Jayson’s Reviews > The Hallmarked Man > Status Update
Jayson
is on page 497 of 912
Notes:
(1) I don't know what to make of how Robin's been written thus far. She's like a totally different person!
- At best, one could argue that multiple traumatic events have caused her not to be her usual self; but even that doesn't explain her ridiculous thought process.
- Honestly, it feels like most of my notes this book are just me reacting with bewilderment to Robin's wacky reasoning.
(Continued in comments)
— Sep 23, 2025 12:25AM
(1) I don't know what to make of how Robin's been written thus far. She's like a totally different person!
- At best, one could argue that multiple traumatic events have caused her not to be her usual self; but even that doesn't explain her ridiculous thought process.
- Honestly, it feels like most of my notes this book are just me reacting with bewilderment to Robin's wacky reasoning.
(Continued in comments)
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Jayson’s Previous Updates
Jayson
is on page 899 of 912
Notes:
(1) Okay, well that's the case solved!
- Possibly it's recency bias, but the final explanation feels about on par with what we usually get from the series, albeit not nearly as cut-and-dry as I'd like.
- It doesn't help that the main culprit confrontation scene takes place while Strike's losing blood, possibly drunk, and slurring his voice. So, not the most clear-headed and articulate.
(Continued in comments)
— Oct 10, 2025 07:45PM
(1) Okay, well that's the case solved!
- Possibly it's recency bias, but the final explanation feels about on par with what we usually get from the series, albeit not nearly as cut-and-dry as I'd like.
- It doesn't help that the main culprit confrontation scene takes place while Strike's losing blood, possibly drunk, and slurring his voice. So, not the most clear-headed and articulate.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 849 of 912
Notes:
(1) "Had Wright really had a pregnant girlfriend? Why had he visited Abused and Accused? Where was the Murdoch silver? What did the eight digits Niall Semple had left for his wife mean? What were the things that Albie Simpson-White had said Decima was better off not knowing?"
- Framed as Robin's inability to move on once the case is closed, we essentially get a checklist of loose ends.
(Continued in comments)
— Oct 09, 2025 12:00PM
(1) "Had Wright really had a pregnant girlfriend? Why had he visited Abused and Accused? Where was the Murdoch silver? What did the eight digits Niall Semple had left for his wife mean? What were the things that Albie Simpson-White had said Decima was better off not knowing?"
- Framed as Robin's inability to move on once the case is closed, we essentially get a checklist of loose ends.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 797 of 912
Notes:
(1) Robin Re: Occupational incidents: "It was absurd. It was ludicrous. These things simply didn't happen. And if they did happen, they certainly didn't all happen to the same woman. What was she doing to attract all this? What was wrong with her?"
- Well, isn't it obvious? It's exactly what Strike keeps telling her: she takes needless risks in a job that's already by nature dangerous.
(Continued in comments)
— Oct 05, 2025 08:20PM
(1) Robin Re: Occupational incidents: "It was absurd. It was ludicrous. These things simply didn't happen. And if they did happen, they certainly didn't all happen to the same woman. What was she doing to attract all this? What was wrong with her?"
- Well, isn't it obvious? It's exactly what Strike keeps telling her: she takes needless risks in a job that's already by nature dangerous.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 757 of 912
Notes:
(1) So, this is my one-month anniversary of reading this book—Hurrah!
- I speak facetiously, of course. My original plan of 50 pages and an update a day is now laughable in retrospect.
- Already, if you count my running commentary, it's far and away the longest review I've ever written, and may well be among the longest reviews on Goodreads ever. For all I know, I may already be there!
(Continued in comments)
— Oct 04, 2025 01:55AM
(1) So, this is my one-month anniversary of reading this book—Hurrah!
- I speak facetiously, of course. My original plan of 50 pages and an update a day is now laughable in retrospect.
- Already, if you count my running commentary, it's far and away the longest review I've ever written, and may well be among the longest reviews on Goodreads ever. For all I know, I may already be there!
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 705 of 912
Notes:
(1) I've mentioned previously, with this series, it's usually around 100-pages in that I'll call it, and confidently declare the book 4-stars. Well, that's obviously not happened... until now, kind of. I'm calling it now and rating this 3-stars—a first for this series.
- Frankly, I've been reading this for nearly a month and any novel of that long a burden can't be higher than 3-stars.
(Continued in comments)
— Oct 01, 2025 10:30PM
(1) I've mentioned previously, with this series, it's usually around 100-pages in that I'll call it, and confidently declare the book 4-stars. Well, that's obviously not happened... until now, kind of. I'm calling it now and rating this 3-stars—a first for this series.
