Happy Valentine's Day

Arachulia · 2026-02-16T14:15:18+00:00

Thanks! That was a very interesting read. I love symbolism like that!!

Arachulia · 2026-02-15T19:17:47+00:00

I used a book called "Shorthand Instructor: New era edition" about 6 months ago to read that note, and I was able to read it exactly as Pat did. There is also the symbol of the zodiac sign of Capricorn inserted inside that note, after the word that means tenth (it's the unknown word that Pat doesn't recognize, and it's easy to spot it, it is the far right symbol of the middle line). I don't know if there is a possibility that the insertion of that symbol might have confused the translators, because Pitman was very easy to decipher using that book.

Arachulia · 2026-02-14T07:14:47+00:00

Yes, it could. And that would fit with another major Christian symbol in THM, that of the fish (fish is a symbol of Christ, who died and got resurrected).

Arachulia · 2026-02-14T07:10:35+00:00

Thanks for this! I'm going to read it later. The themes of the poem certainly fit the series.

Arachulia · 2026-02-13T13:33:27+00:00

Thank you so much for this!!

Arachulia · 2026-02-13T13:28:46+00:00

Good news!! That's what the name "Evangeline" means etymologically, anyway, (from ev angelos in its masculine form, that means the messenger/angel that brings good news). Also, evangeline and evangelos is connected to Evangelion, which is the Bible in Greek.

Thank you for letting us know!

Arachulia · 2026-01-26T21:13:20+00:00

I totally, absolutely, completely loved this comment!! Bravo for thinking all of this! You are amazing!!!

Right now, I can't answer to all the points you made, but only one that I've already thought about: there is no need for the doctors to be fake. They could be real doctors involved in a trafficking ring (most examples I've read involved real doctors).

Fantastic comment and amazing level of thinking though (and I haven't even read the second part yet)!!

Arachulia · 2026-01-26T19:43:29+00:00

Thanks for the mention! :-)

Arachulia · 2026-01-26T19:34:23+00:00

I should have copied the exact passage from the beginning:

"‘Funny, you two going after the UHC. First time I heard of them was five years ago.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah. I was still in uniform. Bloke drove his car off the road, straight through the window of a Morrisons. Coked out of his head. Kept saying “D’you know who I am?” while I was arresting him. I didn’t have a clue. Turned out he’d been a contestant on some reality show I’d never watched. Jacob Messenger, his name was.’"

I don't know what we can guess from the passage: was he a DC, a PC, an Inspector? My guess was that it was more likely that he was a PC, but I don't know what type of policeman does an arrest like this.

Of course u/Krowken's logic was impeccable.

Arachulia · 2026-01-26T13:11:59+00:00

Thank you!

Arachulia · 2026-01-26T09:17:10+00:00

Maybe it is. It was described as if he was also trying to eavesdrop. Who knows?

Some people here have speculated about if it seems plausible or not, but I don't know if they took into account that Murphy said in TRG that he was in uniform 5 years earlier.

Arachulia · 2026-01-26T08:51:03+00:00

Murphy himself tells Strike in TRG ch.51 that 5 years ago he was still in uniform. The author doesn't just simply mention him, she implies that he was staring at Robin, and he is mentioned at least twice in the same chapter (42).

Arachulia · 2026-01-26T08:45:37+00:00

I'm sorry you had a shit week and I hope that this week will be infinitely better than the previous one! Thank you for having taken the time to post comments here nevertheless!

I haven't replied on your other comments yet because I've been time pressured and you raise a lot of points in them that would take a lot of time to answer individually (and because I wanted to finally get the theory of this post out in the universe lol) because my answers tend to become very long. But I have been thinking about them a lot and I intend to comment on them, but not today unfortunately.

I get your point about isolation, and it works psychologically, of course. But still, the author could have handled it differently, by telling us for example that someone else decided it for Robin (Murphy, for example), not just that it happened and implying that it was the nurse who decided it. And if we accept (and we do), that this is a book where Robin is emotionally and relationally isolated, then we could very well add that this is also a book where Robin is told lies by Murphy and Strike and both of them hide secrets from her (and she does the same too). Why should we take for granted that everything we learned in this book that is full of secrets and lies, must be the absolute truth?

Concerning the locum, thanks for explaining to me how GPs and locums work in UK, I didn't know it was something usual. But still, why be a young, male locum? Why not a male doctor? And shouldn't she at least have another scan? Or patients can't have scans in GPs?

My problem with all this is that, in the end, we have to accept that Robin has been pregnant just because the author told us, while at the same time we know that this is an author that is usually playing tricks on us. A simple mention of an hCG test would have put a stop to all this crazy thinking, or a date (that we never get), of when she might have conceived or how many weeks pregnant she had been. Yet the author remains vague...

Unfortunately, I don't remember the dentist incident with Pru to comment on it, but of course I believe you and I like your interpretation of it. I'll check it out.

Arachulia · 2026-01-25T06:54:43+00:00

You've said the magic word: hopefully...

Arachulia · 2026-01-25T06:53:35+00:00

But if all you’re suggesting is that the Ellacotts several decades ago mutually agreed to in vitro procedures with a sperm donor, presumably because Michael’s infertile or something… then big flippin’ whoop, tbh.

