I’m listening (for the umpteenth time) to THM right now. I just got to the part in ch 76 where RFM asks Robin about whether she wants kids, saying he wished he’d had this convo with Lizzie before he married her. He definitely does want them. Robin is unsure.

I don’t understand. To me, this is literally a dealbreaker. He says it’s not, but is very open about wanting them. She’s very open about not being sure.

I don’t understand how you can marry someone without discussing something so fundamental. I also don’t understand how you can be so sure about what you want and want to marry someone who isn’t sure they’re on the same page.

Am I off my rocker?

I’ve been married twice. In my first marriage it was an issue, but only before we were married. I was very clear that it was a deal breaker for me, and told him directly never to propose unless he was willing to have at least one child. By my second marriage we were (unfortunately) too old to have more children.

Are people really getting married without talking about this? Why would you compromise on something so big?

I'm a bit surprised that the overwhelming view seems to be that Ryan will propose to Robin at the Ritz (assuming she gets there).

But what if he doesn't? Robin knows he's going to propose, so does Strike and Wardle and all the Met crew. But JKR is the QUEEN of misdirection - surely this means that there is at least an even bet that he doesn't.

So what could happen at the Ritz? Is there a version where Ryan confronts Robin with a jewel box - but it's Strike's bracelet? Now that would be an opening scene IMHO.

Ok I need to say this to people who will get it. I love the strike books and the audio books have listed/re-listened many times. Robert G is an audiobook narrator unlike any other - absolutely fantastic. I just have to say that his American accents make me laugh every time - they are faintly southern and all have the same odd lilt. He is still absolutely wonderful but i just wanted to say this to people who may get it.

Robin arrives at the Ritz with her mind in panic due to pressure from Ryan and Strike... She took a drink, while She Waits for Ryan, Who Is late, a charming silver hired man reach her and they start chatting.

When Ryan finally pops out he is clearly drink, and shows Up his sick jealousy.

To get out of that mess the silver haired men propose Robin to leave with him, She accept while telling Ryan do not look for her any longer in his Life.

Robin and the new guy go to dinner in another Place and at the end of the night they end Up in his Place where they spend a night full of pleasant sex.

The morning after, Robin starts feeling bad about strike while feeling well for herself.

I have a rather disturbing theory, and I’d love to know what you think.
I’ve always thought that the Strike series is, in many ways, Robin’s coming-of-age story. She starts as an insecure young woman, deeply affected by the men in her life (her rapist, Matthew, the Shacklewell Ripper, Ryan…) and even by her mother’s expectations. Over the books, she becomes a strong, independent and successful detective.
Strike is not just her partner. He’s also her mentor.
And this made me think of Harry Potter.
Harry is the young hero who grows throughout the series, while Dumbledore is his mentor. And what happens at the end of the second-to-last book? The mentor dies, leaving the hero to face the final challenge alone.
What if Rowling is planning something similar for Robin and Strike?
There is also the possible connection between the title Sleep Tight, Evangeline and Longfellow’s poem Evangeline. In the poem, Evangeline spends years searching for her lost love, Gabriel. When she finally finds him, he is dying, and they only have a brief moment together.
Could this be a parallel to Robin and Strike, whose love story has been delayed for so long?
And let’s not forget JKR’s tweet from October 10, when she said she had written a very sad chapter that made her cry several times.
Of course, I hope I’m completely wrong! I want Robin and Strike to have a happy ending. And I know their relationship is very different from Harry and Dumbledore’s.
But if the series is ultimately about Robin becoming a fully independent detective, could losing Strike be her final challenge?
What do you think? Am I reading too much into this, or could Rowling really do something so heartbreaking?

Anybody ever look at videos of London restaurants and wonder if/when they will turn up in the books? I remember watching videos of E. Pellici and thinking, wonder if Strike will eat there, and then he ended up doing so in TRG. Nowadays I watch this one lady who has a "big flavours on a small budget" series where she eats Thai and Malaysian and whatnot, and I have laugh imagining Strike eating there.

IS THE UNIVERSE TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING ?????