- Frankly, I've been reading this for nearly a month and any novel of that long a burden can't be higher than 3-stars.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 651 of 912
Notes:
(1) Strike gets hit in the face with a spade: "Though the gash made by the spade had stopped bleeding, the left side of Strike's swollen face was turning purple as the bruises rose to the surface."
- First the muddy fall, then the dog mauling, now this! Strike's been a real punching bag this book!
- SMH... seems like something that might cause someone to postpone a certain declaration.
(Continued in comments)
— Sep 29, 2025 12:30PM
(1) Strike gets hit in the face with a spade: "Though the gash made by the spade had stopped bleeding, the left side of Strike's swollen face was turning purple as the bruises rose to the surface."
- First the muddy fall, then the dog mauling, now this! Strike's been a real punching bag this book!
- SMH... seems like something that might cause someone to postpone a certain declaration.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 601 of 912
Notes:
(1) "Robin's Valentine's Day started badly. Murphy had stayed over at her flat ... Murphy was still annoyed that she had to work that evening..."
- How about that? A guy upset about not celebrating Valentine's Day. Not to sound all gender-normative, but you never really see that. Every guy I know would be happy to be let off the hook!
- Plus, why not just do it the night before?
(Continued in comments)
— Sep 27, 2025 04:30AM
(1) "Robin's Valentine's Day started badly. Murphy had stayed over at her flat ... Murphy was still annoyed that she had to work that evening..."
- How about that? A guy upset about not celebrating Valentine's Day. Not to sound all gender-normative, but you never really see that. Every guy I know would be happy to be let off the hook!
- Plus, why not just do it the night before?
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 551 of 912
Notes:
(1) Robin makes homemade pepper spray from "a potent mixture of chillies, cayenne pepper, garlic and vinegar."
- I don't know too much about UK law, but if pepper spray is illegal, isn't this the equivalent of 3D-printing a handgun?
- Garlic's an interesting addition. You'd think all the other ingredients would be harsh enough already. Is it to make it extra-effective against vampires?
(Continued in comments)
— Sep 25, 2025 07:40PM
(1) Robin makes homemade pepper spray from "a potent mixture of chillies, cayenne pepper, garlic and vinegar."
- I don't know too much about UK law, but if pepper spray is illegal, isn't this the equivalent of 3D-printing a handgun?
- Garlic's an interesting addition. You'd think all the other ingredients would be harsh enough already. Is it to make it extra-effective against vampires?
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 452 of 912
Notes:
(1) "Yet Strike had form on hiding things about his sex life, as Robin knew only too well..."
- It might just be me, but aren't sex lives meant to be private? I feel like we all agreed on that.
- Why does Robin feel entitled to know anything about Strike's sex life?
- If you ask me, Strike's not "hiding" anything, he's just being a decent human being and (I daresay) a gentleman.
(Continued in comments)
— Sep 20, 2025 09:30PM
(1) "Yet Strike had form on hiding things about his sex life, as Robin knew only too well..."
- It might just be me, but aren't sex lives meant to be private? I feel like we all agreed on that.
- Why does Robin feel entitled to know anything about Strike's sex life?
- If you ask me, Strike's not "hiding" anything, he's just being a decent human being and (I daresay) a gentleman.
(Continued in comments)
Jayson
is on page 402 of 912
Notes:
(1) Gretchen to Robin: "[Sofia] was... innocent. She vos ... She did dese things vit the pictures online, but she was... naive. Childish. She vonted to liff in a fantasy..."
- She's "innocent"? the OnlyFans model?... Oh! Of the crimes.
- Funny how the phonetically spelled Austrian accents here are much easier to read and understand, at least so far, than any of the British ones.
(Continued in comments)
— Sep 18, 2025 11:50PM
(1) Gretchen to Robin: "[Sofia] was... innocent. She vos ... She did dese things vit the pictures online, but she was... naive. Childish. She vonted to liff in a fantasy..."
- She's "innocent"? the OnlyFans model?... Oh! Of the crimes.
- Funny how the phonetically spelled Austrian accents here are much easier to read and understand, at least so far, than any of the British ones.
(Continued in comments)
Robin: "Wait—what? I thought she wasn't due 'til—"
Linda: "He's a month early ... and it was a bad birth, and they think there's something wrong."
- I'd love to say I'm surprised, but Carmen was doing a lot of drinking while pregnant.
- Robin should know, she's the one who handed Carmen a vodka on the rocks back in Masham.
(3) "Maybe I shouldn't care about this right now, but Ilsa, I just need to know, was Strike violent to Charlotte Campbell? ... I can't work with him if—I can't take this on top of everything else—"
- Robin, once again, grasping at straws to find any reason not to be in love with Strike and to stay with boring 'ol Murphy.
- She doesn't really believe it, but she needs reasons to think Strike's a horrible person. Even if it does mean convincing herself to think the worst of him.
