Because of the many parallels between Philosopher’s Stone and Order of the Phoenix, Headmaster John has speculated we could see a lot fo echoes of Cuckoo’s Calling in Troubled Blood.  Did you find any?  If so, add them to the comments.  Somehow, I doubt we’ll break the Lethal White record, but who knows?

Spoilers after the jump.

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It is  a truth universally acknowledged, at least on Hogwarts Professor,   that the Cormoran  Strike series is running parallel to Harry Potter:  the many links (see here and here) between Lethal White and Goblet of Fire should be enough to convince any readers more astute than Crabbe and Goyle.  Because of that, we should expect to find parallels between the fifth books of both series.  So, did you see any Dolores Umbridge’s?  Weasley Kings?  Nigredo?  Tell us in the comments!  A full list will be compiled later.  [Read more…]

Starting out on publication day with a test of the ring-structure hypothesis!  If the Cormoran Strike series follows the same pattern as Harry Potter, and the many parallels of Lethal White with Cuckoo’s Calling (see here, here, and here) suggests is does, there should be many points of linkage between Books Three and Five.  All serious Strikers who, like me, are devouring the book as soon as it gets into our hands should make note of them in the comments.  Headmaster John will compile a master list later!

Spoilers after the jump! [Read more…]

What We Think May Happen and Why: Mild and Wild SWAGs

Rowling admitted that she has embedded clues to the upcoming series entries in the books already published and that she is writing books like this because that’s what writers she likes do (no, I cannot think of any who do anything on the order of puzzle writing in a book series akin to what Rowling does). Read that 16 February 2018 BBC.co.uk  Interview with J.K. Rowling here. The relevant passage is at the tail end:

You say that you’re often obsessed with your characters’ pasts. You must have gathered quite a lot of information about Strike by the time you got to Career Of Evil. Did you think about how much you should put in there?

Through the whole of the first three books I have seeded future plots. I already know where he’s going to go and I’ve already mentioned things I need to mention. I’ve mentioned people I need to have mentioned, because you will meet them in further books.

It’s a question of really knowing who they are and using that. I enjoy reading books of any kind, not just detective fiction. Where I feel the author really knows, I feel like I’m in safe hands. They know everything – I don’t need to worry, they’ve got it all worked out. I like that feeling when I read a book. That’s the kind of book I want to write.

Speculation on Troubled Blood, consequently, turns on a close reading of the previous Strike novels, 1-4, an understanding of the parallelism in Rowling works internally in the series and externally with Potter, and a sense of what constitutes a clue in the Rowling writing domain. I started the prediction making with respect to Phoenix parallels in an October 2018 post about the probable end of the Strike agency in Troubled Blood. (Be sure to read the comment thread on that post!)

We’ve come a long way since then. I’ve already posted my prediction sure-things, events and literary twists that have to happen because they have happened in every other Strike novel. Here are seven SWAGs for contrast, most ‘scientific’ or at least closely reasoned and a few at the end that explore the ‘wild’ side. Enjoy! [Read more…]

White horses were such a common theme in Lethal White that even the protagonists started saying it was “getting silly.”  You know what’s getting silly already in Troubled Blood, even though we are just a few chapters into the preview?  The way virtually every character has to comment about how Strike and Robin need to become a couple. So far, I’ve counted… (mild spoilers….  if you haven’t seen the TB preview chapters and don’t want to know, avoid the jump…) [Read more…]