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!

I’ve just listened to a bit where Robyn is washing up after her first disagreement with Mathew about strike and and ‘she noticed there was a fragment of frozen pea caught in the setting of her engagement ring’
Is this some foreshadowing about the pea in the fish tank before her engagement to Murphy?!

Just seen a new video where JKR says that book 9 picks up 5 minutes after THM. This is very exciting news. Not sure how to link but see Robert Galbraith facebook page.

OMG

That makes sense - what Robin does next! The Ritz or something else!

I was hoping it would!

Where did you see the video?

Oh God I want it now! Wonder when it'll be out

@RaspberryRipple2 Sorry I was so excited about your first sentence I didn't read the second one 😳

Probably September 2027. I saw a screenshot of a tweet from JKR on TSEF instagram and she said she'd just finished part 1. I might be wrong but I can't see it being earlier and also don't want to get my hopes up about it coming sooner.

Has she said how many books there will be in total?

Ahh it’s in the clip. 10 books. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1JkoWcyRji/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Oh, that's so interesting about your picture of Rokeby...I see him looking like Brian May but with harder living!

I've always assumed he was based on Mick Jagger - the multiple wives and girlfriends and lots of children in a very wide age range.

I went for a more Roger Daltry vibe.

Definitely Jagger-ish.

The Ritz is a 22 minute walk from Denmark Street - so I'm thinking (willing, wishing) Robin walks back up those stairs!

I think RE will go to Ritz all befuddled, or will just bail on RFM.

I think she's going to take herself away before she confronts either of her two problems.

OR

She'll go to meet RFM and he won't propose because he realises he's on thin ice and then she'll have to go home with him because it's his birthday and she's too nice to break up with him on his birthday.

But the whole time she'll be thinking of Strike.

Me too because she’s irritating the hell out of me in repeating the same mistake with Ryan as she did with Matthew in staying with someone because they are unwell, not because it’s a good relationship.

Feelings for Strike aside she should have ditched Ryan by now.

I agree. But then I remember how often we've been told that Robin was brought up to be the family mediator, especially between her brothers, and to always, always just smile and play nice. And added to that, she's clearly suffering with PTSD after her experience in TRG, and I think it's emotionally paralysing her e.g. freeze or flight mode, anx she's trapped in freeze mode.

And, she's been navigating pretty shit, border line abusive relationships for years and years, and it's like the frog slowly boiling to death because the heat increase is so gradual.

It will be the phone call.

I would like to see it all go to shit at the Ritz, Murphy fully realising Robin’s heart isn’t in it and flouncing, then being a git and boozing disastrously and being a menace throughout the book - in the background.

Yes. I have a bad feeling about that behind call.

PHONE CALL!

This is what I think is most likely. That and possibly RFM is drunk

I'm thrilled it opens 5 minutes afterwards, rather than a few weeks or months with nothing seeming to have changed.

Oh god there’s no way I can wait two years! I am also so so excited that it starts 5 minutes after THM.