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POST NAMER TBC-- work harder, meme!

Welcome back, anyway! Chat fandom, media, creative things, weirdness from around the net, funny stuff, anything! Meme awaits!

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From: (Anonymous)

These books always make me want a million sandwiches. Did Rowling do a deal with the supermarkets? I have my suspicions. See also: Big Crisps. I'm onto her.

From: (Anonymous)

On pg 234, Rowling trolls the casting people:

"In his late fifties, with a full head of hair, a firm jaw and pronounced cheekbones, he looked like an almost-famous actor hired to play a rich businessman in a mini-series."

From: (Anonymous)

Something bothering me on this reread: how many times characters say they heard the voice of some friend/family-member/acquaintance, but aren't sure whose it was. They seem able to distinguish between male and female voices, but that's it. In the oddest example, Strike can't tell the difference between his own sister's voice, and his ex's. Even through a few walls, there's no way I could confuse the voices of different people I knew well! And I'm not especially good at distinguishing voices. It must be a way humans can be, but I find it odd when plot stuff depends on it.

From: (Anonymous)

Finished The Cuckoo's Calling.

The first time I read this, I didn't guess any of it and felt like I was just along for the ride. It felt like the details came out of nowhere, but I had assumed this was really just me being not-that-familiar with crime novels, unsure what to expect, and also sleep-deprived. I assumed I'd missed the clues, but that they were there.

But... Nah. I actually think that, on the mechanical side, the details of the murder are put together really badly. The clues are too far obscured, and delivered in confusing ways, where they're delivered at all.

On the motive side, it's told excellently! So much foreshadowing, characters-as-mirrors-for-one-another, fun prose; it's great. So I think a better reader than me would have been able to guess whodunnit but not howdunnit. I think HP did the mechanics better than this book. Goblet of Fire is the BEST.

So, I was surprised to find some core things still didn't work, but I enjoyed this more this time around; I had a better idea of what to expect, and read some stuff that I'd seen as trying-too-hard-to-be-gritty as more tongue-in-cheek noir. It felt lighter and more humorous, this time around (maybe because Career of Evil and Troubled Blood got so dark, tbf). I also found it MUCH easier to follow who was who, on a reread. The first time, I had no fucking clue how half the characters related to anything in the plot. I remember reading the scene with Tansy and Ursula and having no recollection of how they were involved at all, "who tf are these people? Ah well.". :D A lot of details went over my head because I couldn't keep track of everybody. This time, it was easy. That might be down to familiarity with the story, or more familiarity with how this series operates (and so actually paying attention), or both. But I'd been expecting that to account for how, the first time, I'd missed basically all the murder-method-stuff... and no. Fair play if anyone did guess it, but for now I think that aspect was badly told.

Anyway, yeah, I recommend rereading it because it's more fun on a reread. I also got some very odd "Lucy killed Leda" vibes on this read, which seem unlikely thematically, though there's probably motive, and opportunity! And seems like it'd be weird not to introduce the killer in book one, mechanically, which would narrow it down... but then I had complaints about the mechanics IN book 1, so eh. I think Johnny's a more obvious choice, on the assumption the killer has to show up in this book, but I'll be keeping an eye on her. :P And on anyone named in the newspaper article about him!

From: (Anonymous)

Also she did a really good decription of Sunday. I don't think I've read another novelist who perfectly renders Sunday. There's also an excellent description of awkward silence. She's good at describing intangible things, is Rowling. And I always enjoy the seasons in her books. I don't know if I can bring myself to analyse how the trick is performed.

From: (Anonymous)

I then went to goodreads. Top review is a 1-star by what may be the thickest person in the world:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/673589533

"I don't know any words, so the book is bad."

From: (Anonymous)

Then the next one is someone complaining that the audiobook has British accents. 🙃

From: (Anonymous)

Reread continues.

Am still amused at TRAs pretending to be offended at a murderer wearing a woman's coat in Troubled Blood, when, in Silkworm a man calling himself "Pippa" spends like half the book trying to stab Strike, and putting shit through an innocent woman's letterbox. Thoroughly on-brand. The detectives agree that Pippa/Philip is crazy and that the hormones are probably contributing to his being crazy. And they still use his preferred pronouns! :') I suspect she'd write that aspect differently, today. Robin makes excuses for him, while Strike notes that a lunatic can still do real damage. Feels prophetic.

From: (Anonymous)

"So, who do you think is the murderer?" Robin asked the question that had been burning inside all morning.

"Hang on a minute-- let's get lunch."

They sat down to a glorious roast dinner. The potatoes were the crispiest, fluffiest potatoes Strike could ever remember eating. The gravy was sublime. With a sigh of deep, enduring satisfaction, he piled his plate high. This would be a occasion for seconds, even thirds.

Dan, reading from a distance, cried. She was attempting to eat less than the 90,000 daily calories that had become her norm since she started these bloody books. It was not going to plan. A roast turkey dinner lurked smugly in the fridge. The tiramisu had been polished off the day before. Crisps would join them, she knew, and sandwiches, english breakfasts by the dozen, all of them stuffed into her stomach by the time she reached page 10. There was no other way to read Strike. She had tried, and failed. In defeat, she supposed there was a certain sort of freedom, a certain relinquishing of tension that came with the knowledge that one could never have hoped to succeed. Not against the unholy alliance of Rowling and Big Yorkshire Pud.

From: (Anonymous)

(finished Silkworm, will come back with notes when I feel like it, maybe. On Career of Evil) Now Robin is drinking Betty's tea and noting how strong it is, and I'm like "?" because Betty's is the weakest tea I've ever had. Maybe their Christmas tea is weaker than their everyday blend? You can leave a bag in *forever* and it doesn't brew.

