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!

Course he was! What a wally I am…. as soon as I read that, I remembered. Thank you! I’ll give JKR full credit for plotting skills, she’s brilliant at layering multiple lines of plot and characters. Even the rando side characters are well drawn and I can imagine the type of people a lot of them are, and picture their faces and manner.

I do find myself mentally editing for JKR, but you can’t have everything. The plots of all the RG books have been propulsive and hugely engaging and left me wanting more. I can even cope with the slowness of the Robin and Strike situation, as I just feel pleased that we’ll get another good book out of it.

I got a bit confused about that. So the MP thought the body was the porn star, and that he was in the clear.

Did they tell him to run off back to Sark, or did he just know he needed to get out? I think I missed that bit. I was too invested in the carbonara.

I was confused by Martin calling the baby Dirk, which is obviously a porn star name.

I am so glad this thread is here or I might actually just go pop with the unmet need to debrief

Just finished, and need to go back and re read to pick up on details. I did have Janice-(TB)-esque vibes when we first met the villain, but got distracted with the whole will-they-won’t-they Robin/Strike storyline.

Agree with PPs that something has to happen properly in Book 9…

And I have a horrible but growing feeling that I know what the end of Book 10 might look like.

Oh I love them. Back to p1 I go!

Yes, Robin needs to get therapy!

MN posters would tell her to run for the hills regarding both Ryan and Cormoran!

What’s your theory about the ultimate denouement then @LentilDoll ?

Just finished and not read the whole thread yet, my main feeling is that this is the Order of the Phoenix of the series (for fans like me who grew up with HP!) - almost painful to read at times but critical for the development of the characters. Ended with neither of them in the right place really. I think she’ll reject the proposal and hopefully take the next book to sort herself out!

How on earth did you work that out? I was, for once, completely blindsided! Do you have a crystal ball?

THANK GOD I hava found you. Just finished but am so frustrated. Obviously I loved it but I found all the characters really hard to follow and totally agree with pp about Robin in this book. She really hasn’t developed at all - and Ryan is a bit of a bastard - and really not very nice. She created all these reasons why Strike was showing her he loved her rather than the actual reason. Probably because she thinks she isn’t worthy of love.
had predicted both pregnancies but was pleased Strike’s worked out the way it did.

Im really hoping that she declines his proposal and says ‘not now’ to give herself time

I think the lack of development in Robin is her development, in the sense that trauma stunts you. She’s got so much unprocessed trauma that she’s not able to make good decisions and is dissociating from her emotional self. That’s why she’s obsessed with work, she can’t be with her own mind at rest. She really has to go back and do some inner work before she can move forward. As much as I wanted Strike to sweep me Robin off her feet, in a way that wouldn’t be right either. Only Robin can, with gentle support, solve her PTSD with therapy and rest. Being with Strike over Murphy will mean she still has unaddressed trauma and will potentially self destruct within their relationship and it’ll be fucked before it gets off the ground. She needs a book on her own and book 10 is the two of them, healed, finding a way towards each other after years of confusion and hurt.

I think JKR has done a lot in this book to drive home the reality of life for women, the burdens we don’t ask for, the mental toll of abuse and trauma. Obviously Robin is in an extreme situation due to the job, but a woman in a man’s world is so vulnerable. Strike loses half his ear and gets his leg blown off - not ideal! But Robin is constantly under very intimate threats, even stealthing by her supposedly good guy boyfriend. She said she didn’t believe Murphy when he said he wasn’t drunk when she got pregnant/stealthing, and yet she feels sorry for him and stays with him out of pity that he doesn’t deserve. What a sad position women end up in, we see it on mumsnet every day, women tying themselves in knots over some patriarchal shit that they shouldn’t have to deal with.

Such a good post @EverybodyLTB- despite being bright and clever Robin still has to deal with crap ALL DAY every day.

i agree with all you say but I wish there would be a bit more of Robin and Strike working towards being together

I have finished so it's safe to be back on here

I found the mystery difficult to follow in this one - I was too distracted by the will they/won't they - and very disappointed the big reveal was saved for the very end and then not reciprocated. I have since read all the discussion I can find about it and I can see people saying they won't really get together until book 10 but I think I'll be disappointed if that is the case. I like spending time with them! I want to get some time with them together (please!) and if nothing else I miss when they were friends. I hate it when they are avoiding each other for massive chunks of the book and then holding back or talking past each other when they do interact.

