Search Results for: Ink Black Heart

  • Rowling Ink Black Heart Q&A Bonanza: Twenty Four New Strike6 Comments

    ByJohn
    7 Comments

    Patricio Tarantino has posted the twenty seven questions and answers about Rowling-Galbraith’s Ink Black Heart as one continuous film on The Rowling Library YouTube channel (see above). The Robert-Galbraith.com page for this conversation includes a full transcript, albeit one that is broken up in drop down sections beneath each question.

    How are we to mine this rich vein of commentary from The Presence? Beatrice Groves on the moderator channel suggested I post an open thread of sorts for Serious Strikers to share their thoughts about favorite parts of Rowling-Galbraith’s discussion. I will share two or three of my reflections after the jump and then give the open microphone to our readers here in the hope that they, to include our adjunct faculty and full professors, will jump in with their observations, corrections, disappointments, and delights. Read More “Rowling Ink Black Heart Q&A Bonanza: Twenty Four New Strike6 Comments”

  • Ink Black Heart: The Coda Latch

    ByJohn
    4 Comments

    I am beginning to write up the notes I jotted down in Utah earlier this month about the structure of Ink Black Heart. My premise for this work, as you’d expect, is that the sixth Strike novel is a ring composition; the first task in this sort of research, because it is the easiest of the four qualities of a ring to identify, is to see if the opening and closing chapters act as a ‘latch’ for the work as a whole. Heart’s open and close are neatly separated from the rest of the novel’s parts by being names other than ‘Parts;’ the first four chapters are its ‘Prologue’ and its last chapter or epilogue, which follows Part 5, is called the ‘Coda.’

    Before I begin the structural exegesis, though, something that will eventually include — in addition to the latch — explorations of the story turn in Part 3, parallels between Parts 1 and 2 with 4 and five, and each Part being a ring unto itself, I want to note something peculiar about Rowling’s structural choices in Strike6. She chooses to call the last piece, as noted, a ‘Coda,’ rather than, say, an ‘Epilogue,’ a first for this series or any of her novels and screenplays. I think there are at least three decent explanations for this change, which I’ll share after the jump. Read More “Ink Black Heart: The Coda Latch”

  • Ink Black Heart: The Strike Characters with Twitter Accounts

    ByJohn
    0 Comments

    Our last update to the Cormoran Strike characters that became active this summer, a pre-publication blitz of posts in 2022 time from ‘people’ as diverse as Pat Chauncey and Ciara Porter (not to mention Wolfgang the pet and the Office Sofa), was August 22nd. See Twitter Character Update for that, Nick Jeffery’s introduction to the phenomenon, Strike on Twitter – Sixteen Characters in Search of a Story, and Rowling’s engagement with the fun being had online before Ink Black Heart  was officially on sale.

    https://twitter.com/TheRealCCRoss/status/1562066862275497986

    Has anyone been following these accounts after the fact? Do we have evidence that they were given copies of Ink Black Heart before the public at large? Do you think it was a Rowling, Inc., publicity stunt for Serious Strikers to enjoy or a fandom effort by Zealot Tweeters who love the Rowling-Galbraith murder-romance-mysteries?

    This post is a Placeholder for discussion to which we will add information as it becomes available. To find this conversation quickly in future, click on ‘Ink Black Heart Discussion’ in the Pillar Post column at the upper left of the home page and scroll down to the ‘Twitter Characters’ link. Cheers!

  • Ink Black Heart: Does Rowling Tip Her Hand About the Killer with a Hermes Reference and ‘Prince’ Parallels?

    ByEvan Willis
    3 Comments

    Evan Willis is a HogwartsProfessor faculty member with a special expertise in Rowling’s hermetic artistry. He was in communication with me throughout his first-reading of Ink Black Heart so I can testify that the journey he describes below is not something he made up after the fact. His long-awaited write-up of his thoughts on Strike6 exceeds even my very high expectations and it establishes I think his theory that Mercury markers are keys to Identifying Rowling murder mystery killers; enjoy! — John

    Hours after it came out, I started on Ink Black Heart. I wanted to read it slowly so that I had adequate opportunity to test, theorize, and predict, and so only got to the end of it early this week. I sent off a couple comments and e-mails as I read indicating where my line of reasoning had gone so that I might document my testing, while trying my best to avoid spoilers (this site, along with Twitter, became very dangerous to go anywhere near).

    My conclusions? That our parallel series idea still has deep predictive and explanatory power (Half-Blood Prince parallels are extraordinarily strong here), that the important Half-Blood Prince references are where it connected back to Philosopher’s Stone (pointing to a 1-6 connectivity in both series), and that Rowling has subtly indicated the identity of the killer in each of these novels very early on by inclusion of a passing reference to a mythological character with direct ties to the figure of Hermes in the near vicinity of their first appearance.

    Join me after the jump for discussion of how I arrived at all three of these conclusions — and how I just missed identifying the killer before Strike and Robin did.

    Read More “Ink Black Heart: Does Rowling Tip Her Hand About the Killer with a Hermes Reference and ‘Prince’ Parallels?”

  • The Ink Black Heart: Parallels to The Cuckoo’s Calling.

    ByLouise Freeman
    4 Comments

    As John has pointed out, there are expected Book 1- Book 5 parallels in the Harry Potter series. As such, we went looking for connections between The Cuckoo’s Calling and Troubled Blood. But, with 5-6 flip, we ought to expect some connections between CC and The Ink Black Heart as well as between IBH and CoE,  Do we find them?

    A few I can think of:

    1. The murder victim is a female former foster child who earned a large amount of money at a young age (Lula through her modeling career, Edie through the cartoon). Both were on the verge of signing a lucrative new contract when they died.
    2. Both murder victims had money-grubbing uncles who wanted little to do with their niece until the niece got rich.
    3. Both murder victims had druggie boyfriends with whom they had recently broken up (Evan Duffield, Josh Blay).
    4. The murderer had responsibilities for a seriously ill parent.
    5. A child-related conflict destroys Strike’s love for Charlotte (anger over the lies about her alleged pregnancy (or abortion or miscarriage?) in CC; unwillingness to protect the twins from Jago in IBH.)
    6. A victim’s missing cell phone is an important clue to the case.

    What others can our readers come up with?