It’s something of a Publication Week tradition here at HogwartsProfessor to provide the online space for Serious Strikers to share their discoveries as they find them, an alocal place for specific topics we explore here. The seven I am posting for Running Grave are:
- The Gaffes
- Deathly Hallows Parallels
- Cuckoo’s Calling Parallels
- Lethal White Parallels
- The Ghosts
- Literary Alchemy
- The Occult
‘Gaffes’ are first because everyone is shocked (and excited?) to find a mistake that Team Rowling missed in their editorial and continuity checks. ‘Deathly Hallows Echoes’ come next because of the fun to be had tracing Rowling’s playful Parallel Series efforts. The next two subjects are more involved because they require some understanding of Rowling’s ring writing (see the Ring Composition Pillar Post for an in depth look at the subject).
In brief, though Rowling has said repeatedly that her Strike novels are not a seven book series, they sure act like one, by which I mean, we find the same relation between books in her mysteries that we found in the Hogwarts Saga — namely, a story turn that echoes the beginning and parallels between books 2 and 6 and between 3 and 5.
This being the case, the last two elements of as seven book ring — the latch between the first and last books and the pointers in the fourth book, the turn, to the last book — should appear in Strike 7, series finale or not. Deathly Hallows had close to fifty fairly obvious echoes of Philosopher’s Stone and there were significant Goblet of Fire parallels as well (see Harry Potter as Ring Composition and Ring Cycle for all that).
So.
Please share in the comment boxes below the echoes you heard of Cuckoo’s Calling while reading Running Grave. Is there a faked suicide committed by a family member? Do we encounter characters from the first book in the seventh who are acting much as they were in Strike1 or in completely opposite mirror images of their earlier behavior? The floor is yours!
I’m intrigued by the fact the title victims, Lula Landry and Alexander Graves, both are known by different nicknames to their various friends and loved ones. Sheila and Abigail both use “Alex,” while the family uses “Allie.” Lula is referred to as “Cuckoo” by Guy, “Looly” by Ciara, and “Lules” by Duffield. Of course, Strike himself is the most interesting character of a thousand nicknames. I read these parallels as an indication of the characters’ search for their own identity. Lula and Alex died before they could fully answer that question for themselves, while Strike successfully integrates his new identity – as an effective professional separated from his leg and the army in CC, and as an emotionally and physically healthy individual who has some peace with the wounds of his childhood in TRG.
[Spoilers below]
One thing occurs to me is that, the title of both The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Running Grave reveals the key to the answer of the mystery (Lula’s phone call, and the running pigs), while the titles of other five had not done this.
Deception or trickery via CCTV features in Cuckoo’s Calling, Lethal White, and Running Grave.
CC: John Bristow disguises himself for the CCTV as he runs away from Lula’s building
LW: Raphael hides in plain sight disguised as a homeless man in full view of the CCTV to pull off the key transfer from Kinvara
RG: The agency takes advantage of a CCTV blind spot on the perimeter of the farm
Victim in CC has his guts eaten by a dog.
In TRG the victim gets fed to the pigs.
I think you’re confusing the victim of ‘The Silkworm,’ Owen Quine, with the victim of ‘Cuckoo’s Calling,’ Lula Landry.
Ooooh yes of course you’re right (my bad – I’m re-listening to Silkworm atm and got to excited to notice the surroundings) – Still pretty standout macabre way to rid oneself of the physical “leftovers”. Bon appetit!
Then obviously there’s the killer being the victims older and very jealous sibling – in both cases not by pure blood (not so pure spirited either it seems) as John is Lulas adoptive brother and Abigail is Daiyus step-sister (or at best maybe halfblood if Wace is the actual father which seems not as likely as Graves being the father)
The Titels also allude to the names of the victims.
Lula is obviously Cuckoo – and Daiyu is a GRAVEs
CC, LW and TRG all mark crucial evolution in Robin’s under-cover investigative skills. She makes her first splash in the dressing room of Vashti in Cuckoo’s Calling, wangling information out of sales clerks who had never gone to the cops. Lethal White sees her take on the personas of Venetia Hall (more fleshed out than before) and Bobbie Cunliffe, displaying her range and adaptability more plainly than ever before. And of course, the Rowena role she plays in The Running Grave is her biggest challenge yet. In all four instances I’ve mentioned here, it’s worth noting that Robin succeeds in her aims, but not without personal cost (even the dress she receives as a sort of reward for her fine work in CC becomes a point of contention and is ultimately damaged in LW after what I think may be Venetia’s swan song as an alter ego). And by the end of TRG, she is perhaps more vulnerable and damaged than we have ever seen her.
Well done, Michelle! Robin Undercover is a latch between Strikes 1 and 7 and one dominant in the Strike 4 turn in the seven book ring.
Check out the third of three posts I did on the relationship of the first seven Cormoran Strike books: https://hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/reading-running-grave-as-the-end-fe8. It has links to the first two posts on the latch and turn.
Cheers!