SPOILER ALERT Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott)

[Civilservant]

Spoiler thread for posters who have read or listened to The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling) and would like to discuss it!

But so much of the book was internal dialogue. They could do a whole chapter with one furrowed brow.

Yes, I see him as a Mick Jagger / Keith Richards mashup

Finished this morning and loved it.
Definitely got HBP vibes with ‘angry Strike’ mirroring angry Harry.
I was pleased that Strike finally managed to spit out his feelings even if they weren’t received how we hoped. I think the therapist will be pivotal in the next one.
And yes. It feels sacrilegious to say it as JKR is so amazing but I don’t need to be told about Pat’s e cigarette being clamped in her mouth every time she appears.
There’s also a lot of repetition of ‘Robin, who was fiddling with her handbag’, ‘Strike, who was eating a biscuit’ type phrasing which grates a bit.
I listen to the audio books though so maybe it’s more noticeable there.

I'm glad others found the plot tricky to follow. I think I need to read the paper version now so I can flick backwards.

I wonder how much the Giselle Pelicot case influenced her writing of the the trafficking case-the ‘normal, married blokes’ coming to rape someone who they ‘thought’ was consenting seemed like a nod to that?

I don’t think she’ll kill either or the main two off but I do fear for Pat (with her e cigarette clamped firmly between her teeth)

I felt exactly the same about Pat’s e-cigarette. Also her gravelly voice and simian face.

I think I need those apparently unnecessary details about handbags and e-cigs and biscuits to allow me to visualise the scene in 3D and full colour.

And the last chip. But I feel so there.

I just finished it. Found the crime plot bloody confusing to be honest and I think I need to go back and re read some passages.

Robin really is making the same mistakes again and JK does a v good line in not so nice "nice guys". In some ways it would have been interesting though if she'd made Murphy a bit more likeable so as to present a real choice for Robin.

I enjoyed Robin thinking seriously about parenthood and whether it's what she wants and I can't wait for her to get some therapy.

Apparently she sometimes gets mistaken for Strike.

Apparently the Kindle page numbers here match up with the print version.

Chapter 20, p155 - Very vague description of a living thing, assumed to be animal, in a shed.

Chapter 25, p196 Strike briefly speaks to Plug's neighbour, no specific details but she says he was previously prosecuted for animal cruelty. Strike immediately calls the RSPCA.

Chapter 59, p429 - not actual animal cruelty, but Strike describes a dog as looking like "A fox that had been shoved into a tumble dryer"

Chapter 70, p513 boy is seen injured, no details of how the injury took place but they assume dog and make the jump to dogfighting.

Chapter 77, p557-560 several descriptions of Plug's men with various dogs, being "dragged on a lead" and "forced into a van" but nothing more violent happens.

Chapter 79 is where the main scene happens. It's quite detailed. Could skip the whole chapter because it's the only thing that happens in this chapter.

Beginning of Chap 80 has Strike injured by one of the dogs and they discuss how they fought it off, some insinuation that he would have liked the dog to be injured in return, but nothing huge. Safe to resume about halfway down page 573 which is quite a nice Strike/Robin scene, worth reading.

Chapter 82, p584 - Some description of not-nice treatment

Chapter 90 - Strike sees Plug with a puppy (nothing happens to the puppy)

Chapter 97 p699 - More third hand description, not good.

Chapter 99, p712 - brief mention

Chapter 102, p730 - brief mention

Chapter 113, p807 - Description of last interaction between Plug and agency during which he stabs Shah, Plug is probably arrested (never mentioned again)

That's as much as I could find.

@BertieBotts Thank you, Bertie. I offered to help but have had a (ridiculously) busy day and was just about to scroll through my Kindle copy. Much appreciated. @RobinEllacotStrike hope this helps your friend.

Oh good, I'm glad you saw it before having to do it as well, I didn't want to step on your toes, but saw it was quite late so thought I would do a quick run through :)

Thank you @BertieBotts& @SpuytenDuyvil this is so wonderful.

I did things manually with my hardback but you have found so much more.

it’s really appreciated from me & the woman I am sending it to

💜💐

Right, I had to re listen after my read through as the murder made zero sense.
So Wright and The cleaner carried Griff down the stairs in a box which had all the little silver bits in.
griff got out and hid and then murdered wright and put on a disguise and then left. Coming back to destroy the body ?