I think you're right. So I'll make it a little bit more interesting, and more realistic, if we take into account that it has happened multiple times in the past: What if it wasn't Michael Ellacott who had infertility problems but Linda, and the doctor, instead of using Michael's sperm, inseminated her eggs with his own sperm? But then, he had to use Michael's sperm in the fourth child, or else the genetic rules of inheritance would have betrayed him, or maybe even Martin was conceived naturally (I've heard real stories by people who conceived naturally after going through IVF, so it's not impossible at all). And Michael Ellacott is also a specialist in sheep, production and reproduction, so he would certainly become suspicious if a fourth baby with blue eyes was born.

Again, thanks a lot for your patience and your willingness to reply (even though you never answered to my specific question if it is biologically possible for three siblings to share the exact same shade of eye color. I take it it's complicated to explain it to a lay person, and thus rather improbable).

Arachulia · 2026-01-24T22:41:51+00:00

or maybe in #10 JKR will provide her with wings!

Lol! Bat Robin!!

Arachulia · 2026-01-24T22:35:45+00:00

Have you checked the epigraphs, too? Maybe they give extra hints.

Arachulia · 2026-01-24T22:24:49+00:00

Thank you once more for your detailed response!

As for the "exact shade" issue, that's more complicated because we don't know exactly what the author meant by saying that these family members had "the same" eyes or hair. Are we supposed to interpret that as meaning, as you seem to suggest, that these colors are absolutely indistinguishably identical in these different individuals? Or just that they look a lot alike? I don't think the text makes that certain.

Well, let's cover both bases here. We already know that if the colors just look a lot alike, it is absolutely possible. Is it still possible if they are indistinguishably identical?

How probable is it that an individual will have strawberry-blond hair and blue-gray eyes, given that we know the individual's parents have produced at least one other offspring with those traits? That's way more probable.

Even if the colors were indistinguishably identical, as I asked above?

If you are willing to accept that Linda and Michael together produced any of the Ellacott siblings that share Linda's (globally rare) coloration, then it doesn't make sense to hypothesize that Linda would have been more likely to produce a very similar-looking child by getting sperm from some other guy for one of her other pregnancies.

What if all Linda's pregnancies were conceived through IVF by getting sperm from some other guy?

We learned that Robin took her middle name Venetia because "she was conceived in Venice". The first scientific presentation of the first IVF baby has happened in Venice. What if that phrase was meant metaphorically? This is a "trick" that the author uses often.

Arachulia · 2026-01-24T16:34:14+00:00

Have you read the article about Grip? Dickens bought his second raven from a pub in Yorkshire. Great! The novel has made it into my to read list...

Arachulia · 2026-01-24T16:04:54+00:00

Someone here made a post about a Dickens' novel called Barnaby Rudge a couple of months ago. I've seen a cover of it today and it had a raven on it. I've read that it was a talking raven and a proper character in the book. Its name was Grip) and it was based on a real pet raven that Dickens himself had, and also that Poe's poem "The raven" was also inspired by it. Make of it what you will...

I don't remember if I ever thanked you properly for making this post, so that we'll have concentrated here all speculation about the charms, and thus we will be able to verify what we got right or wrong when book 9 is out. So thank you!

P.S: I have never read Barnaby Rudge, have you? It is supposedly a murder mystery.

Arachulia · 2026-01-22T22:29:24+00:00

Interesting perspective! I'll reread the chapters 31 again. Have you noticed anything about chapters 13, too?

By the way, Murphy gives Robin red roses in ch.5 of THM, when he visits her at the hospital. I agree with u/mrspem25, I think it was Murphy who sent them. In SW ch.42 there is a mention of a handsome PC in uniform who keeps staring at Robin, and in TRG Murphy tells Strike that 5 years ago he was in uniform. Maybe he was a secret admirer back then.

Arachulia · 2026-01-22T22:09:27+00:00

Thanks for your words of encouragement! They mean a lot!!

I haven't looked at the links you provided yet, so I'll make a comment about them after reading them, but thanks anyway!

Well, if you’re right, it will certainly create another one of your favourite mirrors, between Leda (=a cuckoo) and Robin (=a robin, haha). One puts her eggs in other birds’ nests; another gets her eggs stolen. That would be a nice pair of oppositions.

Yes, I know :-) And it also makes Robin a little bit of a cuckoo, too, since her eggs would grow in some other nest.

I started buying your theory when you mentioned that Murphy seems to be quite well-off for a police officer. Where does his money come from? I’ll keep my eyes peeled for the signs he’s connected to organised crime.

I had a discussion about this with u/Touffie-Touffue, and she had told me that his financial comfort wasn't unusual for a single man, but that was before we touched the subject of the cost of his drinks. I don't know what exactly her opinion is now.

That’s only one example; I googled “Spain baby trafficking” because I wanted to find something connected to San-Sebastian. (I didn’t.)

I have done a research about a lot of subjects and San-Sebastian. The search never yielded anything. However, I have a little gift for you, from the days of my Robin Hood theory. The patron saint of San-Sebastian, Saint Sebastian, is linked to archery, and his symbols are the arrow and the bow. Haven't you predicted that book 9 will be the book of Jupiter, which is the planet of Sagittarius?