I will probably read it again to understand the mystery better - I had to do that for IBH, it made a lot more sense once I realised that the people having the chats were the same people Strike and Robin were investigating not sure why I was so slow to pick up on that part. But this one was so complicated and I didn't really understand why, if the TV bloke ordered someone to be murdered and then they weren't, someone else was instead or what the Will Wright thing was about and I have already forgotten who it was as well.

I did think this book was a brilliant portrait of the different ways sex/gender play out in the world. A lot of the books touch on class differences and this one is much more explicitly about gender. I like that Robin is just sort of quietly a feminist too, like when she says she can't pretend to be a porn director, when it's been shown several times she is not a prude, she just finds that particular aspect hard to stomach.

I just finished this afternoon.. I NEED to discuss on here as DH is probably a month behind me!

I was quite impressed with my predictions - the Strike and Ellacott Files podcast (which is amazing, if you don’t know of it) asked for 3 predictions and mine were:

1. Ryan will ask Robin to move in with him;
2. The new subcontractor will be a woman - I had guessed Tracey, but the general point was that Robin would be needlessly jealous of her;
3. Honbold would claim that Strike was the father of Bijou’s baby and a DNA test would be needed - Honbold would be confirmed as the father before the end of the book.

I had considered a potential marriage proposal, but thought that would be too far-fetched, and NOT coming from Strike!!

I did feel like this was the soap opera book, with all the dramatic relationship plots, but I was all there for it! I had made the Bijou prediction somewhat in jest.. but I did feel in the last book that Strike got away with quite a lot whilst Robin was in the cult, and a lot of stuff had been concealed from her. It had to come back to bite him.

I had spent a lot of the time before THM was published being annoyed at Robin’s passivity, and this book hasn’t really dissipated that. Just exactly how many opportunities does she need to take ownership of her own happiness? How many perfectly good reasons to end it with Ryan does she need?

Poor Strike at the end.. he did spend most of the book using the ‘Ron Weasley Guide to Getting Your Love Onside’, but I think he had no option at that point to tell her how he felt.. but what a hash he made of it! And Robin - you are the biggest hypocrite of them all… every charge you have made against Strike applies to you too - why haven’t YOU said anything? And I would argue it’s far worse to drag yourself into a committed relationship, tell another bloke you love him, string him along, compared to Strike’s short term flings. Ooh I’m getting angry at her all over again!

At least he’s got Pat onside now!

Ironically, I think that if Strike had not said anything, Robin would have refused Ryan’s proposal.. but now, out of anger, she will say yes. She won’t go through with marrying him, and break up with him by the end of Book 9.

I also think that Strike will not dare propose ever again.. but instead, Robin will eventually propose to him. It won’t be until Book 10 though. I was really hoping they would get together earlier than that.

As for the actual crime storyline… er, I wasn’t really that fussed by it. There was so much personal stuff to focus on which I was grateful for, but I found the multiple threads quite confusing to follow, and couldn’t really care who the body in the vault was. I think I need to give it a second read and follow it a bit more. But I didn’t really get invested in that part of the plot, which I did in previous books.

I was absolutely convinced that the man who accosted Robin in Harrods with the toy gorilla, and threw the dagger at her in the street whilst wearing the gorilla mask, was going to turn out to be Murphy trying to scare her off the case and stop showing up the Met! Anyone else?!

I was almost disappointed it wasn’t him, as then she’d definitely have no excuse to not break up with him!

I definitely thought that the phone call received from 'Rupert' saying that he was OK was Murphy trying to get them to 'stand down'.

I am also now further convinced that JKR is a fan of the 'My Dad Wrote A Porno' podcast. Bijou (real name Belinda) is essentially Belinda Blumenthal in a courtroom rather than a pots and pans manufacturer, and the Horse & Jockey pub appeared in this book!

I don't think Murphy will turn out to be bad or do anything wrong at all, well other than he already has with lying about falling off the wagon. I think Robin really has to think about what she wants and make an active decision. It's not going to be made for her.