- I mean, Robin goes on about "friendship," yet she's so eager to believe a hostile actor whom she's only just met over a man she's worked closely with for nearly seven years.
(4) "Robin heard footsteps behind her. She glanced over her shoulder, but the man was fifty yards away."
- Fifty yards is pretty far away to be hearing footsteps.
- Possibly we're dealing in some sort of magical realism?
- Unless the guy's wearing horseshoes, I doubt she'd hear anything.
(5) "'It's all fine, Ilsa, he just threw a knife at me.'
'He what?'
'I know,' said Robin, gaining a perverse strength from Ilsa's panic. 'Some attacker.'
'He threw a knife at you?'
'Yes,' said Robin, staring at the dagger lying on the ground."
- I think Robin, for Ilsa's sake, should have been more specific and said "dropped a knife and ran away." I mean, does having a dagger "thrown" at your feet count as having a knife thrown at you? Here the "at" is along the same lines as someone falling at your feet.
- Possibly, Gorilla Mask dropped the dagger as a means of providing Robin a clue, meaning that the plastic gorilla he pressed in her hand before must be a clue as well. I mean, if it were just meant to scare her he could just use a kitchen knife and not a fancy Masonic one. Though, if these tokens were meant to aid the investigation, why warn her off?
- Prediction: The gorilla mask the man wears will have nothing to do with Robin's sexual assault, it's just coincidence.
(6) "'They're saying they're going to call him Dirk,' said Linda. 'I don't care... I just want him to be all right... you're OK, are you?' Linda added, clearly feeling she should check.
'Me?' said Robin, pausing to tighten her belt as the dagger was slipping. 'I'm great. Don't worry about me.'"
- Huh, Martin and Carmen must be big fans of Boogie Nights, or else Dallas Mavericks fans.
- Yet another weird baby name to pile onto this book's mountain of weird baby names.
- There's a lot of layers to Robin saying that she's doing great. She did have a knife pulled on her, but the guy never meant to kill or harm her, only to warn her off. So, while she is fine, she wasn't, but she always would have been... if that makes sense.
(7) "... it was extremely upsetting to find [Strike] physically appealing now, of all possible times, and she needed to re-adjust her sight again, to focus exclusively on Murphy ... because Strike was a liar who hid both girlfriends and babies from his business partner."
- "Hid both girlfriends and babies from his business partner" is a terrible mantra, besides being a ludicrous thing to say.
- She'd be better off describing herself as his best friend. Then you might have a case... but business partner?
- I guess "business partners" is the lane she wants to keep their relationship in.
- On one hand, yes, don't give into the temptation of adultery. On the other hand, let's be honest, Murphy's no more than a betweener boyfriend.
- I mean, why fight animal attraction? After close to seven years of seeing the guy nearly every day, she still can't stop thinking about how good-looking he is: it must be true love.
(8) "... Robin, handing Strike back his phone and making sure their fingers didn't touch."
- Hmm, awful lot of concentration, that. Or, alternatively, too much concentration.
- Okay, after their preschool interlude, they're seemingly back to being bashful high schoolers.
(9) "... Robin [was] determined to keep talk on work matters and not give Strike any pretexts for asking about her coldness..."
- Wait! Didn't she get pissed off at him before when he didn't call her on a weekend to ask about her unfriendliness? Now she's trying to keep him from doing it? Talk about mixed signals!
- I can't get a handle on Robin, she's been all over the place this book!
(10) "Both drank their soft drinks, looking at the Severn rather than each other."
- Tomato juice and non-alcoholic beer count as soft drinks? Really? I wouldn't think either are even close.
- Maybe literally, as non-alcoholic drinks, but aren't soft drinks commonly understood as sweet and/or fizzy?
- I mean, it's like saying coffee or tea are soft drinks.
(11) Tensions finally come to a boil as Strike and Robin have a big shouting match. Which actually turns out to be very productive.
- Other than getting all their grievances out in the open, it doubles as a thorough brainstorming and reasoning session.
- Plus, it went by really fast, which I appreciate as someone who's labored through most of the first half of this book. It's the most exciting and urgent the case has felt so far.
- In the end, they both end up lying to each other about things to do with Bijou Watkins.
(12) "The barmaid now reappeared with two large plates of food.
'Oh,' she said, watching Robin marching away up the street. 'Do you—?'
'I'll eat them both,' growled Strike, shifting his notebook out of the way."
- I've no doubt Strike could finish them both. He probably considers Robin's chicken nachos a side dish. I personally don't consider nachos a proper meal.
- If it were me, I'd have them pack one up for the road. It's a long drive back to London and it means not having to stop for something to eat on the way.
- I mean, cold nachos aren't terrible.