Hallmarked Man: Second Thoughts, Rowling’s Key Definitions and “Religious Faith” Doubts, Blitz Chess and Q&As

October 20, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Hogwarts Professor has been posting up a storm at its Substack home since the publication of The Hallmarked Man — see ‘Hallmarked Man: First Thoughts‘ for our September posts — though we’ve been relatively quiet here on the weblog.

Here is a quick guide to four more conversations we’ve been having ‘over there’ with links to those discussions at your fingertips! Every post comes with a video capture of John and Nick playing point-counterpoint with extensive footnotes and urls for Rowling Readers wanting to follow up on the ideas discussed. Be sure to read the comment threads beneath each for the insights of Serious Strikers around the world.

Enjoy!

The Hallmarked Man: A ‘Blitz Chess’ Lake and Shed Reading (with a few Golden Threads)

Nick Jeffery and John Granger, Team Lake and Team Shed respectively, do a back and forth review of Strike 8 in which each has to provide an example of a Shed tool or Lake Spring in Rowling’s latest (3 October)

Hallmarked Man and Rowling’s Tweets after the Shooting of Charlie Kirk

The Four Key Word Definitions Rowling posted after a Flood of Death Threats, the Fixed Beliefs She Says She has Given Up, Her Doubts about “Religious Faith” in God, and the Evisceration of Emma Watson (7 October)

Hallmarked Man Q&A with Nick Jeffery and John Granger (1)

Freemasonry and the Universal Humanitarian Church, Michael Ellacott a closeted Freemason, Strike 8 as a Welsh Novel, Hiram Abiff’s Murder as the Book’s Template, the Meaning of ‘Calvin Osgood,’ Carmen Ellacott, Baby Dirk, and Literary Allusion gone Wild, More! (15 October)

Hallmarked Man Q&A with Nick Jeffery and John Granger (2)

Oranda Goldfish, Frozen Peas, and Mise en Abyme; Flints in the Silver Vault Murder Mystery; Why Freemasons love Silver; Rowling’s Mysterious ‘Back-Door Man’ (Did She Hire Harry Bingham as a “Ghost-Writer”?; Gateshead, Pit Ponies, Council Flats; Robin’s “Cuddly Toy” Dream; the Death of Rowntree and the Meaning of ‘Betty;’ “I think, no, I know,” More!
Filed Under: Cormoran Strike

Speak Your Mind

*