Newest addition to my Strike Christmas ornament set.

Like Midge's ex Beth (aka, the original Buffypaws) I have a fondness for Christmas ornaments. I have an entire tree to display my Harry Potter one. Given that Hallmark hasn't jumped in with any Hallmarked Man limited editions--- or any other Strike book for that matter, I've had to get creative. I knew when I traveled to the UK in 2023 I would be on the lookout for things I could co-opt for that purpose: it paid off with a Hampton court clock, a Paddington Bear in a Fortnum and Mason bag, a Cynthia Phipps Anne Boleyn and a Betty's Tea House napkin.  Last year, Santa brought me a beautiful glass Land Rover and a White Horse of Uffington painted (alas, not carved) on a wood disc.  

While I am not by nature a crafty person---  I certainly couldn't crochet the beautiful Strike and Robin dolls that others have made--- this year I was determined to try to make some sort of Strike ornament for myself.  Unfortunately, I have made several attempts at origami swans without success. I have done some Harry Potter craft swaps at Misti-Con, and have been increasingly tempted by the Harry Potter ornament exchanges on Facebook. , haven't gotten anything together for this year, but I was inspired (by my recent listening to the Harry Potter After 2020 podcast) to try a Mrs. Weasley excessively stamped letter. One thing I can do well, thanks to my behavior analysis work, is create and laminate pictures. 

 

My initial efforts were not too bad; enough to make me think maybe I can make something people would want to trade.  But, once I had my printable envelope template made, it occurred to me that I could possibly adapt it to some sort of Strike-related letter.

More Broomsticks and More Bea!

 I was happy to be a guest again on The Three Broomsticks with fellow Strike guests Beatrice Groves and Nick Jeffery, where we discuss our likes and dislikes re The Hallmarked Man.  Unfortunately, Bea had a bit of an issue with her audio, so her voice is a bit gravely., but it's worth listening to to hear what Bea has to say. Just imagine it as Pat's baritone. 

If you'd like to hear more of Bea's brilliant insights into The Hallmarked Man, check out her most recent blog post on the Strike and Ellacott files.  There's no better person than Bea to explain how Dostoevsky, P. G. Wodehouse and Jane Austen connect to this book.

And speaking of the Strike and Ellacott Files, Lindsay, Kenz and Pools are back this week as well, starting their bi-weekly read-through, which, given the length of the book, could well last until book nine is published. 

I am still working on my structural model revisions, so stay tuned. 

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A Serial Killer's Rebounding Spell: My talk from the 2025 Harry Potter Academic Conference.

 I've just finished up with one of my favorite weekends of the year, the annual Harry Potter Academic Conference at Chestnut Hill College. This year I hosted a panel called "The Mirror of Rettopyrrah: Wizarding World reflections in post-Potter books." 

My contribution was "A Serial Killer's Rebounding Spell: A Deathly Hallows echo in Troubled Blood." 
 It compares Strike's interview with Creed to Harry's final duel with Voldemort. 

Please check it out. 

The 3-5 links to The Hallmarked Man: One set predicted by Double Wedding Band, another not.

One of the reasons I was especially looking forward to the publication of The Hallmarked Man was that it was the first real test of the Double Wedding Band model. (See here, here and here for background information).  In short, I think we see three basic patterns in the Strike series that are best accounted for by viewing the 10-part series as two overlapping rings: the first staring with CC and ending with TRG; 

1. The basic "turtle-back" connections that are so obvious in Harry Potter should be seen in both rings, 
1. Book 2-Book 6
2. Book 3-Book 5
3. The beginning-turning point-end triangulation between Books 1-4-7. 
2. The "ring correspondence" connections, where Book 1 of the first ring (CC) connects to Book 1 of the second ring (LW) and so on. This gives us the following: (note that the starred connections are duplicated in the turtle-back triangulations, above).  
1. CC-LW*
2. Silkworm-TB
3. CoE-TIBH
4. LW-TRG*
5. TB-THM
6. TIBH-Book 9
7. TRG-Book 10. *
3. While not necessarily a part of the Double Wedding Band, there is also good evidence for the Leapfrog Effect: the tendency of odd-numbered books to pair with other odd-numbered, and evens with evens. This gives us 20 total pairings, four of which (2-6, 3-5, 1-7, and 4-10) are already listed above. 

It is the ring correspondence component of the model that got its first real test for predictive power with THM.  I originally came up with the Double Wedding Band to explain the large number of linkages between CoE and TIBH and between Silkworm and Troubled Blood. These two connections are not predicted by the turtleback or leapfrog effects, but are accounted for by the ring correspondence. 

