The cover is, of course, Freemasons Hall in London, previously seen in Rowling’s Twitter header. Wikipedia tells us that Temple 17:
Temple No 17 was largely funded by the Freemasons of Buckinghamshire, and has a very large carved swan (the symbol of Buckinghamshire) on one wall; it also enjoys a more than usually ornate decorative style, with extensive oak panelling, and is used in particular by the most ancient lodges in London, including the three remaining lodges (of four originals) which pre-date 1717 and the formation of the Grand Lodge itself.
We had to wait another four days for S&E Podcast to again come up trumps with a look inside Temple 17, and that Buckingham swan:
So far so good, but because of the unconventional release of the cover design, we were missing the synopsis, traditionally released at the same time. Well yesterday Robert Galbraith marketing finally caught up and released the tag line:
Time would tell whether he’d just done something foolish… or not.
And a little time later, the synopsis in full:
A dismembered corpse is discovered in the vault of a silver shop. The police initially believe it to be that of a convicted armed robber – but not everyone agrees with that theory. One of them is Decima Mullins, who calls on the help of private detective Cormoran Strike as she’s certain the body in the silver vault was that of her boyfriend – the father of her newborn baby – who suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.
The more Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott delve into the case, the more labyrinthine it gets. The silver shop is no ordinary one: it’s located beside Freemasons’ Hall and specialises in Masonic silverware. And in addition to the armed robber and Decima’s boyfriend, it becomes clear that there are other missing men who could fit the profile of the body in the vault.
As the case becomes ever more complicated and dangerous, Strike faces another quandary. Robin seems increasingly committed to her boyfriend, policeman Ryan Murphy, but the impulse to declare his own feelings for her is becoming stronger than ever.
There is a LOT to unpack here… We are perhaps inured to police incompetence in the Strike series, but how dismembered must a body be, for a DNA match to an already convicted armed robber to be unreliable? Since 1995 the DNA records of everyone convicted of an offence has been held. If the armed robber was released before 1995, with a typical imprisonment of 18 years, he is no spring chicken. What about a DNA paternity test for the newborn baby? Or is it the baby that has mysteriously disappeared? Louise Freeman suspects possible police corruption linked to Freemasonry.
Then we have the name Decima Mullins. Decima, as well as meaning the tenth child for unimaginative parents of large families…
Decima was one of the three Parcae (known in English as the Fates) in Roman mythology. The Parcae goddess Nona was responsible for pregnancy; Decima was responsible for measuring a person’s lifespan; and Morta was charged with overseeing death. They distributed to mankind all the good and bad things in life, and according to some classical writings even Jupiter had to bend to their will. Decima measured the thread of life with her rod, like her Greek equivalent Lachesis. In some accounts, her mother was Nox the goddess of night and her father was Scotus the god of darkness; while in other accounts, her parents were Jupiter and Themis.
Professor Freeman also links Decima with her Greek equivalent’s appearance in Lethal White.
“Playing stupid, eh? Lachesis,” said Chiswell, “was one of the Fates. She measured out each man’s allotted lifespan. Knew when everyone’s number would be up. Not a fan of Plato, Mr. Mallik? Catullus more up your street, I expect. He produced some fine poetry about men of your habits. Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo, Aurelia pathice et cinaede Furi, eh? Poem 16, look it up, you’ll enjoy it.”
Lethal White Chapter 21
“Think about the lachesis pills. You’re the one who thought they were significant. Think about all those odd things Chiswell kept doing: taunting Aamir in front of everyone, saying Lachesis ‘knew when everyone’s number would be up,’ telling you ‘one by one, they trip themselves up,’ looking for Freddie’s money clip, which turned up in his pocket.”
Lethal White Chapter 65
Intriguing as all this is, its the third paragraph that has set the fandom on fire! “Robin seems [this word is doing a lot of heavy lifting] increasingly committed to her boyfriend, policeman [and possible Freemason?] Ryan Murphy, but the impulse to declare his own feelings for her is becoming stronger than ever.” Hasn’t Strike already declared his feelings?
Strike and Robin had once before sat in this office, after dark and full of whisky, and he’d come dangerously close to crossing the line between friend and lover. He’d felt then the fatalistic daring of the trapeze artist, preparing to swing out into the spotlight with only black air beneath him, and he felt the same now.
‘—she knew I was in love with you.’
A stab of cold shock, an electric charge to the brain: Robin couldn’t quite believe what she’d just heard. The passing seconds seemed to slow. She waited for Strike to say ‘which was her spite, obviously,’ or, ‘because she never understood that a man and a woman could just be friends’, or to make a joke. Yet he said nothing to defuse the grenade he’d just thrown, but simply looked at her.
The Running Grave Epilogue
Has the romantic miscommunication been going on too long? What is meant by “Time would tell whether he’d just done something foolish… or not.”? Let me know what you think in the comments!
My first thoughts after reading the synopsis are the following…
1) What about DNA testing and ID by the police? Are they not capable of tissue sampling? How can they be mistaken? But depending on circumstances, the individual may not be in any kind of data bank. Of course, this just tells us how the book opens and nothing about what happens after the initial possible mistaken identity. Which leads me to wonder if this will lead to any questioning of technique or the results from Strike’s paternity test? (Although I do recall Robin seeing a similarity between Strike and Prudence when looking at them in our last story).
