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!

Hmm but how did Todd know to email Griff (Oz)?

The thing I still don’t quite get is why Boris Johnson Branfoot thought the murder victims was Dan DeLion. Had he in fact paid someone to kill DanDeLion? Why didn’t the killer do it? How did DanDelion know the hit had been put out (if it had)? Did the hitman hired by Branfoot know Todd/Griff et al? Why did he think he could get away with lying to Branfoot about having carried out the hit? Wouldn’t Branfoot be annoyed about the method apparently used in this hit given his links with the masons?

I have a question about height. I have really enjoyed seeing all the pieces laid out on the re-read. So many clues and so many misdirections with all the lions and bridges.

But Griff is short. Wouldn't that have been noticeable even on low quality CCTV when he exited pretending to be Tyler/William Wright?

And it was him with Medina as Oz, he didn't get one of his minions to do that bit? In which case wouldn't the neighbours have said he was short? Or did they?

they were mates from back in the day when they were both part of the same sex trafficking gang in Europe.

They stayed in touch and Todd was probably part of the gang who were raping Chloe, and later Sapphire Neagle who was the poor woman held prisoner in Griff's basement.

Todd's brother said all Todd cared about was "gambling & girls" and he was probably not that successful in meeting women as he was a notoriously horrible sex offender.

Yes but why would Todd initiate "solving the issue" of Tyler? I don't get why he would know that was a potential problem before Griff - I'm assuming Griff didn't get in touch before that, which could be wrong.

Yes FiveBarGate that had occurred to me too (and/or it was raised on one of the blogs).

I don't think he did. Tyler's friends recommended the Abused and Accused website (at the behest of Griff).

I assume he then directed Todd in what to say and do (avoiding leaving his own digital footprint).

He set a trap assisted by Todd.

I think the bust in Belgium that he avoided shows he keeps himself one step removed.

I also found the description of Semple and he was only 5ft 7 so I assume Tyler was more well built than tall. So I guess on rubbish CCTV a bulky jacket could disguise this - and the point of the mason's connection is that the police didn't look too hard at any of it.

Ah yes you're all right and I misremembered! The email to Oz from the shop was Wright/ Tyler trying to tell him he'd figured out someone was posing as him. Not Todd initiating contact.

The email bit always seemed odd to me - it’s hard to imagine anyone not realising that if they sent an email from their workplace’s main contact address, anyone else who worked there could see it & might well want to know what was going on / be angry at the address being used for personal messages.

But Tyler thinks Todd is a brand new acquaintance (through Abused and Accused). He is unaware Griff is pulling the strings.

So even if the other people in the shop knew he'd emailed the real Oz, it wouldn't mean anything to them as he believes them to be totally unconnected.

He kept it quite vague presumably for deniability.

Just gone back and started the Ink Black Heart again, with the disastrous kiss attempt. What the fuck is wrong with these people?!! JUST HAVE A FUCKING CONVERSATION!! Ilsa gets it, she needs to get more hands on I think.

Ilsa is either a poorly-written, silly character or not a good friend! Or both.

There’s also the bit in Troubled Blood where Strike reflects that if it hadn’t been for Ilsa’s matchmaking attempts he’d have spent his birthday evening with her, Nick & Robin instead of alone in his flat.

She’s just had a baby, having gone through IVF treatment, and she has a very busy job. As much as she loves her friends, she’s likely a bit preoccupied.

Isn’t there a whole theory that she’s secretly in love with Strike and therefore frequently sabotages Robin.

There is but I don’t buy it. I just think she tried to make it happen when Robin was staying with them and had now given up and gotten on with her life!

There’s a point in TRG (re-reading now) when she is cross Strike shagged Bijou and calls her a “displacement shag” and Robin asks what she means. She says Robin knows perfectly well what she means and was going to say more but her boss came into the room.

Nah I don't think Ilsa is in love with Strike. I think she's exasperated because it's so obvious from the outside that these two like each other.

Agree. And I don't think her advice to Robin is bad.

She was struggling with the fact she'd only ever been with one man and Strike has beautiful women in his past. It's only a drink is fair but Robin has the type of personality that means she sticks things out (and is the type of woman men want to marry). It's not Ilsa's fault she got in deep with Ryan rather than just a few dates and some fun that may have brought them both to their senses.

Ilsa also likes Strike as her old friend but says it will do him good to be turned down. She recognises his faults when it comes to women.

We've reached the point where Strike has realised much of this himself.

Robin is still stuck at 'it's what I do'. Ilsa is just the vehicle to show us this. I suspect the role will pass on to the sweary therapist in the next book.

No, not Ilsa!

I’d like to continue believing in a world where not every single woman on the planet falls in love with Strike at first sight.

Yes perhaps I am being harsh about Ilsa, and agree, she’s not into Strike!

Agree that Ilsa is getting on with her life where she is the main character.

I’ve just played ‘nef’ in Scrabble to get me ‘furtive’ on a triple word score and would never have known the word were it not for this book.

Late to the party here, but I’ve only just got my hands on a copy.

Loved lots of it-Rokeby, Sark, the bracelet, RFM being an arse, Christmas in Masham etc but the whole murder in the vault stuff was incredibly complicated!

Why did they go out of the way to kill Tyler in the vault which had so many ways it could go wrong? Just to make a bit of money with selling some silver?

Was Semple the MI5 one? Can you be in THE regiment if you’re only 5 foot 7?

Was the sex stuff with the MP (filming girls behind a mirror) totally unrelated to the sex trafficking girls chained in a basement? Just showing that lots of men are exploiting women all over the place?

Was Oz just Griffiths? In a curly wig? Or was he the other chap-the guitarist in the band-Wade? How da was Ironbricge where Griffiths lived, from where all the other stuff was going on? Was he travelling around the country a lot?

If Tyler really thought Chloe/Yolande was kidnapped by the man who murdered her mum and was being used as a sex slave, would he not had tried to take her with him in the first place? Leaving her with him was a risky ploy.

Have you seen that the title of the next one has been announced? https://robert-galbraith.com/strike-books/sleep-tight-evangeline/