The Ink Black Heart: Chapters 24-31:

Will Charlotte further delay the Strike-Robin pairing? Plus: parrot ecology and what it tells us.

Today's selection has some of the fan favorite chapters of the book: Charlotte Campbell's visit to Denmark Street (25) , and Robin and Ilsa's dinner at Bob Bob Ricard (28). For those whose top interest in the series is the slow brewing and inevitable romance between Strike and Robin, this chapters are among the most important of the series. It is also Charlotte's first appearance since her ominous text at the end of Troubled Blood:

I don't think I've ever felt so envious in my life as I am of that girl Robin.

Of course, it could be argued that Charlotte did the Strike/Robin Shippers a favor when she forced Robin to recognize that she was, in fact, in love with Cormoran Strike. But, as I have argued elsewhere, Charlotte is the Strike series counterpart to Voldemort, and here we see another similarity. Lord Thingy was calle the "greatest Legilimens in history" who could almost always tell when someone is lying to him." According to Strike, Charlotte has the counterpart Muggle talent:

Charlotte had an uncanny ability to read other people's emotional states, a skill honed by necessity in a family full of addiction and mental illness. Her preternatural ability to intuit hopes and insecurities that others though well-hidden made her equally adept at charming people and at wounding them. Some might assume she had just acted out of the pure will to destruction that was one of her most unnerving qualities, but Strike knew better... He'd bet everything in his bank account that Charlotte sensed he was trying to displace the attraction he felt towards Robin onto Madeline, because she could read Strike as easily as he could read her.

Charlotte's news that Strike is dating someone sends Robin into the same shocked emotional state as when Courtney announced her rape history to the room at the Dinner Party from Hell; both occasions were described as an atmosphere that had turned cold and "clammy." It takes a long heart-to-heart with Ilsa and several glasses of champagne to restore her spirits even a little.

Strike, for his part, continues in the nigredo spiral that began in Troubled Blood and will not turn around until book's end. He faces with the prospect of losing both Robin and his ability to work as a detective (if named in the Campbell-Ross divorce), and it is the former that he stresses about first.

The truth was that he wanted her to stay single, while he disentangled what he felt and what he wanted. Now, thanks to Charlotte, Robin might just consider herself at liberty to find another Matthew, who'd offer her a ring--she was the type of woman men wanted to marry, Strike had no doubt about that--and then everything would fall apart as surely as if they'd fallen into bed and regretted it, because she'd end up leaving the agency, if not immediately then eventually.

Over the champagne button at Bob Bob's, Ilsa shows us she understands Strike and Charlotte as well as they do each other.

"Robin, she can smell something between you and Corm, and she wants to screw it up."

"Charlotte will know exactly how important you must be to him, and she knew exactly what she was doing, mentioning this new woman in front of you."

"Why d'you think he didn't tell you he was seeing this Madeline person?... It's because he doesn't want you to feel free to go and shag CID officers. He want to get his end away while you stay available and he decides whether he can afford the consequences of another lunge."

It is very interesting that both Strike and Ilsa assume Robin will be more motivated to stay single as long as Strike is, as if they both assume both detectives are playing a similar waiting gaime. And Robin gives Ilsa no indication otherwise.

The major shipping issue that will have to be addressed in The Hallmarked Man is Robin's response to the "grenade" Strike lobbed at the end of The Running Grave, when he choose to declare his love for her, but frame it in the context his guessed text of Charlotte's suicide note.

She said that even though I was a bastard to her, she still loved me. That I'd know one day what I'd given up, that I'd never be happy, deep down, without her. That--...she knew I was in love with you.

The emotional wallop chills Robin every bit as much as Charlotte's Madeline bombshell had:

A stab of cold shock, an electric charge to the brain: Robin couldn't quite believe what she had heard. The passing seconds seemed to slow. She waited for Strike to say 'which was her spite, obviously' or 'because she never understood that a man and a woman could just be friends', or to make a joke. Yet he said nothing to diffuse the grenade he'd just thrown, but simply looked at her.

Ryan Murphy's immediate arrival gives Robin an excuse to leave quickly, just as she wanted to do after Charlotte dropped her news in the Denmark Street office. And so, the readers get two years to wonder what will happen next. The ball, or perhaps the grenade, appears to be in Robin's court.

