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 also got confused over this.

I too am listening again on audible for the bits I missed.

Whoah!!!
This isn't the last book is it? It can't be!

It’s not @Woompund

On reflection and before I reread to follow the actual detective plot, I do think she has recycled some elements. The panic attacks from earlier books which she was hiding from Strike and the sense of awful inevitability about Murphy wanting them to move in. The tough therapist has a lot of work to do.

I didn't understand this in the slightest either.

I'll just leave this here...

She is teasing us...
(May need to wait for images)

Here’s hoping “well underway” means “coming out next month”. 🤣🤣

Hmmm, unfamiliar with the myth but I don’t like that picture and blurb - implies yet more Robin being stuck in passivity and buffeted / influenced by men!

Hopefully this is just a red herring.

Psyche and cupid were lovers but psyche was never allowed to see Cupid's face. She was tricked by her jealous sisters into shining a light on him so that he would be exposed. He then flees.

She then has some long drawn out quest to find him involving worry, sadness and a trip to the underworld.

Looks like book 9 is going to be a trial.

How come Strike saw the nef in the house that Charlotte grew up in and also in the basement of the silver shop with the other stolen silver? Was that a different ship?

With regards to JKR's Cupid and Psyche teaser - yeah, this really is one big, massive, maddening itch - I found this quite interesting:

A mythological key to Cormoran Strike

I think it's really impressive this was first posted in 2021 - and Voilà! it's 2025 and here is JKR presenting us with Cupid and Psyche. I just really hope JKR does not repeat all the misery we had to endure during the final installments of HP. I felt really let down by that massive killfest. I thought THM had some depressing parallels to how I felt about HP 6-8.

Something I thought would come back to bite Strike was that he pretended he had asked one of the witnesses (Jade Semple?) about Riata Lindvald when Robin asked even though he hadn't but he thought it didn't matter because he dismissed her hunch about Riata. I thought it was obvious that Riata would turn out to be involved and Robin would be fucking furious that he didn't mention her and pretended he did. Maybe that will come later in the next book?! JK rarely drops flags like that without a resolution.

Just finished, disappointed that Strobin didn't get it on but of course the next book wouldn't be near as good without the will they/wont they element.

I need to reread because I gulped it down and always need to go back and pick up on the finer details missed 1st read. My initial thoughts are that I loved it but there was a ton of formulaic plots which is a teeeeny bit annoying. Stuff like how the agency detectives are always getting injured in the line of duty and that there's a huge coming together of umpteen elements with multiple detectives at different locations simultaneously and all with genuine danger to life. And there's always one bad apple on the team - I mean how is it they manage to hire so many crooked or creepy staff, they're both supposed to be great at reading people 🤦🏼‍♀️

I also wish we'd had more of Ilsa and Nick, and Prudence. Barclay, Shah and Midge were also a bit thin on the ground for my liking. Loved the Rokeby bit. Thought Robin's behaviour was actually pretty believable given all the past and present trauma. Pat had some great moments as usual, she remains my favourite.

So yeah, overall so enjoyable - and is anyone else already booking their hols to Guernsey and Sark next summer?! I've found a gorgeous Airbnb in St Peter Port...

I enjoyed the last chapter, and the Rokeby bit. But mostly this book reminded me I don’t particularly like whodunnits, well written as it was.i just don’t care about imaginary dead people, never mind several of them.

Like a PP, I fully expert that missed phone call to be Of Importance. A drunk Murphy maybe?

I have a question - Ryan and Robin buying a house together. They both own their own flats already - no mention of them having to sell them first to fund the new, jointly owned place? Or will they put tenants in to cover their existing mortgages?

Just finished listening to the audiobook. I have never done this before and found I understood more of the plot than when I speed read the massive book.

I got very cross with Robin and her passivity but have really found some of the above comments on how she is stuck in her trauma most illuminating, thank you for that! Even when I was annoyed it didn't make me dislike her or the book. I loved it, especially the funny bits and Barclay booting the rapist in the head. I absolutely love Barclay anyway, also Pat giving Strike words of encouragement at the end and fat sad Matthew in the pub.

Am totally bereft now, what am I going to listen to? As a child I often had that sense of total excitement waiting to read the next book but JK Rowling is the only author that has given me this as an adult.

Oh and I don't know what it says about me as a person, but Robin giving her mother some home truths gave me a HUGE sense of satisfaction

Excellent point! Maybe the plan was to use equity from individual flats to fund the deposit and then get tenants. Mr Galbraith probably had a rationale that made sense at any rate.

Having read this, I've come to the firm conclusion that the Cupid/ Psyche myth most definitely may or may not have something to do with the next two books. I am certain of this.

Was frustrated about the lack of discussion between robin and ryan about money, commitment and so on. Especially when both have been divorced. Joint property / mortgage even without marriage is a huge commitment that’s hard to get out of!

Didn’t seem realistic at first but suppose taking poor decisions and communicating badly makes sense with both not being at their best: Ryan boozing and clinging to the idea of a future; Robin traumatised.

Yes. I’m listening again.

Robin not wanting to move in but agreeing because she felt guilty about not telling Ryan about the case.

FFS woman!

I predict we will see an abduction in Strike 9. I just hope - against hope I might add - that it's not Robin that's abducted because that girl has suffered enough already.

And now for something completely different: what struck me while reading was the passage when Robin phones Ilsa to ask her if Strike had ever abused Charlotte. First of all, I was shocked that Robin even felt she needed to ask something like that. But then again it showed how completely lost she is at this point.

But from another perspective it also shows that Cormoran is a victim of abuse as well, both physically and psychologically, something I never fully realised before. I mean all this time my heart was aching for Robin and all the other women who have become victims of rape and abuse in the course of the novels but then I never fully grasped that Strike fell victim to a kind of domestic abuse as well, as a child but also in his relationship with Charlotte as a grown man.

I have a horrible feeling that one of the core gang will definitely cark it in the last 2 books. If not Robin or Strike then either Pat, Barclay, Shah or Midge. JKR isn’t afraid of killing off much loved characters in tragic circumstances.

It did annoy me that when Martin was acting like a spoilt little controlling shit towards his girlfriend, Robin pretty much just rolled her eyes at him and that was it. I was hoping to see her tear him a new one. Despite claiming to be such an ardent feminist and having been on the receiving end of coercive and controlling behaviour, she still excused it in one of her loved ones. I suppose it’s true to life, how many blinkered MILs and SILs do you read about on here who can never think the worst of their precious DS/DB despite evidence to the contrary?

Hadn't even thought of that but you're right, there was nothing about them getting a joint mortgage or anything before bidding Robin definitely doesn't have enough money to get a house without a mortgage and theres been no mention of Ryan being wealthy. Even if they did get tenants to cover their existing mortgages, they'd definitely need a joint one for the house I assume.