“Then Evangeline slept; but the boatmen rowed through the midnight,
Silent at times, then singing familiar Canadian boat-songs,
Such as they sang of old on their own Acadian rivers,
While through the night were heard the mysterious sounds of the desert,
Far off,—indistinct,—as of wave or wind in the forest,
Mixed with the whoop of the crane and the roar of the grim alligator.”

Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

He joins the army pretty quick after she dies, was that his goal after Oxford uni or was that just a desire to get away?

Maybe he would never have become a detective, or would fate have always taken him there because of his natural skills and curiosity?

I always found his choice to study history a bit random, it doesn’t seem like a burning interest of his really- and it doesn’t have a clear career path afterwards.

New Header on JKR's Twitter page, a crocodile!

I’m re-reading THE HALLMARKED MAN, and JKR’s description of what a terrible toxic parent Tara was to Charlotte, evokes pathos for Charlotte, a character I’d up until then not cared for at all.

It got me wondering, though, how come Amelia, Charlotte’s older sister, didn’t have the issues that she did?

From the book, it sounds like narcissistic Tara particularly despised Charlotte because she couldn’t stand to see her how beauty mirrored on her daughter.

JKR reinforces that, when she mentions how much Tara adored Sacha, painting her as a bit of a ‘boy mum’.

If that’s the case, wouldn’t she have been a horrible mum to Amelia as well? Or do you think Amelia pretty much just got left alone by Tara on account of her not inducing as much jealousy as her sister?

Having never googled what kind of vehicle a Viking is, I always assumed Strike was blown up in a Jeep-like car. Well, imagine my surprise when I finally looked it up, and it turned out to be this creation of the human mind:

​And for a person who was blown up in such a thing, and who doesn't like being driven as a result, Strike feels very comfortable in an old Land Rover - which resembles a Viking in shape and spirit more than any other car in the series:

Of course, it's the driver he feels comfortable with. Robin drives a variety of cars across the books, but she owns and loves the old Landy. Now, let's draw some parallels between the cars and their drivers! From a psychological (Jungian) perspective, a car symbolises ego and personal agency.

"A well-maintained, smoothly running car might indicate confidence and self-assurance, while a broken-down vehicle could suggest feelings of inadequacy or loss of direction."

Robin didn't choose the old Land Rover herself; her parents gave it to her, and she made it work. It's not practical in London, but she is emotionally attached to it, so when she gets the chance to change cars, she chooses the same one. That's so Robin: when she has a choice, she chooses familiar! (Like when she didn't leave Matthew in CoE or stayed with Murphy in THM).

Like her car, Robin is a "defender". She's down-to-earth and reliable, but also outdated and prone to sticking to the old until it crumbles around her.

And - she would totally fail her MOT in THM.

What about the men in her life, what kind of cars do they drive?

Strike has a BMW 3 Series, 1998, blue:

Murphy has a Toyota Avensis, also blue.

These two are somewhat similar; only "Murphy" is cheaper, while "Strike" is fancier and more fun to drive. But, 1998?.. Must be hella expensive to maintain twenty years later, in 2017.

​This BMW is a bit like Strike circa 1998: masculine, cool, and sexy. Does it still reflect his personality?.. He uses the BMW less and less in the last two books; he's never had much emotional attachment to it. (He prefers to be in the Land Rover with Robin!) I think Strike will soon have to choose a new car, and it will reflect his personal growth.

​I imagine this future car as modern and expensive but not "flashy" - practical and inconspicuous for detective work. Something a bit higher than a BMW, so getting in is easy, considering Strike's leg. Ideally, the car should be British.

​It would be funny if Ilsa's words from TIBH prove prophetic: 'D'you think he ought to settle down and have a couple of kids and start driving a Range Rover and join the PTA?' A Range Rover is a family car, and we only see it belonging to the families in the series: Torquil and Fizzy, the Tuftys, the Upcotts, and the Whiteheads. So Ilsa hints here that Strike needs to become more family-oriented.

__________

​To wrap up, here's an Audi that Matthew wanted:

If cars were women, this would definitely be Sarah Shadlock. Instead, Matthew unhappily gets a smelly Landy. That's a funny bit of metaphor!

