A Lake and Shed Reading of Troubled Blood (Part Two)

Today’s Lake and Shed framed conversation is once again about the fifth Cormoran Strike novel, Troubled Blood. Nick discusses Rowling’s history with the Clerkenwell neighborhood. John talks about Troubled Blood as a double re-telling of The Faerie Queene, Book One, with Strike and Margot as the Redcrosse Knight and Oonaugh and Robin as Una.
New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here’s what we’re doing:
On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth’ in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR’s Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling’s twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author’s writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed’ metaphor. The ‘Lake’ is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed’ is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work (substack.com/redirect/e8119049-2dbc-458b-8f8c-…).
Tomorrow? Our first look at Christmas Pig with both Nick and John talking about the Blue Bunny. Stay tuned!
Links to posts mentioned in today’s Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:
* The Clerkenwell/Islington Gate of St John (Twitter Header) (hogwartsprofessor.com/new-rowling-twitter-head…)
Faerie Queene!
John Granger:
* How Spenser Uses Cupid in (hogwartsprofessor.com/a-mythological-key-to-co…)Faerie Queen (hogwartsprofessor.com/a-mythological-key-to-co…)and Its Relevance for Understanding (hogwartsprofessor.com/a-mythological-key-to-co…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/a-mythological-key-to-co…)
* Reading (hogwartsprofessor.com/reading-troubled-blood-a…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/reading-troubled-blood-a…)as a Medieval Morality Play (hogwartsprofessor.com/reading-troubled-blood-a…)
Elizabeth Baird-Hardy
* Day One, Part One: The Spenserian Epigraphs of the Pre-Released (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenserian-hopes-for-tro…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenserian-hopes-for-tro…)Chapters (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenserian-hopes-for-tro…)
* Day Two, Part Two: The Spenserian Epigraphs of (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenser-thoughts-on-trou…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenser-thoughts-on-trou…)Chapters Eight to Fourteen (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenser-thoughts-on-trou…)
* Day Three, Part Three: The Spenserian Epigraphs of (hogwartsprofessor.com/strike-and-spenser-part-…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/strike-and-spenser-part-…)Chapters Fifteen to Thirty (hogwartsprofessor.com/strike-and-spenser-part-…)
* Day Four, Part Four: The Spenserian Epigraphs of (hogwartsprofessor.com/troubled-blood-and-spens…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/troubled-blood-and-spens…)Chapters Thirty One to Forty Eight (hogwartsprofessor.com/troubled-blood-and-spens…)
* Day Five, Part Five: The Spenserian Epigraphs of (hogwartsprofessor.com/part-v-of-spenser-and-st…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/part-v-of-spenser-and-st…)Chapters Forty Nine to Fifty Nine (hogwartsprofessor.com/part-v-of-spenser-and-st…)
* Part Six: The Spenserian Epigraphs of (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenser-and-strike-part-…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenser-and-strike-part-…)Chapters Sixty to Seventy One (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenser-and-strike-part-…)
* Spenser and Strike Part Seven: Changes for the Better (hogwartsprofessor.com/spenser-and-strike-part-…)
Beatrice Groves
* Trouble in Faerie Land (Part 1): Spenserian Clues in (mugglenet.com/2020/09/trouble-in-faerie-land-s…)Troubled Blood (mugglenet.com/2020/09/trouble-in-faerie-land-s…)Epigraphs (mugglenet.com/2020/09/trouble-in-faerie-land-s…)
* Trouble in Faerie Land (Part 2): Shipping Robin and Strike in the Epigraphs of (mugglenet.com/2020/10/trouble-in-faerie-land-p…)Troubled Blood (mugglenet.com/2020/10/trouble-in-faerie-land-p…)
* Trouble in Faerie Land (Part 3): Searching for Duessa in (mugglenet.com/2020/10/trouble-in-faerie-land-p…)Troubled Blood (mugglenet.com/2020/10/trouble-in-faerie-land-p…)
This is a tentative listing by category of the posts at HogwartsProfessor about Troubled Blood. There’s much more work to do on this wonderful work!
1. Chiastic Structure
Rowling’s fixation on planning in general and with structural patterns specifically in all of her work continues in Troubled Blood. From the first reading, it became apparent that in Strike5 Rowling-Galbraith had taken her game to a new level of sophistication. She continued, as she had in her four previous Strike mysteries, to write a story in parallel with the Harry Potter septology; there are many echoes of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth and equivalent number in the Hogwarts Saga, in Troubled Blood. Just as Phoenix was in important ways a re-telling of Philosopher’s Stone, so Troubled Blood also echoes Cuckoo’s Calling — with a few Stone notes thrown in as well. The new heights of Rowling’s structural artistry, though, extend beyond her patented intratextuality; they are in each of Strike5’s first six parts being ring compositions themselves, the astrological chart embedded in the story chapters, and the six part and two chapters correspondence in structure between Troubled Blood and Spenser’s Faerie Queen.
* Structure Part One (hogwartsprofessor.com/first-seven-chapters-of-…)
* Structure Part Two (hogwartsprofessor.com/troubled-blood-part-two-…), Notes Two to Six
* Structure Part Three (hogwartsprofessor.com/troubled-blood-part-thre…), Notes One to Three
* Structure Part Four …