Thus, I went into THM with two testable hypotheses:  

• First: If the ring correspondence model works, then The Hallmarked Man, as the 5th book of Ring 2 (and #8 in the series), should have lots of correspondences with Troubled Blood, the fifth book of Ring 1. 

Furthermore, the ring correspondence could potentially help answer the question that has been nagging us: what happens to the idea of Strike being a parallel series to Harry Potter once we hit book 8 and are out of Potter books? 

• The answer (and second hypothesis) is, we back up and look for connections to Book #5 of Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix. 

Did the Double Wedding Band model pass the test?  Find out below.

2-4-6-8, What Do We Appreciate? : The Hallmarked Man connections predicted by the Leapfrog effect.

A big feature of the Double Wedding Band model (see here, here and here for background information) is that it incorporates one of the more obvious patterns of the Strike series: the Leapfrog effect, or the tendency of odd numbered books to connect with odd numbers and and evens with evens. The Hallmarked Man continues this pattern  

What I am most excited about is those connections that have, thus so far, turned up in all four the even-numbered books. I'm going to call this the "Truly Appreciated" list, both because I was happy to see them and because I think they should top the list of predictions for book 10. 

Queen City Mischief and Magic 10-year celebration: a new Sprout and a Strike Easter Egg

This weekend is the 10th Annual Queen City Mischief and Magic festival in Staunton, VA, one of the loveliest towns in Virginia.   The festival originated as a joint activity by some local businesses to celebrate Harry's birthday and the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in July 2016, and they were hoping for a few hundred people.  When over 5000 showed up, several downtown streets had to be closed to prevent people spilling off the sidewalks from being run over. The next year it moved to the much more seasonable late September (much better for all the people walking around in robes and house scarves) and has had as many as 30K attendees. Despite having to go online for two years during COVID, it's still going strong. 

While I have been involved with the festival since it started, this is the first year I have been asked to be one of the costumed characters. I will be playing one of the Professor Sprouts in the greenhouse on the Hufflepuff Block. I have even added a special Phyllis the Philodendron to the greenhouse as an Easter egg for Strike fans; I am wondering if anyone will notice. 

In addition to stopping by the greenhouse to poke my paper mache Mimbulus mimbletonia, you can watch professors and students disembark on the train, catch a production of Puffs, hear wizarding music by the Waynesboro symphony, and attend Bill and Fleur's wedding reception.  Local restaurants will be serving Potter-inspired dishes and the Butterbrew will be flowing!  

I hope some one my online friend will stop by and say hi!

Guest post from a guest house: Two-and-a-half rooms, 26 Denmark Street, London

Note:  Super-Strikers BadlyWiredLamp (@badly_wired) and SukiLewis (@suekmoorhen) took the ultimate Strike Fan pilgrimage for the release of The Hallmarked Man, spending two nights on Denmark Street in Strike's flat, now converted into butler-staffed lodgings that can be rented for a book-reading getaway (even if that isn't the typical use!)  I am delighted that they were willing to share their account of the adventure (and pictures!) here.   -Louise

The idea of a stay at 26 Denmark Street first occurred to us the day before we watched the filming of The Ink Black Heart on Denmark Street in March 2024. It seemed like it would be a cool thing to do, but a perusal of the Chateau Denmark website and noting the prices gave us enough of a shock to have only an "ooh, but wouldn’t it be a great experience" conversation before we moved on to another exciting Strike topic. We, the Strike.Fans crew, had managed to wangle a guided tour of the apartment that would have been the Office, so that was exciting for us all and satisfied our thirst, at the time.

The thought of staying at No. 26 stayed with me, and as the date of the release of The Hallmarked Man approached, Badly_Wired and I pondered the possibilities of where we should read the book. We had already agreed that we would read it together this time both to provide emotional support and counsel and, of course,  to have someone to share the experience with. We had already dismissed Sark, noting that we would all want to do that once we had read the book and knew the locations that we would need to visit. Going on an expensive trip to Sark beforehand and missing some key locations would have been a travesty!

I think we both wanted to do Strike’s flat if at all possible, sod the expense--well kind of, after all we haven’t got Jonny Rokeby’s money! I am lucky to be able to visit London quite frequently; work often dictates that I am there, plus, I have a good friend who lives not too far from Central London who puts up with me crashing at her place! On one such visit in June I called into to Chateau Denmark and told them about my interest about the specific apartment and why I wanted to book. Luckily ‘Strikes Apartment’ was empty at the time, so I managed to bag a tour and then, of course, I was sold and had to book! A quick check with Badly_Wired to make she was on board with my plans and a flick of the credit card--I closed my eyes--and it was all done and dusted. We were going to spend two nights in STRIKE’S ATTIC FLAT!