Today’s chapter pairings include the end of Troubled Blood Part 1 and the beginning of Part 2. Each is something of an information dump, with chapter 7 catching us up on the slate of cases the Strike Agency is working as well as new hires like Pat and Saul and chapter 8 featuring a meeting with Layborn at the Feathers to talk about getting the Bamborough cold-case file and a reading from The Demon of Paradise Park. Amongst all the set-up and background data, however, Rowling drops important markers about what the story to come is about, which will be the focus of today’s tweet-question-and-post-answer. Enjoy!

Discussion Question/Challenge for Repeat Readers of Troubled Blood, Chapter Seven: What is the biggest clue given in the trip back to London about the mystery of 'Who Killed Margot Bamborough?'?

— Hogwarts Professor (@HogwartsProf) July 26, 2022

We’ll start with the necessary structural note here before attempting an answer to today’s tweeted challenge. [Read more…]

Onward and upward in my brief exegesis of each chapter of Troubled Blood! Today, chapters five and six, Robin meets with Strike briefly at The Moor in Falmouth and they have their first meeting together with Anna Phipps and Kim Sullivan (with Cagney and Lacey) to talk about the Margot Bamborough case.

Discussion Question/Challenge for Repeat Readers of Troubled Blood, Chapter Five: Why does this three and half page chapter that contributes little if anything to the novel exist? What purpose does it serve?

— Hogwarts Professor (@HogwartsProf) July 25, 2022

Of the more than seventy chapters in Troubled Blood, chapter five is the shortest, one that barely advances the plot, and one I have to think editors eager to demonstrate their mettle would urge cutting out entirely. It serves several functions, however, that are notable. [Read more…]

RGalbraith tweeted two questions yesterday about the first fourteen chapters of Troubled Blood to encourage new readers to discuss the story as they are reading it. We have been discussing Troubled Blood in some depth since its publication for attentive re-readers so I started tweeting a question for each of the novel’s first two Parts, the fourteen chapters, and posting my answers here for those wanting more challenging conversation.

Yesterday it was the first two chapters; today I’ll be taking a deep dive into chapter 3, Robin on the job in Torquay, and chapter 4, Lucy and Cormoran fight it out early in the morning in St. Mawes. First the @HogwartsProf tweet, then my answer to the question, and finally, I hope, your push-back and counter-point responses in the comment boxes beneath the post. See you after the jump!

Discussion Question/Challenge for Repeat Readers of Troubled Blood, Chapter Three: Enter Robin! Why does Rowling place the triple bigamist (trigamist?) in Torquay and why is his name Edward John Campion?

— Hogwarts Professor (@HogwartsProf) July 24, 2022

[Read more…]

The promised questions offered to spur new readers into conversations at @RGalbraith’s twitter feed turned out to be as bland and spoiler free as I thought they might be. As I pledged yesterday, I tweet-posted links to my reflections that were written on publication of Troubled Blood about its first fourteen chapters, Parts 1 and 2 of 7, in that @RGalbraith tweet thread and tweeted @HogwartsProf two challenges, one for each of the first two chapters. I’ll try to do the same all this coming week to finish fourteen before the next @Rgalbraith questions appear next Saturday. My answers to the first two tweeted question-challenges, offered for your reflection, comment, and correction, are posted below. Enjoy!

Discussion Question/Challenge for Repeat Readers of Troubled Blood, Chapter One: Name the Seven 'Birthday in Pub' echoes in Strike5 of Strike's Victory drink with Polworth that opens this novel.

— Hogwarts Professor (@HogwartsProf) July 23, 2022

Here are my top seven. Feel free to contradict (“That’s not an echo!”) or offer your own. [Read more…]