Louise Rolls Two Strikes on Career of Evil

I was looking through some of my old Strike writings and found two marginal predictions that materialized, at least partially, in Career of Evil, admittedly among many more gutter balls.

Spoilers, ho!

First: Strike claims to have eight half-siblings. The Wikipedia article on his rock-star daddy lists 6 through his father; we also know his sister Lucy. Either Rowling miscalculated or Supergroupie Leda still has one more offspring out of there we haven’t heard about yet.

We learned in COE that Cormoran does have a much younger sibling: Leda’s child with Whittaker, who was raised by the paternal grandparents.

Second:

Far more of the plot of PoA was spent on establishing Harry’s vulnerability to Dementors, and in his eventual mastery of the Patronus Charm to vanquish them. It is fairly common knowledge that the Dementors were inspired by Ms. Rowling’s own experience with clinical depression, and anyone who heard my Mugglenet Academia guest appearance knows, the Patronus Charm is derived from cognitive behavioral therapy, the treatment Ms. Rowling successfully received. I am thinking the mystery might involve either someone being treated for mental illness or a therapist, in which case, Robin’s background in psychology may come in handy, Either that, or there could be a subplot involving either Cormoran or, more likely, Robin struggling with clinical depression. Breaking up with a fiancé, even one as pathetic as Matthew, can certainly do that to a person.

Granted, it was a revelation from the past rather than a subplot in the present,  but we also learn that Robin had an emotional breakdown of some sort after the rape and went through a time of refusing to leave her room–probably trauma-induced depression or agoraphobia– and it sounds like she used a CBT-like treatment to help get her out of it. The skills she learned to cope with that (particularly the self-defense) saved her this time around.

There was also a nice PoA parallel at the end with Robin having to choose to save the innocent Angel, even though it led to the Brockbank* getting away, much as Harry had to choose to let Wormtail escape to save Sirius.

I missed in by prediction that Strike’s godson, little Timothy Cormoran, would be involved in the plot, though it was interesting to hear that Strike has a second godson out there.  Has no one figured out that this guy doesn’t like kids yet?

Finally, I do need to note that the building of the Olympic stadium was mentioned in this volume, so I will stand on my prediction that the 2012 London Olympics will in some way form the backdrop for Cormoran Strike IV.

Overall a great read.  I found it a much harder-to-put-down plot than the first two, so I am optimistic that the series will go places.

*was I the only one who kept mis-reading this as Buckbeak?