Loved this, though I never know how much is wrapped up in the childhood joy of waiting for a JKR new release of a huge book then racing through it.

As usual the actual crime totally confuses me and I don't even try to keep track and just enjoy the story. Really not sure when the actual murder took place, during the silver delivery?

I think it said there were 5 possible identities for the body so would love a single line for each and what actually happened to them, I think they were all resolved?

Robin very infuriating repeating her same mistakes as with Matthew, and even worse when he falls off the wagon.

"Pit Pony" broke my heart, but I'm from Yorkshire so maybe it hit close to home!

Always enjoy some of the UK place mentions and it makes me want to look them up, Ironbridge, Sark.

Really thought the penultimate chapter was the last one so was very glad to get Strike and Robin having that conversation, do not want to wait 2 years to find out!!

Agree Robin really needs buckets of therapy, do we know who the therapist will be? I thought Prudence was implying herself at first.

The potential victims I can remember:

• Niall Semple - committed suicide, mental health issues following the death of his SAS friend
• Danny De Leon - hiding on Sark with his brother, tells his story about the politician to the papers
• Rupert Fleetwood - working at a hotel in Italy after discovering he’s fathered a child with his half sister
• Tyler Powell - the actual victim, discovers his girlfriend’s father is part of a sex trafficking ring/she has been trafficked herself

I cant recall any others? And just on my second read through so still not sure on how/why the actual murder came about!

I don't have the book to hand but the fifth potential victim was the one named by the police but who actually went to "Barnaby's".

As nobody has mentioned the elephant in the room.....

Lord Branfoot - the portly politician, full of false bonhomie, with floppy hair, an irritating manner of speaking who has become a household name appearing on TV panel shows .....

Am I the only one who pictured Branfoot as Boris Johnson?

The ‘official victim’. I want to call him Jason Bourne but not that

Jason Knowles.

Oh yes, they didn’t look into him at all beyond Shanker saying it wasn’t him did they - because Ryan told them there was an undercover officer working with the gangster family? Except to discover that Barnaby’s was the Cockney rhyming slang name for the scrap yard where his body was presumably disposed of?

@Civilservant Thank you for this thread!
All pp thank you for the fascinating analyses and comments.

I finished a few days ago and have been struggling to come to terms with the ending and the long wait for book nine. I soooo want to talk about it with DH but he hasn’t even started it yet and won’t until he has finished what he is currently reading. He did ask me what I thought of THM, but I couldn’t find a way to respond without giving anything away and told him as much.

I am a fan of JKR’s writing style. Some pp don’t like the details, but these enhance it for me. Jo has been to the locations she’s describing and she takes me there with her words. A couple of years ago I was on a coach into London, bored and staring out of the window when I saw a row of houses to the right of the carriageway and felt such a thrill of recognition, thinking, that’s just like the place where Strike found Owen Quine! Cue frantic inspection of google maps to confirm. I love that there are real, detailed locations in these stories.

Favourite moments in THM—

1. Strike agreeing to go for a beer with Rokeby. 😭
2. Strike telling Kim where to go🥳
3. The Bracelet and Robin’s reaction to it ❤️

I never work out who the killer is and this time was no exception. I’m reading for the main characters and their story, the whodunnit is an interesting (if sometimes baffling) secondary for me.

As DH doesn’t want THM for a bit I’m going to re-read, if I can bear it!

Oh I’m totally down for the description of new people and settings and love that she includes so many real places-it’s just the repetition of the same detail most times a character is present.

I can’t remember the exact quote but the bit where he texts her back about the bracelet and ‘added 5(?) kisses, one for every one of hers’ gave me goosebumps.

And I absolutely loved Pat overhearing him declaring his love and giving him advice

No I thought exactly the same. Clearly JKR is not a fan and can remember the well documented voice mail of Johnson ordering someone to break a journalist's ribs.

Posh buffoon who is capable of ruthless cruelty.

I didn’t know about that?!?

I wonder if it’s Murphy checking up on Robin. I think when he used her phone to find his (before the alcohol discovery), he’d set up FindMyPhone on her phone.