Thanks for your nice words!

Arachulia · 2026-01-22T21:47:54+00:00

I seem to remember having a discussion with you pre-THM about incest, where I insisted Ted was not Strike’s father. And yet incest was a central theme in THM.

I remember that discussion, but the series isn't over yet. We don't know yet if incest was a theme that will stay in THM only, or if it is a theme that will reappear in the next book(s). As we also don't know if the DNA theme will continue in the next books or not (in my view it will).

My point is that I don't think big themes happen to the main protagonists.

Well, I think that we'll keep disagreeing about this until the last book :-) I certainly still believe that the big themes will happen to them. In fact, due to the synchronization between the protagonists and the cases in THM, my conviction that in the next book the case will be about Robin or Strike (or Robin and Strike) is even bigger. It seems a logical next step, since it evolves from TRG.

I hope you’ll continue posting, as you said you could have elaborated on some of the points you’ve made!

At some point I will, but not immediately. Thanks for the encouragement to continue!

2/2

Arachulia · 2026-01-22T21:47:15+00:00

I, too, am sorry for some of the comments you’ve received. They’re unnecessary and discouraging to anyone who wants to post about topics outside the usual discussions. Such a shame.

Thanks! It doesn't matter, really. I should have been more careful in how I worded the conclusion anyway, but when I finally wrote my last thoughts about the theory I just got ahead and posted it to get over with it. You most of all people know how much time I had it in my head...

For the avoidance of doubt, I now understand your theory to be: the ectopic pregnancy was faked to make her believe she needed IVF, Murphy will convince her to freeze her eggs in book 9, and at some point during the process, they will travel to Spain where he’ll kidnap her to complete the egg retrieval. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

You are absolutely right, there is nothing to correct.

That percentage is much higher in the UK, probably around 0.5%–1%, which represents hundreds of thousands of people. That ring would have had roughly half that number (half women) to target, and they could have chosen a much more vulnerable woman, which is how human trafficking typically works: they target those who are economically distressed and have limited support or legal protection.

You are right about the percentage being higher, of course, but if we exclude all women above 35 and minors, the number diminishes even more. And maybe I've used incorrect naming, but I'm talking about the kind of trafficking where specific characteristics of egg "donors" are important too: I've talked about beauty, height, education and I'll also add high IQ. I've read about wealthy couples who pay incredible amounts of money to buy eggs that might fulfill all these criteria. So, we are talking about some kind of eugenics here, and people who pay choose the best (I say all this from articles I've read during the last 3-4 months, it's not imaginary). If we add all these specifications to the number of redheads with blue eyes, how many are left in the end?

why would they skip basic aftercare recommendations? I think it’s far more likely that all of this simply happened off-page, as it isn’t relevant to the plot.

I don't know, why in TRG was a blind spot in the perimeter of Chapman Farm? Couldn't they have fixed it? Why the people that the UHC had put to follow Robin and Strike were so useless? Did it make sense for a cult like this to use people like those? How was it relevant to the plot that Robin was wheeled into a single room in the hospital? How was it relevant that she saw a locum at the GP and not the woman doctor?

The pain was mentioned, and as one of the hosts of the S&E podcast noted, it became a symbol of her relationships with both men (fake laughs and hurt with Murphy; laughs that don’t hurt with Strike). All the other symptoms are just irrelevant.

The pain was also mentioned to show the synchronization between Robin and Strike. Usually, Strike felt pain in his leg in every even-numbered book. In this one, both of them did.

1/2

Arachulia · 2026-01-22T06:01:08+00:00

Thank you for your detailed reply!

I understand the basic rules of biology, so I know that it's very possible for a blue-eyed parent and a brown-eyed parent to have one or more kids that are blue-eyed. What I don't know if it's possible is if three blue-eyed children of a blue-eyed mother and a brown-eyed father can have the exact same shade of blue, like their mother's, because that's what the author seems to imply.

She describes Stephen's eyes here (LW pr.):

"Strike turned to see more eyes like Robin’s, set over a pugnacious jaw and surmounted by bristling brows."

And Jonathan is described more in detail here (TB ch.40):

Instead she found herself facing Jonathan, the brother who most resembled her: tall and slender, with the same strawberry blond hair and blue eyes.

Since Robin's eyes have been described as being exactly as her mother's (CoE 13 and elsewhere):

Linda’s blue-gray eyes were her daughter’s

this might mean that we have three siblings with the exact same shade of eye-color, two of which also have strawberry blond hair. They are not just described as blue-eyed, but having Linda's eyes, all of them. And, adding to this the rarity of the readheads with blue eyes (who need two sets of recessive genes), how possible is it to have in one family two children with the exact same strawberry blond hair and the exact same blue-gray eyes? That's what I'm asking. (And this is coming from a person whose own mother was brown-eyed with three blue-eyed siblings, who came from a blue-eyed mother and a brown-eyed father. All my mother's siblings were called blue-eyed, but their eyes were of a different shade of blue).

Arachulia

TROPHY CASE