2) Robin SEEMS more committed…so, more of Strike and Robin assuming the feelings of the other and being wrong?? Haven’t we had enough of this? And, ANOTHER single swan for symbolism? Didn’t Strike declare his feelings already sending Robin off on her weekend with Murphy in an unsettled emotional state?
3) Will Murphy be associated with the Freemasons and initially seem helpful to Robin in the investigation but later discoveries bring up questions about his character somehow? Will Strike find these and be presented with the dilemma of whether to tell Robin or not? Or will they discover he’s associated with them during the investigation leading to Robin questioning his character? I’m not up to speed on freemasonry but isn’t there some kind of secrecy and possible integrity/corruption issues?
Thank you, Kelly. I agree with all your points! There was a lot of articles written on police corruption associated with masonic membership in the 90’s and early 2000’s, with some calls for membership to be declared. But checking today, it still isn’t mandatory.
Another thought just came to my mind…are we sure Bijou’s child isn’t Strike’s? Will some kind of DNA testing be done when the baby is born? Will Strike have to choose how to be involved in this possible child’s life and what kind of father would he be compared to Rokeby?
@Kelly, before l have read the available informations about the soon-to-be-released new Strike novel, l had started to contemplate, if it’s possible that Rokeby isn’t Strike’s biological father after all – despite the allegedly positive paternity test! Somehow the idea that Rokeby is really Strike’s father doesn’t sit well with me – and as far as l know, we have never learned the exact circumstances and exact date and the purported accurateness of the test. Who performed the test and how was the chain of custody? Was there room for manipulating the outcome? All we know is that the test convinced Rokeby to accept that he was Strike’s biological father and to pay for his son. But he only wanted to have contact with him very recently.
I was immediately interested when l read that the new novel will deal with a case where a paternity test is important! Could this induce Strike and Ellacott to look look more closely at the paternity test which was so vitally important for Strike’s private life? He might’ve never really questioned the test which eventually convinced Rokeby to accept that he was Strike’s father. Why should Strike doubt that, when Rokeby himself didn’t? And so far JKR’s eagle eyed readers have stopped to question Rokeby’s paternity after JKR informed us that there was a positive test result. Maybe the new case will set something in motion, and Strike will look at his own case more closely.
We learned so far that Leda must’ve tried deliberately to get pregnant by Rokeby in a one-night-stand, in order to gain access to the riches of child support from a super star. That scheme is worth a try although it isn’t very likely to work out as planned – but it actually happens now and then in real life. Just look at the famous case of the notorious tennis champion Boris Becker who conceived a child on the back stairs of a posh London restaurant with part-time model Angela Ermakova, who conceived a daughter with Becker while his first wife Barbara was 8 months pregnant! And after a DNA test confirmed Becker’s paternity, his wife divorced him. l am sure that JKR was inspired by this case. However, there was never any reasonable doubt that Boris was the father because baby Anna looked exactly like his ginger haired dad 😉 But we were told that Strike doesn’t look like Rokeby at all! So, what would it mean if Rokeby isn’t Strike’s father after all? Did Leda have sex with another man shortly before or after her documented one-night-stand with Rokeby? Why did she never try to find out if this other man might be Strike’s father? Or did she actually know already that she was pregnant, and for some important reason she needed to pin this pregnancy on another man. ln this case it wasn’t dumb luck after all that she got pregnant after a single encounter with Rokeby. That was only her cover story. But Leda wasn’t really callous or greedy. Why would she have done such a thing? And did this eventually lead to her death?
l really hope we will learn more about Leda in the new novel! We have had no new developments in the last few novels. l had hoped that we would know by now for sure how and why she really died!
@Kelly, l don’t think that we can be sure, yet, that Strike is not the father of Bijou’s baby! That means, we have three threads which will deal with the theme of disputed and unplanned fatherhood: the new case for Strike and Ellacott includes this subject, while Bijou’s pregnancy means that Strike might be the father – and only a dna-test can answer the question conclusively. And then there is Rokeby’s recent quest to establish belatedly a relationship with his (alleged?) biological adult son after he refused to have contact with him for so many years – although he has hinted that he wasn’t solely responsible for the lack of involvement. lt would be very surprising if all this doesn’t lead us back to the enigmatic Leda Strike and a new look at Strike’s parents. And maybe we might get a glimpse at a possible motive for the murder of Leda! l think it’s about time to continue this thread which was unfortunately neglected in the last few novels. l really thought we would get something in the last novel. lt was a great opportunity, because Robin was investigating the commune and the area where Leda and her kids had lived for a while! l thought that Robin would discover something which was connected with Leda. But that didn’t happen. We only found out how screwed up Leda must’ve been at the time. The big question is of course: why?
I am disappointed to read in the synopsis that the Robin/Ryan relationship is still a thing. I hoped that their relationship would have ended on the weekend away at the end of Running Grave. No two sensible adults, in their 30s/40s, would keep edging around an issue for years in the way Robin and Strike have, and if this goes on for another 1000 page novel I think I will have done with them. Even without Robin’s feelings for Strike constantly tormenting her, Ryan is shaping up to be another Matthew and is totally wrong for her.