Unfortunately, Robin has a long history of taking the path of least resistance and turning a blind eye to uncomfortable truths, especially where her attraction to her partner is concerned. She allowed herself to be talked into resuming the Flobber-engagement in CoE, she went through with the wedding despite her clear misgivings and, in LW, she allowed some seaborne bacteria to convince her to stay in in the marriage when she could have annulled it on the honeymoon. Strike isn't much better, with his tendency to suppress his attraction to Robin with a series of "displacement f*cks": aka Coco, Lorelei, Madeline, and Bijou. Thus, by the end of TRG, the Denmark Street Duo have been living with the elephant in the room that the Missed Kiss created for almost two years.

My fear is that Strike's decision to frame his declaration of love in terms of Charlotte's suicide note contents may prove to be a tactical error. The reason? Robin never liked MiLady Berserko, and can tell Strike's last shred of love for her was killed for a reason Robin fully understands: the refusal to protect vulnerable children from abuse. Remember the row and near-split over Brockbank? Robin was fully expecting Strike to diffuse the grenade by pointing Charlotte's malice and lack of understanding. I fear that the path of least resistance she takes this time could be to 1) take Strike at his word: his love for Charlotte is dead and has been for over a year and 2) assume that, since Strike thinks so poorly of Charlotte, surely he wouldn't declare love for her, Robin, in the context of anything related to Charlotte, especially something as morbid as a suicide note. It may be that, after yet another vacation of pondering and agonizing over her and Strike's relationship and where it is going*, Robin will simply conclude that Strike would have diffused the grenade; he just got interrupted before he could do it. Strike wasn't trying to tell her he loved her; he was just opening up to his best friend about the pain of his ex's suicide and his guilt over not stopping it. Robin then continues with the status quo, ignoring the fact that her "I love you's" to Ryan Murphy are as automatic as those to the Flobberworm were, and that their futures are incompatible since he wants kids and she doesn't. The Post-Amelia Grenade will join the Hug on the Stairs and the Missed Kiss as something both of them will pretend never happened, as they get preoccupied with the mystery of The Hallmarked Man and proceed through another very long book.

Before any Strellacott Shippers and Swooners decide to send me a severed leg or a parcel bomb, they me emphasize that this is far from my preferred outcome. But I think it may well be a likely one, if JKR/RG has a strong need to postpone Strike and Robin's inevitable coupling until the end of the series. That's a lot of pages to get through, hence the need for as many delays as possible. And it would, I'm afraid, be very consistent with their past patterns of behavior. Charlotte's ghost may take a bit of smug satisfaction as the sh*t-stirring she began in TIBH continues for months or even years after her death.

Back to the Ink Black Mystery at hand. Interesting developments in this section:

• Robin's search through Twitter leads her to Kea Niven and her vlog with her delusional claims of plagiarism. This time through, I was struck by three things:

  • The namesake parrot, the kea, was almost hunted to extinction between 1867 and 1970, in their native New Zealand, because of fears they would attack sleeping sheep. A bounty would be paid for every kea beak turned in at the local government office. After conservationists started trying to protect the birds, some dismissed the sheep-biting story as a myth, hoping to convince farmers not to exterminate the bird. However, in 1992, video evidence of the kea preying on healthy sheep settled the question. Nonetheless, keas are now fully protected and beloved national symbols of New Zealand, with conservationists trying to preserve the 3000-5000 that are left.

    • This is all reminiscent of Kea Niven being alternately supported and targeted by the Inkheart community.

  • Kea filmed her blog with her pet lovebirds. Lovebirds (also called pocket parrots) form strong bonds with their mates and can suffer from ill health, erratic, aggressive or self-destructive behavior when separated.

    • Kea seems to share this trait, despite being named for a different type of parrot.

  • Kea named her parrots after John Lennon and Yoko Ono, another volatile, artistic couple who broke up and reunited and for whom the woman was accused by some of interfering with the man's career.

• We see more early evidence of Mitch Patterson's scummy behavior and personal vendettas that will come out in full force against Strike in TRG. Kudos to Shah for his professionalism in making sure all is above board before agreeing

• Several of "Zozo's" tweets turn up, with 28 in her handle and multiple spelling mistakes. As soon as Strike's mysterious goth girl was identified as Zoe, I knew this was Worm28.

• Kudos to Midge for being willing to approach her ex about her Drek's Game credentials. These last two hires are clearly good ones.

I'll be back on Saturday with Chapters 32-37.

*see the honeymoon in the Maldives and the ski trip to Zermatt for the precedents