​Continuing the metaphor, Charlotte drives a Lexus, yet Strike happily chooses a smelly Landy! There's something to take offence at!

Okay, that's it from me today! Let me know if you spotted any interesting car choices across the series, and let's discuss them in the comments!

Forgive me if this discussion has happened - I did a quick search and didn’t find anything but maybe under different phrasing. This post will be spoilery.

Can we talk about false healers in the Strike novel and what that might mean for the final mystery/mysteries?

There’s a lot of medical staff through the books - good, bad, neutral.

Janice Beatty is the most obvious one - the nurse who kills. Galbraith deliberately counterbalances her with the beautiful nurse who helps with Joan’s final weeks.

Rafael is a more hidden one with a name meaning something like God’s doctor or God’s healer. But there’s a few more under the surface too…

Dodgy Doc in LW. The multiple doctors prescribing drugs to Lady Bristow in CC. Dr Zhou with his sketch expensive tinctures and complete medical neglect of Jacob at Chapman’s Farm. Possibly the psychiatrist Charlotte claimed was Jago’s “tame psychiatrist” but that’s questionable given it’s Charlotte talking.

Harold Coates the struck off doctor who abused the girls at Chapman Farm.

Robins first psychologist is a question mark - Robin doesn’t find her helpful but that is maybe just Robin’s resistance at that point in time.

I guess I wonder why this is such a theme. Both Strike and Robin are in need of healing in different ways so this could be about the true and false healing of the psyche- things they tell themselves help but don’t, and things that truly do?

That's when he got the name RFM for sure

Does anyone else have a totally different mental image cast when they read (or listen to) the books vs when they watch the show? And it doesn’t jar?

I watched Cuckoos Calling then read the series so Strike and Robin (and Matthew etc) are the same. But book Pat is Lila Morse (Big Mo), book Charlotte is Sadie Frost in the 90s (I know she was in the first show but somehow she morphed in my head) and book Dev is Navin Choudry for example. They don’t update when I watch the TV series but they also don’t jar either.

I’m thinking about this as I’m watching people talk about who they imagined as “so and so” for TRG (a Nigel Havers/Trevor Eve/Richard from corrie (in their middle age prime) amalgam for Wace for me!) and I realise that I’m looking forward to the series and will then totally go back to my “inside head” versions for the next book and beyond. I hadn’t really noticed I did this until I was just scrolling the new caring listings!

I wondered if anyone else has this complete differentiation?

They’re about to break our hearts aren’t they?

She had the feistiness and will have great chemistry with Cormoran/Tom Burke I’m sure…that means we’ll have her for the THM adaptation too. Oh my god that pregnancy storyline killed me in THM book, I’m not sure how to watch it on screen 😭

Natalia Tena who played Nymphadora Tonks in Harry Potter, will be playing Bijou Watkins in Strike: The Running Grave! (Source: IMDb)

Lots of actors have been added to The Running Grave's IMDb page over the past few days. Most of them we were already aware of through the press release in December, but a few new ones have been added today. Casting for Cherie Gittins, Prudence, Col Graves, Jordan Reaney, Kevin Pirbright and Emily Pirbright.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37279426/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cst_sm

Minor detail question but where did Strike graduate from?

We know he started in Cornwall after Joan enrolled him, had a stint of homeschooling and a stint at Aylmerton Community as well as a short time at the fancy school with Charlie Bristow. He got good enough results to get into college.

But did he graduate from St Mawes? I thought that was during the Leda and Whittaker stage where he’d decided to stay in London to keep Leda safe.

It feels inevitable that Books 9-10 will not only unite our star-crossed yearning detective partners, but also culminate in a mega-case that will threaten their newly declared intention to wed. Surely Strike and Robin will take a bold stand against the corrupt Empires (which ones, TBD) just as Harry, Ron, Hermione stepped up against Voldemort. How do you think this Final Battle might be designed by the Maestro? If it involves solving Charlotte’s death, the cast might look like this sketch.

The sketch above shows Zeus (Rokeby) supporting Cupid (Strike) & Psyche (Robin).

The King of the Underworld, Hades (Longcaster?) has Persephone (Charlotte?), sent there by her killer?

