One issue that I have been thinking about is, that despite the huge differences between Strike and Robin from book 1 – these have narrowed considerably and there seem to be many similarities between Strike’s and Robin’s issues and emotional development. It appeared at first that Robin is the mature, stable character whereas Strike is failing to organise a chaotic life, yet Strike has undergone growth in a way Robin hasn’t – so Robin is back in the same loop with a controlling partner trying to pressure her to sign up for the marriage/house/children in the same way as Matthew (although amusing that now that Matthew has achieved that – he is unhappy).
Their backgrounds mirror each other in that both Strike and Robin suffered traumatic events that shaped their lives for the past 10-15 years. For Robin it was the rape when she was 19 that meant she couldn’t continue her university course and for Strike it was losing his leg in Afghanistan that ended his army career.
The major trauma events impacted on both of their relationships. For both the traumatic events cost them their wider friendship groups leaving them vulnerable to abusive partners. Robin was forced to leave University and the friendships she formed there, and Strike lost his Army mates. Both ended up with their pre uni/army partners and became enmeshed/trauma bonded to the partners that remained with them. Robin felt that she couldn’t leave the controlling Matthew out of loyalty, and narc Charlotte loved the drama of returning to a “war hero” boyfriend as it gave her a lot of attention and instigated this pull/push psychological abuse… so both ended up in toxic/dysfunctional relationships.
There has been a lot written in this thread about Robin’s passivity in relationships. But I think that Strike is also passive for the first 7 books and seemed to drift into relationships as a response to personal issues, especially with Robin. He seemed helpless when ambushed repeatedly by Charlotte. Strike ended up in a series of short term relationships where the parties never communicated with each other (he seemed to see these relationships as more FWB whereas they were thinking marriage). But Strike seemed very passive in these relationships as it seemed that his partners pursued him and he stayed in the relationship until the gf got fed up with him. Robin is repeating the pattern of passive relationships out of loyalty – that she owed/owes Matthew/Murphy a relationship because they stuck with her when she was struggling (does Robin perceive herself as damaged?). She seems to go along passively with the “safe” partner rather than taking a risk with someone she has deeper feelings for (there are a few parallels with Strike’s sister Lucy here – choosing the safe option).
Obviously, Strike has had some major personal growth and breakthroughs in the past 3 books; the big showdown with Charlotte and her horrid husband in TIBH that led to him going NC before her death, being played by Bijou in TRG that caused a re-evaluation, and the thawing of relations with his father in THM. Robin is not there yet and has no insight into why she is allowing herself to be love bombed into a marriage that she is ambivalent about.
There seems to be also a developing theme about their dysfunctional family backgrounds. In the early books it seemed as though Robin came from a stable, loving middle class family whereas Strike had grown up in squats, had no contact with his father or a multitude of half siblings. But there is an underlying theme of both characters re-evaluating their families – not sure if this is going to play out as a major theme but it’s there. Both have mothers that seem manipulative to me. Obviously, Strike’s mother, Leda, was obviously manipulative as she maintained the narrative of Rokeby abandoning her/Strike to live in squalor, yet Leda was an addict who was unable to put her children first, involved them in adult issues, dragged them from squat to squat with abusive boyfriends, yet refused to allow Joan and Ted to give them a stable home. Even Rokeby doesn’t seem to have been the villain that Strike believed him to be. Robin’s mother is much more subtle but also seems manipulative. Obviously, the fallout between Linda and Robin has been building and the family seems dysfunctional – they ignore what goes on and then everyone calls Robin to dump their emotions on her. However, I was stunned in the Hallmarked Man when Linda claims to have disliked Mathew, yet it was her actions that subtly pressured Robin to not call off the wedding in Career of Evil when Robin had broken up with Mathew.