Why Hallmarked Man is the Best Cormoran Strike Novel and Will Be Considered the Key to Unlocking the Series' Mysteries

John Granger Attempts to Convince Nick (and You!) That The Hallmarked Man will be Considered the Best of the Series.
We review our take-away impressions (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/three-cheers-…) from our initial reading of The Hallmarked Man. Although we enjoyed it, especially John’s incredible prediction of Robin’s ectopic pregnancy, neither of us came away thinking this was the finest book in the series. For Nick, this was a surprise, as enthusiastic J. K. Rowling fan that he is other than Career of Evil every book he has read has been his favourite. Using an innovative analysis of the character pairs surrounding both Cormoran and Robin, John argues that we can’t really appreciate the artistry of book number eight until we consider its place in the series. Join John and Nick as they review the mysteries that remain to be resolved and how The Hallmarked Man sets readers up for shocking reveals in Strike 9 and 10!
Why (hogwartsprofessor.com/cormoran-strike-troubled…)Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.com/cormoran-strike-troubled…)is the Best Strike Novel: (hogwartsprofessor.com/cormoran-strike-troubled…)
* The Pillar Post Collection of Troubled Blood Posts at HogwartsProfessor by John Granger, Elizabeth Baird-Hardy, Louise Freeman, Beatrice Groves, and Nick Jeffery
Troubled Blood (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/a-lake-and-sh…)and Faerie Queene: The Kanreki Conversation (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/a-lake-and-sh…)
But What If We Judge Strike Novels by a Different Standard than Shed Artifice? What About Setting Up the ‘Biggest Twist’ in Detective Fiction History?
* If Rowling is to be judged by the ‘shock’ of the reveals in Strike 10, then The Hallmarked Man, the most disappointing book in the series even to many Serious Strikers, will almost certainly be remembered as the book that set up the finale with the greatest technical misdirection while playing fair.
* The ending must be a shock, one that readers do not see coming, BUT
* The author must provide the necessary clues and pointers repeatedly and emphatically lest the reader feel cheated at the point of revelation.
* If the Big Mysteries of the series are to be solved with the necessary shock per both Russian Formalist and Perennialist understanding, then the answers to be revealed in the final two Strike novels, Books Two and Three of the finale trilogy, should be embedded in The Hallmarked Man.
* Rowling on Playing Fair with Readers: (radiotimes.com/tv/drama/strike-creator-jk-rowl…)
The writer says that she wanted to extend the shelf of detective fiction without breaking it. “Part of the appeal and fascination of the genre is that it has clear rules. I’m intrigued by those rules and I like playing with them. Your detective should always lay out the information fairly for the reader, but he will always be ahead of the game. In terms of creating a character, I think Cormoran Strike conforms to certain universal rules but he is very much of this time.
* On the Virtue of ‘Penetration’ in Austen, Dickens, and Rowling (hogwartsprofessor.com/austen-and-rowling-on-th…)
* Rowling on the Big Twist’ in Austen’s (express.co.uk/entertainment/books/2041815/jk-r…)Emma: (express.co.uk/entertainment/books/2041815/jk-r…)
“I have never set up a surprise ending in a Harry Potter book without knowing I can never, and will never, do it anywhere near as well as Austen did in Emma.”
What are the Key Mysteries of the Strike series?
Nancarrow Family
Why did Leda and Ted leave home in Cornwall as they did?
Why did Ted and Joan not “save” Strike and Lucy?
Was Leda murdered or did she commit suicide?
If she was murdered, who dunit?
If she commited suicide, why did she do it?
What happened to Switch Whittaker?
Cormoran Strike
Is Jonny Rokeby his biological father?
What SIB case was he investigating when he was blown up?
Was he the father of Charlotte’s lost baby? If not, then who was?
Why has he been so unstable in his relations with women post Charlotte Campbell?
Charlotte Campbell
Why did her mother hate her so much?What was her relationship with her three step-fathers? Especially Dino Longcaster
Who was the father of her lost child?
Was the child intentionally aborted or was it a miscarriage?
What was written in her “suicide note”?
Was Charlotte murdered or did she commit suicide?
If she was murdered, who done it?
If she committed suicide, why did she do it?
What happened to the billionaire lover?
What clues do we get in Hallmarked Man that would answer these questions?
- Strike 8 - Greatest Hits of Strikes 1-7: compilation, concentration of perumbration in series as whole
* Decima/Lion - incest
* Rupert’s biological father not his father of record (Dino)
* Sacha Legard a liar with secrets
* Ryan Murphy working a plan off-stage - Charlotte’s long game
Strike about ‘Pairings’ in Lethal White
Strike continued to pore over the list of names as though he might suddenly see something emerging out of his dense, spiky handwriting, the way unfocused eyes may spot the 3D image hidden in a series of brightly colored dots. All that occurred to him, however, was the fact that there was an unusual number of pairs connected to Chiswell’s death: couples—Geraint and Della, Jimmy and Flick; pairs of full siblings—Izzy and Fizzy, Jimmy and Billy; the duo of blackmailing collaborators—Jimmy and Geraint; and the subsets of each blackmailer and his deputy—Flick and Aamir. There was even the quasi-parental pairing of Della and Aamir. This left two people who formed a pair in being isolated within the otherwise close-knit family: the widowed Kinvara and Raphael, the unsatisfactory, outsider son.
Strike tapped his pen unconsciously against the notebook, thinking. Pairs. The whole business had begun with a pair of crimes: Chiswell’s blackmail and Billy’s allegation of infanticide. He had been trying to find the connection between them from the start, unable to believe that they could be entirely separate cases, even if on the face of it their only link was in the blood tie between the Knight brothers.
Part Two, Chapter 52 (therowlinglibrary.com/finder/strike.php?search…)
Key Relationship Pairings in Cormoran Strike:

Who Killed Leda Strike?
To Rowling-Galbraith’s credit, credible arguments in dedicated posts have been made that every person in the list below was the one who murdered Leda Strike. Who do you think did it?
* Jonny Rokeby and the Harringay Crime Syndicate (Heroin Dark Lord 2.0 (hogwartsprofessor.com/lethal-white-and-strike-…)),
* Ted Nancarrow (Uncle Ted Did It (hogwartsprofessor.com/who-killed-leda-strike-u…)),
* Dave Polworth (hogwartsprofessor.com/who-killed-leda-strike-s…),
* Leda Strike (hogwartsprofessor.com/who-killed-leda-strike-s…) (!),
* Lucy Fantoni (Lucy and Joan Did It (hogwartsprofessor.com/guest-post-lucy-and-joan…) and here (hogwartsprofessor.com/leda-strikes-death-murde…)),
* Sir Randolph Whittaker (hogwartsprofessor.com/the-true-taxonomy-of-led…),
* Nick Herbert (hogwartsprofessor.com/the-case-for-nick-herber…),
* Peter Gillespie (hogwartsprofessor.com/who-killed-leda-strike-p…), and
* Charlotte Campbell-Ross …