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!

No parents, but he'd been living with Dilys for years, hadn't he? I was surprised the police didn't look for some genetic material in the house - hair hangs around for ages. But then I suppose they mostly discounted Tyler as a possibility because they thought Dilys was an overreacting grandma. Another one in the "men dismissing women" column for this book!

Another thing I’ve remembered I didn’t quite get

how did strike know Niall’s body would be in the canal? From the note?

I don’t think there was any positive sample. Only that Strikes was negative. But she could have used her neighbours DNA. Personally I agree this issue is done now but it was weird that he had such an elaborate idea for meeting to give her the swab but then didn’t follow up to make sure it was properly sent off.

If she was gonna use anyone else’s sample she could have just done it and not involved strike

Yeah the other dude needed to get his own DNA test he’s a moron

Except that she needed Strike (and everyone else) to think it wasn’t his.

On my second listen- griff is described as being pigeon toed and Robin notices a statue of a boy having a wee which must be the menneken pis in Belgium
I never notice these clues the first time!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis

Strike is a relationship person though - he had a nearly 20 year relationship with Charlotte. He's traumatised by that relationship and highly avoidant in his attachment style hence all the flings. But he also craves steadiness and calm - it just took him a long time to realise that love with Robin could be steady and calm, not stormy and confronting like it was with Charlotte.

Didn’t she just need the dad to think it wasn’t strike’s?
i can’t remember is the real dad now getting a test? We need confirmation it’s his at this point.

I did actually notice Griff being pigeon toed but I thought it was a red herring!

2/3 through so not read all the posts but listening on Audible often in the car and getting so confused at who some of the minor characters are Nile anyone? Presume he worked at the silver shop but it isn’t clear. He visited a cashpoint then vanished. Robin’s lack of assertiveness to Kim ignoring her also annoys me. If she wants to be treated as Strike’s equal then she has to behave like it and pull up employees who are snubbing her.
Not sure I want Robin and Strike to get together now. Robin goes for handsome controlling men who want a housewife and I don’t see her and Strike living together happily. In some ways I wish there was no romance between the 2 detectives instead of feeling emotionally manipulated by the constant silly misunderstandings and failure to be honest with each other or anyone else

Niall was one of the potential candidates for the body in the silver shop. He disappeared at the same time and for the description too. He lived in Scotland and was married to Jade. I won't say whether he is or not!

Nialls friend had died on a bridge when they are on the army trip that went wrong. Strike found the video on the dark web and assumed that he had committed suicide in a similar way. I think the canal was the closest place to his last sighting (at the cash point )

Niall was the former soldier who disappeared around the time of the murder and was last seen acting oddly with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist.

Thanks. I got the briefcase thing but had forgotten the soldier bit, so he had no connection to the silver shop and was just a similar size missing bloke with a Freemason obsession

Just finished it.
I really hope for a book where they are together. Not just because I'm impatient... It would give Rowling/Galbraith a whole new universe of ways to torture the reader because on current form these two aren't going to do happy ever after, they are going to screw up on a regular basis. How they work out running the agency as a couple will be a story to tell in itself.

I thought it was going to be the corpse-to-be (drugged) that was in one of the giant boxes. And the twist was going to be wright was the murderer who then fled, not the victim.

I thought the twist was going to be that Decima had had Rupert murdered and was frustrated that he had not been identified as the corpse so was trying to get Strike to do so. I thought she may have been faking the baby because Strike doesn't actually see it, and the photos of it don't have her in it as well so could have been any baby.

Obviously wrong! But in my defence I guessed the murderer in the Cuckoo's Calling straight away, thought it was incredibly obvious, so I am not completely useless.

I really liked the book. Guessed something was up with Griff and figured out chloe wasn’t chloe as previous books have pulled that trick, so I know by now if we haven’t met a character in person they are probably not who they say they are. I did NOT guess the incest angle. Great twist.

i love shanker and want him to have a spin off.

loved rokeby.

what do people think about strike beating suspects up? I find it cathartic. Who wouldn’t want to kick a rapist in the head.

Strongly dislike Strike using violence (except in immediate defence of self and others). I’m in the Wardle camp about that!

Also disliked him posturing and laying it all out to the criminals, although it was enjoyable to listen to! Understand that he hoped to get answers to certain things, before police and ambulance arrived, but disagreed with his priorities.

I just want to bang there heads together so hard!

I agree but, just like Poirot gathering everyone in the library, necessary.

Death In Paradise would be shit if they just turned up an arrested them.

Strike the goldfish, the margarine tub and peas - just hit me. I'm slow on the uptake.

What’s the significance?

What? I don’t follow but am very curious!