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!

Yep you are right and JK does a good examination of expectations on women such as laughing at your boyfriends Dad's jokes etc.

I was going to buy the books off the back of the show. Are they bad?

Well … 😂 as I said, I stopped reading the first one because it began with the lazy construct of a character observing themselves in a mirror, so as to describe their appearance to the reader. I hate and despise this tired form of writing.

However, I couldn’t resist downloading the kindle sample of the first Strike novel - and JKR herself introduces us to Strike in exactly the same manner! I’m pretty gobsmacked - if I’d begun with this volume I would never have read any others.

So I can’t helpfully comment on the Dept Q novels.

I gave up reading The Cuckoo's Calling when it was first released but quite liked the TV adaptation so I went back to it and now I just elide over the bits of writing I don't like.

I might try the first one and gloss over anything trite 🤣

I think she said he didn't want to do anything that would acknowledge it was even a possibility. Much like Strike's reason for not wanting to initially.

• If Griffiths had gone back later to mutilate the corpse that would have been obvious at the post mortem but I don't remember it being mentioned.

• I thought Jasper Chiswell from Lethal White was also Boris Johnson. As is Peter Judd in Slow Horses

They mentioned that the victim was dead for a while before being mutilated due to the amount of blood in the vault and the way that blood had pooled in the body.

I also thought that Jasper Chiswell was meant to be a Boris inspired character 🤔

Yes, the footprint had dried underneath the body, which meant it had already dried by the time they cut up the body.

Ah yes, thank you. I am looking forward to a re-read! xx

I’ve just finished. I think I need to re listen. I have some questions….

also i listened rather than read so I haven’t seen all of the names written done so may have some of the spellings wrong.

when they interviewed Tyler’s friends/flatmates….that was when Rita Linda was first mentioned right? So was it just coincidence that Chloe/yolande turned out to be the daughter of Riata Lindval? And Rena Liddle was related to the Semple case, not Tyler’s?

No, Tyler was in a relationship with Chloe. Chloe was actually Jolanda. She wS abducted by Griff who killed her mother, Reata Lindval. She told Tyler this which is why Griff killed him. Tyler ran away and was planning a new life for Chloe. He got drunk and told his flatmates the story but they got it a bit muddled.

I got muddled myself, tbh. It was such a complex plot with so many plates spinning, I couldn't keep track of who was who and did what. I stopped even trying to work it out!

Ok id missed them getting muddled with the name, I couldn't figure out the link there.

I was also expecting all the lions to mean something!

liked the Wolves references.

He’d said something to the couple in the flat below like he knew the truth about Rita Linda and that it would be in the news. Presumably he thought he was setting up a new life under a fake name and would be able to extract Chloe/Yolanda then tell the police, but the whole thing was a trap set up by Todd/Griffiths. Was Tyler supposed to have met/got help from Todd with the job/fake name through the abused and accused website, or some other way? Still on second read.

Listening again, I’m even further convinced Rokeby is going to die. Either that’s the phone call or later in book 9.

Strike needs to have the means to get out of the upstairs flat and buy a nice townhouse that proves to Robin that he’s a reliable grown up. Ted’s inheritance isn’t enough but Rokeby’s would be.

Really? I'm clearly not reading FWR enough 😂

I thought the reference was right at the start, when Strike's thinking about Ted and his opinion that there's no point having a thing you haven't earned (made me think of TIMs in women's sports).

Loving everyone's musings on this thread, agree with you all that Robin is incredibly frustrating but she has pretty good trauma-based reasons. I'm looking forward to her getting therapy and a bit more gumption.

I also was laughing at the porn star choosing the name "Dick de Lion", and then it turns out his own real name is D. de Leon and his brother is Richard de Leon 😂 it's like he wasn't even trying to be incognito. There's an internet search that must have taken Strike about two minutes.

The whole agency needs a shake though, they really should have wondered about dogfights a lot earlier on, it was as plain as plain could be.

Do you think they were all too worried it was a basilisk.

Even Wardle said how complicated the real murder was as he, Barclay and Strike were driving up to Ironbridge! I only noticed it on my second listen and I felt like JKR was acknowledging she was testing the reader.

Right, I've finished the bugger.

I gave up trying to work out all the people and plot strands about halfway through, and the ending didn't feel that compelling as I only had a vague idea what had actually happened.

I found Strike became more and more unpleasant as the book went on - ruder, coarser and increasingly misogynist.

Robin was beyond infuriating and I felt so sorry for her partner and even her family.

The plot and characters were completely bonkers but by eck it's readable stuff.

I huffed, puffed and rolled my eyes throughout. Can't blimmin wait for the next one!

I’m now about a fifth of the way through Troubled Blood and enjoying it immensely. It was, I think, the first TV adaptation I watched (before bingeing the whole lot) so I’m in the happy position of vaguely recalling characters and odd bits of the plot, without having any clear memory of how the case was resolved.

It is rather nice to return to eager, rather than desultory, reading - I’ve neglected almost all the TV and streaming distractions I leaned into during Covid.

Troubled Blood and Running Grave are my favourites. I did struggle a bit with Hallmarked Man. Perhaps I'll enjoy it more on the reread.

Same here. TB my most favourite of all I think.