• Cormoran, Robin and the Deleted Phone Calls: Evidence of Strike’s Remarkable Insight.

    ByLouise Freeman
    8 Comments

    In the countdown to Troubled Blood, every Strike fan out there must be, on some level, wondering what is next for Cormoran and Robin. Are they ready to acknowledge their feelings for each other? Or will they keep a safe distance, at least until Robin’s divorce from the Flobberworm is finalized, which would, of course, give Charlotte plenty of time to try to sink her claws into “Bluey” again?

    One point has been bugging me since I first read Lethal White, so much that I paid special attention to it on my latest re-listen to the audio book. How does Strike find out the Flobberworm deleted his apology message to Robin, and blocked his calls?  Is this a plot hole, or is it more evidence that Cormoran recognizes who and what Matthew is long before anyone else, including Robin does?  For more of the story, continue after the jump. Read More “Cormoran, Robin and the Deleted Phone Calls: Evidence of Strike’s Remarkable Insight.”

  • Guest Post: Thoughts on Leda and parentage as we await Troubled Blood.

    ByLouise Freeman
    11 Comments

    Reader Kelly Loomis has made some excellent comments on the Cormoran Strike series, and the Hogwarts Faculty has decided that her latest should be highlighted in a guest post, rather than buried in the comments of the earlier Troubled Blood post.  We also thank her for alerting us to the micro-excerpt just released, apparently confirming that the astrological clock of Hampton Court will be a key feature of the series.  Maybe even the equivalent of Lethal White‘s White Horse of Uffington? Enjoy, and thank you, Kelly, for permission to share your insights.  Please use this thread as an updated site for more Troubled Blood discussion.

    As you know, I’ve been going through the books by both reading and listening the last few months. I even subjected myself to the tv series. I did ask a silly question recently that was easily answered had I read a few chapters further.
    I have several thoughts regarding parentage, Uncle Ted etc.:
    1) Ted must be fairly well off (or the aunt is/was).  If his aunt and uncle stay in that swanky hotel he put Robin up in, they must have some money. Having been in London, I can’t imagine what a nice place like that would cost. And Strike claims they stay there whenever they get up to London. Also, he was a red cap which was what inspired Cormoran to that future career. I know in Britain, it is common for “gentry” to enter military service so that would not mean he couldn’t have come from money. Or, he just figured out a good field to enter into after exiting.
    2) Regarding Strike’s parentage, there are a  a few things mentioned. 1) People always comment how Strike looks nothing like Rokeby. Also, Eric Bloom – lead singer of Blue Oyster Cult – was described as having hair exactly the same as Strike’s. And, he was supposedly the one that got away and Leda never “shagged“ him. 2) Strike described himself as the spitting image of his uncle. Does that include his hair?
    3) Leda got married to someone coming through town with the fair. And in Troubled Blood, there will be reference to tarot cards and a missing woman the year of Strike’s birth. I wonder if “Gypsies” (the preferred term, in some circles, is Romani) still travelled around at that time with fairs telling fortunes and if any of this book will tie in with the man Leda married for the sake of a new last name and new dress. And if Strike will learn about some of these circumstances during this investigation.
    This is a crazy thought – could Lucy have had anything to do with Leda’s death? She is the one who has tried to have a life most unlike her mother’s. We’ve had one woman killer in Liz Tassell. Could we have another? Strike talked about how women could smolder but when they blew, they really blew. Lucy – if she was sexually assaulted by Whittaker – could have taken revenge against her mother for dragging her into those kind of circumstances over and over. It just seems Rowling is going to knock the socks off us all.
    Another crazy thought is that Strike is Uncle Ted’s illegitimate son. Haha! That would really be nuts.

  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Top Ten Pointers to the Trilogy

    ByElizabeth
    7 Comments

    It’s been an exciting past week or so here for serious readers, from J.K. Rowling’s new slow-release of The Ickabog to the release of the new Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. We’ve already taken a few looks here at the new prequel, which will doubtless continue to yield further treasures upon repeated readings. If you have not yet checked out The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I hope you will, and that you will join our conversation on its many layers. One of the most interesting features is the way in which the novel uses foreshadowing for events that we, savvy readers of the original trilogy, already know well. Although set 64 years before Katniss Everdeen’s name comes out of the Reaping bowl in the well-manicured hand of Effie Trinket, this novel should only be read by those who have already completed the trilogy. Like the Star Wars prequels, with moments like Obi-Wan Kenobi chiding his friend Anakin Skywalker, “You’re going to be the death of me,” BSS  is an experience that only works if the readers know what is coming. This is a useful technique in literature and film. After all, we cannot gasp with horror when Oedipus declares that the murderer of Laius will be exiled and live in misery, unless we are familiar with the myth, so we know he himself is the man he seeks and that he will indeed be ruined and miserable.  We cannot mentally headslap people in Titanic when they declare the ship’s invincibility if we do not know that the ship is going down, along with many of its passengers and their hubris.

    So here are our first “top ten” moments and themes of The Ballad of Songbirds Snakes that point to and set up the trilogy we already know, some of us quite well. This is just the start to a much longer list, one that I am sure will grow with each reading. Read More “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Top Ten Pointers to the Trilogy”