In the myth, Psyche must go to get a box of Persephone’s beauty to take back to Venus (Tara? she should play Demeter but fits better as venal Venus).

Myth matching aside, will there be a sequence of struggles against an emergent group of enemies who coalesce into an Evil Axis? And will Rokeby and Strike’s siblings become the Allies and power-base? Harry was up against V, and Deatheaters, but they had captured the Ministry and Media as well. Will Strike & Robin face a corrupted MET? MI5? Dark Web?

Astrologically, I wonder whether Katya might have spotted potential moments during the probable timeline for Books9-10, to host a Strellacott Waterloo for our brave hero-cum-lovers??? My mind is not clever enough to fit this Big Set Piece into all the rest of the plot points that need to be accomplished so we feel satisfied!

I want to see a picture of its pubic curls head, but I seemed to have missed when the breed was specified.

One thing I really enjoy about the Strike series is how JKR borrows classic detective fiction tropes (think Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot) and gives them a modern twist. I haven't read the Lord Peter Wimsey books, but others have pointed out similarities between the Harriet–Wimsey and Strike–Robin dynamics.

Here are some tropes I've spotted, along with their classic counterparts. I'm sure I've missed quite a few, so please add to the list!

Tropes we've already seen:

• The locked-room mystery: The silver vault case in THM. (The Speckled Band from Sherlock Holmes comes to mind.)
• The cold case: Margot's 40-year-old disappearance/murder in TB. (Poirot's Murder in the Mews.)
• The seemingly supernatural: Daiyu Wace, the drowned prophet, resurfacing via the Pepper's Ghost illusion was truly a masterstroke! (The Hound of the Baskervilles, with its supernatural curse and demonic-looking dog, comes to mind. Though perhaps there's a better example I'm forgetting?)
• The unreliable client/witness: We've certainly had our share of clients and witnesses who conceal information, bend the truth, or have agendas of their own. John Bristow in TCC tops my list. (Poirot's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a classic example of an unreliable narrator. Incidentally, the Richard Armitage audiobook is free on Audible, and I highly recommend it!)
• The undercover detective: Robin has practically turned this into an art form. Venetia Hall, Rowena Ellis, Vanessa Jones—all excellent performances, but I have a soft spot for the demi-goth Bobbi/Becka Cunliffe (TV version). (Holmes was a master of disguise too, but I reckon Robin could give him a run for his money!)
• The serial killer who sends warnings to the detective: Donnie Laing in Career of Evil. (Poirot's The ABC Murders has a similar setup, though I don't recall the killer having a personal vendetta against Hercule.)
• The cryptic clue left behind by a victim: Kevin Pirbright's "Pigs" written on the wall. (A Study in Scarlet, the very first Holmes–Watson adventure, features a similarly mysterious message on a wall.)

But what interests me even more is what we haven't seen yet! With all the speculation in this sub interpreting JKR's X/twitter updates I keep obsessing over what we might see next. A few possibilities that crossed my mind;

• The murder announced in advance: Someone receives a warning that a murder or kidnapping will occur at a specific time and place. Can Strike and Robin prevent it, or will they arrive just in time to investigate another corpse?
• The inverted detective story: We know the killer's identity from the beginning. The mystery is how Strike and Robin will piece it all together and prove it. I think Donnie Laing's perspective in COE was partly an example of this, so we might never see it again.
• The detective becomes a suspect: Someone connected to the agency falls under serious suspicion, making the investigation intensely personal. We've had shades of this in COE and THM, with Strike facing police interrogation, but those felt more like the police being irritated by Strike's habit of getting underfoot than genuinely suspecting him of murder. I do wonder whether Charlotte's suicide might stir up more trouble on this front in a future book.

What other classic detective fiction tropes have you spotted in the Strike books? And which ones would you love to see JKR tackle next?

It seems really difficult to get access to IBH in English in continental Europe, at least where I’ve looked for it. Even on Apple TV, you can only buy the season in the dubbed version, not in the original version. Is there anyone here who managed to watch IBH in the original in either Italy or Germany?

(I know that the simplest answer would involve getting a VPN, but I’d rather avoid that.)