda's death will be the final case solved in the series but I also wonder whether it will never be solved & Strike will just have to learn to live with it. The cases have always been tied up in neat bows by the end of each book but both Strike & Robin are portrayed as real people. Life is messy & sometimes we don't get the answers we want. It wouldn't surprise me if JKR wrote the final book to end with Strike accepting that he'll never really know what happened & he & Robin resolving to work on their issues together. No neat bows, no riding off into the sunset, just an acknowledgement that life is a messy journey. It'd make a nice change from a typical "happily ever after" ending!

I'm loving seeing people 'check in' here as they finish the book - welcome! - usually in the early hours of the morning, because let's face it, how can you calmly put your book aside and turn off the light once you've read the trip to Skegness? I'm also envious of those who still have the other books to read for the first time. Once you've done that, listen to EO's podcast and discover all the things you missed and what they mean...

If she hadn't said so firmly that Leda was murdered, I did quite like the idea that Strike would discover it was an accident after all, or that he would never find out the truth - in that messy way ISmellLikeRobin has described real life working. Acceptance would be as good as finding the killer in terms of him being able to move on - although not quite as suited to the genre, obviously.

Right-o, Podcast finished, and about to be uploaded. A bit longer, as has been requested closer to 18 minutes rather than 12. I don't know if that means it's better - I shall leave that assessment to others! Link to follow.

open.spotify.com/episode/629M2mtVZunScg7i4xmm7Y?si=B1Kx5GCmQfat3jIjXlJBYw

Here you go.

Brilliant as ever, so you can talk as long as you have words for, as far as I am concerned.

I love your thoughts on authenticity and cruelty, woven into all the 'is this the real manuscript?/who really wrote the bad review?' stuff. Despite having all known each other for years, all the suspects don't really know each other's true selves, despite their occasionally perceptive insights. And it all fits in with that thought of Strike's about Robin: 'the condition of being with Matthew was not to be herself'.

I still think you slightly let Strike and Robin off the hook for their cruelty, though. In the first scene, Strike takes the moral high ground over Culpepper in his treatment of sources (he got the info by listening, not sleeping with the witness or hacking her phone, despite what the journalist thinks) but then he sleeps with Nina, to whom he is not even attracted, to get what he wants, despite getting it literally banged into his head in the pub beforehand what a bad idea that is. And although I know Robin is desperate to prove to Strike that he doesn't need to hire someone else, her actions around the trip to Devon are deceptive and unkind. (Just because Matthew turns out to be both those things doesn't make her behaviour any better.)

It just goes to show that JKR's genius at creating real and likeable characters - even when they behave badly, we still love them. Mind you, just about everyone else in the Silkworm is pretty hard to love.

Love it, @EllacottObsessive! I got so into it that I was surprised when it finished - it only seemed about 10 minutes long! I can go to bed now with happy thoughts of Strike & the taste of Cornwall...

I think I did let them both off, yes, and I was going to go a lot harder on Strike than I did, because the text really lays on thick that he is running through reasons why he isn't that attracted to Nina, but he still utterly uses her. I let him off for two reasons - the first is that he does have an explicit moment of "Wow, I've been a proper shit" and feels shame for it, and the second is that it's my least favourite of the series and I had to work so bloody hard to find something a bit more upbeat and hopeful to draw the episode together.
There's a bit when Strike is reading Bombyx Mori and he has a break and then goes back to it and it's described as feeling like going for a swim in grimy, stagnant water or something, and I'm afraid SW leaves me feeling like that. So you're quite right, but those were my reasons.

Obviously, I had to do that one for completeness, but I am very much looking forward to doing Career of Evil which was my favourite before TB. And picking more funny audio clips now I've finally worked out the easy way to record and edit them, which is why this happened sooner rather than later!

Although, wrt Robin, I thought it was weird - I found her actions in the adaptation much harsher than in the book. Perhaps because I was privy to her thoughts, perhaps. But then, I did think I wasn't as kind to her in the redemptive parts of her story, as actually, there's not as much to redeem her actions as there is Strike. She is still going to make a few more stupid decisions yet.

Well, they are good reasons.

I love the bit where he is reading Bombyx Mori and looks up to see Robin standing there, and thinks how beautiful she is, and then puts it down to him having been reading such hideous things in the manuscript that she looks good in comparison. Strike, you idiot, that's not what is going on...

How many times can.i say perhaps. Have another.

There's a bit where he tells her to wear a hat to cover her hair, and she asks what's wrong with her hair, and he says that it's 'memorable'. Such a funny admission that he's been totally preoccupied with her hair for ages (it's also the way he finds her in the pub when he meets Matthew).

Yes, he likes her hair and associates her with health and life.

And Robin likes how he looks, his dark hair, but then doubts herself, and thinks it's just a reaction against Matthew.

Yes, take it as a compliment, Robin, fgs.

Seriously, at this point in the book it was like 'We have gone so far beyond subtext they might as well be snogging on the table'.

I sometimes think she's going to properly blindside us and have Strike 6 open with them waking up in bed together and when everyone loses their shit over it, she'll say "Have you read the other books? "

Btw, for those who may have pondered the Jane Eyre-esque bits of the story, I recently listened to Burke's Rochester on an Audible dramatisation, and it's every bit as bloody marvellous as you might guess. The sobbing. God, it'll tear your heart out. (Amanda Hale is fabulous, too).