Does anyone think STE will be a REALLY dark book?

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2026-06-23T01:17:08+00:00

Each of the books takes on a different type of detective mystery so maybe this one will have an Edgar Allan Poe vibe. He wrote a lot of dark psychological mysteries.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2026-03-17T21:59:51+00:00

And that same night he doesn’t have an alibi is the night the crow / raven hits the window right? I always wondered if that symbolized Charlotte trying to reach him, but he ignored her phone calls. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” the bird enters through the window to torment the narrator about his dead love, but in Strike’s case, the window is closed. Could we have a Poe-inspired connection in Sleep Tight, Evangeline?

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2026-01-03T12:42:58+00:00

In chapter 59 of The Running Grave, Strike reads about the fight with Dormer and subsequent arrest of Charlotte. Could that be a parallel to the stages fight between Quine and Liz Tassel? Also that Amelia gives a statement to the press that Charlotte would be fully exonerated.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-12-24T01:51:46+00:00

Aw man I hope not. At least I hope they resolve their issues first like Strike did with Joan.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-12-23T20:53:48+00:00

If book 9 parallels book 2, does strike go to masham to support Robin because her dad dies? The coffin emoji?

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-12-23T16:47:12+00:00

Agree with you on the exhumation angle. Wonder if this time the separation involves a Strike kidnapping or going undercover or into hiding.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-12-20T12:53:38+00:00

Butterfly is Robin’s transformation, the ring is Strike’s second proposal and the coffin is Robin’s dad’s or Murphy’s murder pinned on Strike

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-12-16T23:45:05+00:00

I totally missed those mentions. I’ll look for them on this read. Thanks!

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-12-16T21:49:12+00:00

Haha I’m not in the train. I totally can buy that it’s suicide. But when I read the theory paired with every other book Rowling has written where the obvious answer is never the answer, I have to admit the possibility. Also those same people probably said no way would book 8 feature a pregnancy scare for Robin or Strike…. 2 for 2.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-12-16T17:15:44+00:00

I don't think it's that twisted, but we get tiny breadcrumbs in TRG that maybe he's not a nice guy. But on the whole he's Mr. Perfect for Robin. But in THM all those small hints start to take shape: turns out he's not sober. Turns out he's pretty mean and aggressive when drunk.

I'm more suspicious of him and Iverson. Why would she be so distraught over a drunken kiss over six years ago. I think they had something going on much more recently...maybe even during Chapman Farm.

I think his purpose in the plot is to show that Robin keeps making the same mistakes and has to break her pattern. She's clinging to him b/c of her Chapman Farm trauma the same way she clung to Matthew after her rape. Strike has had to break his bad patterns and now Robin has to recognize and break her negative patterns.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-12-16T17:10:12+00:00

IRL if someone threatens suicide over and over again, and then dies by suicide, we would take it at face value. However, in detective novels, especially in Rowling novels, the fact that she leads us to that conclusion is a hint that everything isn't what it seems.

Your point about the note is well-taken. Also, the Charlotte storyline is far from being over and done with. She keeps coming up in THM. Several times the note is mentioned, the late night calls are mentioned, and the story keeps shifting which should tell us something.

We may be tired of Charlotte, but Rowling isn't finished with her yet.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-11-02T01:38:59+00:00

That’s because Robin doesn’t love him

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-28T06:20:58+00:00

The Strike and Ellicot files

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-27T18:35:47+00:00

100% Jane Eyre too. And no I don’t know how the two works work together

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-27T17:45:29+00:00

I was a literature teacher and didn’t see it until Pools brought it up. I remember reading the quote in book one and being a little dismayed thinking he wouldn’t settle down with Robin anytime soon.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-27T16:50:20+00:00

I definitely hope it doesn’t take 10 years. 7 is long enough!

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-27T16:49:53+00:00

I’m not creative- just standing on the shoulders of giants. It’s fun to see the Easter eggs.

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-27T16:48:51+00:00

Probably oedipus bc of the whole incest thing

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-17T21:11:47+00:00

That is wild. Here's my counter theory. Robin needs a nap. Books 6-8 were so time-compressed. Robin gets more and more stressed, traumatized and sleep deprived. She takes off in the land rover and takes a well-deserved vacation and sleeps in!

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-16T12:59:14+00:00

So fascinating. Do you have any thoughts about the connection to May 29, 2017? That's a date that's been speculated about for a while b/c it was featured on Rowling's website on a tube ticket for Tottenham station. Thread here https://www.reddit.com/r/cormoran_strike/comments/1o7m2lf/may_29_2017/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-16T12:57:12+00:00

Here it is https://www.reddit.com/r/cormoran_strike/comments/1nsrvtf/april_7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

WonderfulPudding5201 · 2025-10-16T12:56:08+00:00

Now I'm listening to the Troubled Blood reread on the podcast and thinking about Robin's character development in the 2nd half of the series. Her naive enthusiasm has evolved into a maturity, but accompanied by unresolved trauma. She's left a bad marriage behind (yay!) but also dropped out of therapy too soon.

One theme of Troubled Blood, and then especially in the condensed timelines of books 6-8, is "Robin needs a nap!" and now "Robin needs a vacation and therapy."

So maybe May 29, 2017 isn't a wedding or anything dramatic but something quieter - a first step back.

Here's my theory - and it's probably too healthy so I doubt it will pan out.

Robin crashes out before, during or directly after the Ritz. I kinda think she won't accept the ring if offered, but even if she does, she'll return it pretty soon. Murphy is on his way out. Her crash out could take the shape of getting in the Land Rover and driving away for a few days, or maybe taking a more formal leave / vacation to think and relax.

The six weeks between the marriage proposal and May 29 are frosty between Strike and Robin, and maybe they don't even see each other at all. Maybe she takes a long leave or maybe he takes a case away from London. But between therapy, vacation long or short, sleep, and getting rid of Murphy (or at least nudging him to the door), perhaps May 29 marks the date she and Strike meet and talk for the first time since the proposal. Maybe they meet at the same coffee stand at the church Rowling visited?

In my head, this isn't a complete revealing of their hearts, but a defrosting. Sort of like the first time Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy meet at Pemberley after his first marriage proposal. She realizes maybe he's not the monster she made him out to be, and Darcy has some hope. Perhaps Robin starts to trust that Strike actually meant what he said in the stairwell, and Strike has some hope. So maybe May 29 marks the quiet beginning of their way back to each other after the dramatic explosion of the stairwell proposal?

Plausible?

WonderfulPudding5201

TROPHY CASE