Nick Jeffery and John Granger sat down today to talk about the wonderful comment threads beneath their Hallmarked Man posts since publication day. They see every comment on every thread and realized no one else was seeing the brilliant theories and ideas from the Hogwarts Professor community.

John was tasked with reviewing every comment post publication comment thread to identify the best offering they had not discussed in previous posts. Nick had the harder job of culling that list down to the best ten ideas; he balked and chose thirteen. John added two, just because.

They both recommend you click on the links below as you listen to Nick and John embrace, push back, and marvel at the great Serious Striker conversations to be had here.

The best of the best? J. S. Maleksen’s ‘Dirty Bomb Charlotte,’ which makes the credible argument that Rowling has written a back-stage scenario in which Charlotte seduces Ryan F. Murphy to destroy Robin Ellacott. Why? When? What? How? Read the comment beneath the #1 link below and listen to Nick and John talk, no, rave about this seemingly off-the-wall bit of speculation.

And then wade through the rest! Thank you to all the contributors to our conversations; please remember it was Nick, not John, who decided not to use your idea. Hallmarked Man Names and Part One ring-charting later this week — stay tuned!

Links to Reader Ideas and Theories from the HogPro Comment Threads

1. J. S. Maleksen: ‘Dirty Bomb Charlotte:’ Ryan Murphy Killed Charlotte

Thank you for discussing my first Running Grave RFM comments.

As you may have noticed, my theory is a bit of a work in progress. In keeping with the Hogwarts Professor/ Rowling Studies standards, I am striving to put it all together and set forth a textual basis for my contention that the relapsing, unstable RFM we see in the later parts of RG and all of HM is the dirty bomb left by Charlotte with the intent of exacting revenge on Robin and Strike.

In RG, after listening to a portion of Charlotte’s final 3 voicemail messages, Strike frets about the possibility that Charlotte will seek out RFM and spin a web of lies to him. He expresses concern in his inner monologue that RFM would have no loyalty to Strike and that RFM could use the information to turn Robin against him.

Understanding that I may be in nutter drawer/Gateshead territory and mindful that I am diverging from my original post slightly, I contend that RFM met up with Charlotte at some point, maybe in the month or two, before she died. She used McCabes (the agency she hired to get dirt on Jago in IBH) to get info on Robin, discovered RFM, contacted him seduced him, and filled his head with lies about Strike and Robin.

On the night Charlotte dies, RFM is there. They are drinking together. They get into a fight. She assaults him (like she assaulted Strike and Dormer) and because ‘he is mean and aggressive when he gets drunk’ (yes this is where this line from Wardle in RG becomes relevant) he hits her back, they fight, and she dies. He makes the murder look like a suicide, writes a suicide note that is based on the information she has given him about Strike and her family and her kids. There is nothing in the suicide note about Strike being in love with Robin. Remember, the only evidence that this appears in the note is Strike’s egotistical presumption that is based solely on Strike’s conjecture.

RFM uses his position at the Met to make sure the final determination is suicide.

The guilt and self-loathing he feels thereafter causes him to spend as much time as possible in Spain (rather than taking the earlier flight to see Robin after she escapes from Chapman Farm.) It also causes him to declare his love for Robin on his first night back with her. He’s drinking and unraveling and he thinks if he can make it work with Robin and rescue her from an abusive Strike, it will make up for the fact that he committed murder.

This also explains his mistakes in the gang shooting case, including roughing up a suspect and all of the descriptions of him being overly stressed and exhausted including on the night he got Robin pregnant.

This is the thought process that led me to post under Nick’s ‘Charlotte was Murdered’ thread. It just took me a little longer to articulate it.

Once again, thanks to both of you for all of the fine work you do.

* Catherine: Strike 9 will be about Strike searching to find Lost Robin/Psyche

3. June McGarry: Incest Part 1 — Leda and Ted Half-Siblings

4. Tamspells: Incest Part 2 — Charlotte Raped by Dino Step Father

5. Vicky: Names Idea 1 — Decima Mullins – Shirley Mullens

6.Kathleen OConnor Names Idea 2 — Rupert Fleetwood – Lady Patricia Fleetword-Chiswell

7. Sandy Hope: Cupid and Psyche 1 — Psyche’s Sisters in Hallmarked Man

8. Kelly Loomis Cupid and Psyche 2 — Chelsea Arts Club Cupid, Etc.

9. June McGarry: — Strike lies to READERS about Paternity Test

10. Ed Shardlow — Planet Narnia Theory for Strike series

* Ed Shardlow: The Five Strikes in Hallmarked Man

11. Brenna Hill — Meaning of Ellacotts’ Naming Puppy ‘Betty’

12. Ed Shardlow — Meaning of Hallmarked Man Titles, Other Strike Series Titles

13. Ed Shardlow Lions, Eyes, Bridges, Silver, Swans, Steps

14. Joanna — ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’

15. Brenna Hill — Dirk and EXCALIBUR

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