Big thanks to StrikeFans for posting this!
Three quick notes:
(1) This is the beginning of the Cupid and Psyche mythological retelling that informs much of the series, especially the last two books, Troubled Blood and Ink Black Heart.
(2) The teevee show makes two significant changes. First, Charlotte and Robin meet at street level, not on the stairs, as Strike’s ex makes her liminal exit from the building. I suppose you could argue the one rising and the other descending is symbolically rich and provides the moment of Ms Campbell screaming, “You’ll come crawling back; you always do!” That’s atextual but credible and even a goad to him not to go back. But the doorstep meeting, one entering, one exiting from the residence is richer.
(3) Strike in Cuckoo’s Calling cries out “Jesus Christ!” It’s an expletive rather than a prayer, certainly, but, as the traditionalists say, “To invoke the Name is to be in the presence of the Named.” Cupid or Eros as god, per Spenser, Lewis, and others, is a symbol of the Logos, the God Who is Love; see the ‘Cupid and Psyche’ post for much more on that. Strike is well removed from Anteros at the top of the stairs and much more like Venus’ deputy who fails to throw the woman-sacrifice from the mountain top in order to take her to his secret lair, but the journey has begun.
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