Hogwarts Professor

Fans are now able to pre-order The Hallmarked Man, J. K. Rowling’s eighth instalment of the Strike-Ellacott saga on Amazon. The online store is showing a release date of 9th September 2025 in both the US and UK pages. My UK order is showing a delivery date of 17th September, and John’s US order is showing delivery on 9th September. So, case closed, we have a release date, right?

Some notes of caution: No official J. K. Rowling, Robert Galbraith or Little Brown (or Sphere, or Mulholland) channel has confirmed this date. No pre-order date is a guarantee that a book will be delivered on that date, or in that year (or in that decade).

My personal record for a late pre-order is N. A. M. Rodger’s The Price of Victory, volume three of his A Naval History of Britain. First available for pre-order in 2013 (volume two was published in 2006), delivery was made in October 2024. In this case, due to Dr. Rodger’s illness, publication was delayed for more than a decade. Achieving almost mythical status among fans of his work, the delivered book was well worth the wait.

So 9th of September could be either:

• An accurate date, leaked early by Amazon.
• A best guess based on a publisher’s tentative schedule (2036 anyone?)
• A clever and well worked plot by Dr. Beatrice Groves to win a case of Doombar.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Episode 4 opens quite literally with a bang… Sarah, not knowing what was coming, was literally shocked. “You can’t go in there. Half the ceiling has come down” said Strike. A further crash. “There goes the rest of it” says the stalwart, but shaken Pat.

The Jago Ross subplot is progressed this time by Robin rather than Midge rushing to his daughter rescue and judo throwing the ghastly Ross to get away.

Adaptations necessarily leave out much of our best loved dialogue. When my favourite line from the book was used, I had to fight the urge to rewind and play it again. Robin and Cormoran are having their final interview with Vernon Dursley… sorry.. Grant Ledwell. “Might need a bit of good cop / bad cop.” said Strike. “How bad do you want me to be?” Robin replied.

From a book reader’s point of view, this season delivered in spades with the pacing and character introductions improving as the series progressed. This must have been the most challenging of the series so far, and could easily have descended into a confusing mess. The story climax was tense and exciting, but the clue progression did not make Sarah feel cheated that the villain was only briefly seen in episode 1. We both agree that the acting, particularly from Tom and Holliday was first rate, with the closing scenes moving both of us very much.

The HBO series is due to air January 23rd, in the mean time merry Christmas one and all!

Episode 3 opens with Barclay alive, hooray! and ambushing the ambusher. The vile Phillip Ormond is in custody geting his just deserts meanwhile Anomie is inviting all to Comic-Con. When asked to look for costumes Pat, who plays brilliantly asks – “Are we doing Kids parties now?”

Vernon Dursley… sorry… Grant Ledwell is interviewed in Denmark Street and makes the key mistake, moving from singular to plural when talking of the letters buried with Edie. Sarah, who has not read the books, picked up on this immediately, proving her far better at solving detective fiction than I will ever be!

Tom Burke is satisfyingly comic in his Darth Vader outfit, and fandom leader Yasmin Weatherhead is very recognisable both from the book and heady days of Potter-mania. Episode three ends with the death of Vikas. A lot has happened in less than an hour, but with clever pacing, this never seems confusing and there is a definite feeling that progress is being made. Join me tomorrow for the conclusion!