From: (Anonymous)

Strike knows who the serial killer is. And he knows where the serial killer lives. Strike stays up, thinking, all night, then roams the streets for two hours, considering his next move.

What does he decide to do?

That's right! He goes to a café and orders a ham and cheese panini!

From: (Anonymous)

As he eats his panini, he worries that, if he doesn't act fast, another woman is going to die.

What does he do?

He orders another panini!

From: (Anonymous)

Finished Career of Evil. I enjoyed it more on a reread, especially from a feminist angle, though I think I was correct in my initial impression this one was a bit like Cuckoo, in that the clues were really thin and shaky. This time, though, they're the clues to whodunnit. I find the pivotal sea holly too much of a cheat, as it relies on knowledge from outside the novel, plus the initial description doesn't actually specify that it's in bloom. So I continue to think Silkworm is better-constructed.

But then, this is more about Robin's backstory than anything else. I went in knowing that, this time, and found it more enjoyable as a result. The first time I read it, I found the main mystery a bit boring "which of these guys did the murder? At least 2 of them are interchangeable, from the reader's POV!" The story would feel much the same whether the killer was revealed to be Brockbank or Laing, after all. So why care as the duo puzzle over whether it might be one or the other?

The parts from the POV of the serial killer remain unconvincing, but I just see them as stores of clues. I noticed on this read that he says very early that he's living with someone working night-shifts; a more alert me would have guessed that this meant a nurse, and that Hazel was a good candidate. The various women working in brothels of various sorts are probably partly intended as red herrings for this line. But I was tired the first time I read it, and iirc missed this detail entirely.

Onto Lethal White, my least fave. I remember this one involving a lot of tedious stuff about horses and paintings and paintings of horses. Hoping it's more fun on a reread, as Cuckoo was.

From: (Anonymous)

Will add that imo Career of Evil doesn't work too well as a detective novel, but it works well as a thriller; it's exciting! Many brushes with death! I did enjoy it.

The TV people are such cowards for nixing the "transabled community" plotline, though. Anyone coming to the book thinking they know what to expect, having watched the TV show, is going to get a surprise... :'D Just imagine a director's cut ep where Tempest is scooting around in the wheelchair she doesn't need and rating businesses for their accessibility on the Internet! And if this were HBO, there'd be a fake amputation fetish forum up as a promo... So many possibilities... ;_;

From: (Anonymous)

Also... So, a big reason for wanting to reread the whole series is to hopefully pick up more clues on the 'who killed Leda?' plot. Given Rowling's preference for twists and red herrings, I feel like it's going to be Shanker or Lucy. I didn't consider Lucy at ALL the first time around, but on a reread, I feel like it's pointing that way. She's mentioned in every book; a painting on her wall is associated with a morgue; she has motive to hate Leda. I was thinking that Rowling wouldn't want it to be a female killer, given the feminist current in the books... but these books have a roughly equal balance of male and female murderers, and also, Rowling's a mother to a daughter; I think she'd take a dim view of Leda and so far the books haven't got into that, because Strike is very forgiving of her (understandably!). But at the very least I think the contrast between his experience growing up and Lucy's is going to come up, at some point. Read through that lens, Career of Evil feels like it's laying groundwork for motive.

With Shanker, meanwhile, there are some things you could read as hints (Robin fearing him at first sight; narration that says repeatedly not to underestimate him; his tendency to only turn up to help AFTER the main characters have had a kicking). He's established to have access to Leda at the time of the murder, he reacts strangely to things, and he isn't afraid to, well, shank people. He is also mentioned in book 1, although not by name. But I don't think Rowling would be keen on a main plot where someone takes in a kid off the street, only for him to murder them. I also don't think she'd want to imply that Strike was such a bad judge of character.

I think it has to be someone close to Strike, because that makes a more interesting story. So rn I'm torn between thinking it's silly to suspect Lucy at all, and thinking it was TOTALLY Lucy. Or possibly indirectly and she helped cover it up; method seems like a weird one for something done in anger. Seems more like a cool-headed killing to hide something. Lots of contradictions! Will be reading closely! :).

From: (Anonymous)

(It's hard to imagine Rowling wanting a main plot where a daughter kills her mother. Otoh, a mother who takes her daughter to live in a series of squats with a series of rapey, violent boyfriends, when she could just take the kids to live with her family in Cornwall whenever? But doesn't want to because she finds it *boring*? Either there's much more to Leda and her family are secretly terrible, or Lucy's murderer-reveal speech writes itself.)

From: (Anonymous)

but yeah, could also see someone doing it when angry on her behalf, and first book did say she was on fairly good terms with her dad. or could see her seeing that leda was in trouble and angrily leaving her to it, rather than helping, not expecting her to actually die.

From: (Anonymous)

Onto Lethal White. Now, I'm trying to lose weight. I put on 2kg in the last fortnight, and I blame the Strike books. There is a chocolate orange in the cupboard, that I need to resist.

Otoh: I'm about to *read* a Strike book.

Will I be able to make it at LEAST until tomorrow without cracking and going for the orange???

It's not looking hopeful. Prepare for the suspense of the century.

From: (Anonymous)

PROLOGUE

If the book starts with a roast dinner so help me

From: (Anonymous)

Opens on a wedding. I am in real danger.

From: (Anonymous)

Page 17. No roast, but they're eating a salmon starter. This doesn't appeal to me-- but I'm not getting complacent.

From: (Anonymous)

Roast-resentment notwithstanding, credit to Rowling as she manages to coin a two-word description for Wenlock and Mandeville: "cycloptic molars".

Depth: 23

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