I listened to a tiny bit of the podcast this morning and now I am totally on a Taylor Swift kick 😆Folklore has so many good songs for Strike and Robin.

I agree @BertieBotts. Ryan is a good man but flawed.

But also Robin needs to accept that it is not enough, and it’s OK to want something different

I listened to a tiny bit of the podcast this morning and now I am totally on a Taylor Swift kick 😆Folklore has so many good songs for Strike and Robin.

I was thinking that Robin needs to listen to I Can Fix Him even before the TS reference.

I really want to know if JKR and TS have met and what they think of each other. I feel like they are each other's equivalents in their respective industries (Female. Billionaires. Get a lot of hate online). But JKR is very vocal about her views whereas TS keeps quiet and tries to be everything to everyone.

Me too, I love any form of procedural and love both characters, so my ideal is them working through crimes together. I think though that what JKR is trying to do is really illustrate Robin’s mental health decline by isolating her and also painting all the shit around her, including her family dynamics, more vividly. The trip to Masham was an eye opener re her family just turning blind eyes left and right. They just want everyone to keep their mouths shut and play nice, stuff the emotions away and don’t cause a fuss. I would have loved Strike to have ditched the funeral and joined her in Italy to go over the case and wrap it up. I think they’re made for each other. Poor Robin, I really felt so sad for her. Her mental health deterioration has been really well written, almost too well, it’s painful to read.

If Robin gets engaged to Murphy in the next book I will stop reading and ask for a refund on principle. God she is infuriating! Lying to Ryan is one thing but to turn strike down for Ryan would piss me off so much! She needs therapy and a lot of it. She needs to deal with the rape, the chlamydia that caused PID (from the rape), all the shit that Matthew put her through (bastard) the cult in general, being kept in a box specifically, the ectopic pregnancy, being told to freeze her eggs, the attack in this book and strike telling her he loves her.

PLEASE GOD LET THEM GET TOGETHER WHEN THEY ARE BOTH IN A POSITION TO GO THE DISTANCE!!!

Not read the thread as i was avoiding it till I had finished reading. Just finished. For fucking fuck's fucking sake! Just get on with it. How many more misunderstandings and lonely musings can we get through? I love love love the books but the Strike and Robin plot is getting like Our Tune....

I was thinking about this all night - Robin should just stop the engagement before it happens. Tell Ryan about counselling and say she won’t be making any big devions like the house until then

This is of course the best solution

I think they’ll get together in Book 9, but that there will be some huge dramatic conclusion to a case in Book 10, only one of them can survive, and it’s Robin. And while it clearly won’t be a happily-ever-after, I think she takes over the mantle of the agency and Strike’s legacy and goes forward into her future alone.

Anyway, back to THM re-read and trying to untangle who’s who amongst the aristos.

I kept thinking the references to Decima's restaurant not doing well was going to mean the investigation got cut off half way through. I know they were following her instructions but I still feel like they did her dirty by trying to solve the silver murder rather than just focusing on finding Rupert.

I still don't understand why they went so elaborate with killing Tyler Powell, like I get the misdirection but it seems so OTT for someone who wasn't that hard to get to. Also were they ever going back for the hidden silver or was that just part of the misdirection and they didn't care about it?

I can't wait for Robin to have some hard truths from the therapist and also Pat knowing about the declaration and trying to encourage them.

Love that we finally got Rokesby and that he wasn't a monster just a bit of a deadbeat (no pun intended). I feel like the only character we're missing is Strikes half brother Switch.

It was a very long book but as always I wanted more.

I love the series but, other than The Running Grave, always find the main crime plot a bit disappointing. I just found this one needlessly convoluted - it wasn't that I couldn't follow it, it just felt like JKR had ideas for descriptions of minor characters (which I like!) and then shoehorned them in, bloating it out. I also find the accent thing so irritating, if that makes me stupid, well, so be it, but I would much, much prefer just to read the sentence in standard English with a descriptive line about whatever accent the person has. It's not too bad when it's just a sentence but when it's a huge chunk of text it's a bit trying for me. i just want more about Strike/Robin/their staff/their family and acquaintances, rather than the crimes, which I know isn't really the point of a crime novel!