When Running Grave was published, John Granger charted each Part’s chapter sets, the Book-as-a-Whole, and then the Book as the concluding novel of a seven book series. It took him weeks and weeks, it yielded astonishing revelations via Rowling-Galbraith’s structural artistry, and… it was a rather joyless affair. No one joined him in the process to verify or discount via a separate but simultaneous reading what he found, no one learned how to do it while looking over his shoulder, and very few appreciated what it was all about.

Fast forward to September 2025 and the publication of Hallmarked Man. Nick Jeffery and John had collaborated in a month-long Lake-and-Shed reading marathon of everything Rowling had written as well as the Golden Threads running through all her work. They were looking for a new Special Project they could offer the growing list of Paid Subscribers in addition to the weekly conversations and articles they posted for all comers. Why not do a series of posts only the most Serious Strikers would be interested in, a full-on charting of Strike 8?

John has posted three Ring Composition throat-clearing exercises complete with video and transcripts — the Heart of Ring Composition, the Mechanics and Mystery of Ring Composition, and a Case Study in Reading a Strike Novel Ring (Career of Evil) — to warm up the niche audience for this adventure. In the conversation above, Nick and John lay out their hopes for this series, namely, that participants will leave with:

* an adamantine grasp of what charting a book involves (chapter notes, latch, turn, and t-back lines with explanations);

* a clockworks understanding of Strike 8 ‘structural artistry,

* charts they’ve drawn of the Parts’ chapter sets as well as the Whole Book; and, most important,

* a Ring Reading Skill Set to be deployed on classic novels as well as contemporary favorites, an essential for those who love to read and re-read the Greats, alive and dead.

We’ll start with Part One next week; there’s a blank ring below for you to give it a shot and John’s first draft to compare and contrast with your findings.

This kind of thing is not for everyone, of course, so most of what goes on here is for all subscribers. Nick and John will be posting about the Hallmarked Man’s new names, Browning’s The Ring and the Book (a big part of Strike 8’s epigraphs), more on the Cupid and Psyche backdrop to the series (it solves some of Robin’s most mysterious behaviors, believe it or not!), and the hidden-in-plain-sight Rowling favorite author and book imbedded in her latest work (no hints!). That’s in addition, again, to Nick and John’s discussions of the theories and insights of HogPro readers, the alchemy, Who Moved the Stone?, the Masonic Symbolism, and the book they rushed to overlook, Maid of the Silver Sea.

It’s a great time to be a Rowling Reader — and to be either a paid or free subscriber to Hogwarts Professor! Thank you for your support and engagement with the conversations here.

Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Nick Jeffery and John Granger do a Compare and Contrast test of the latest Cormoran Strike novel, The Hallmarked Man, and the previous seven books in Rowling-Galbraith’s longest series of novels. Adapting a list of ‘Greatest Hits’ moments from the first ‘Reading, Writing, Rowling’ podcast John did with Katie McDaniel and a panel of Potter Pundits in Roanoke, Virginia, Nick and John share their favorite moments first from the series and then from Strike 8 before contrasting the quality of these highlights.

The point of the exercise? Besides being a fun review of Strike-Ellacott adventures, a Greatest Hits collection of their highs and lows, Agency cases and sub-contractors included, the absence of any Hallmarked Man moments that merit a ‘Best in Series’ badge suggests that Strike 8 will be remembered best for how it set up Strikes 9 and 10.

Whatever your thoughts about that thesis, please share the scenes on your Greatest Hits list, both for the series and Hallmarked Man, per the numbered categories below. Nick and John have a few more to run through that they couldn’t get to on their first ‘go’ at this; feel free to share categories they should discuss in addition to the ones listed here:

* Top Pat Chauncey scene

* The One Scene that You Remember Most Often or ‘That Changed Your Life’

* Top ‘Text-within-a-Text’

* Funniest Scene

* Top ‘Drop the Book’ moment

* Best ‘Narrative misdirection/Ostrananie’ Moment

* Conclusion: Series and Hallmarked man

John is working on his charting of Hallmarked Man for the paid subscriber list as well as reviewing and revising his 2017 online course, ‘Wizard Reading Formula.’ More on those projects and the Kanreki Series in his next conversation with Nick; stay tuned!

Links to Ideas, Posts, and Theories Mentioned

* Talbot’s ‘True Book’ in Troubled Blood

* Kathryn Kent’s weblog post in The Silkworm

* The Goldfish in the Agency Office

* Running Grave and Hallmarked Man overlaps, and Ryan Murphy’s involvement.

* Three Take-Aways from Hallmarked Man: What We Know Readers will say in Ten Years about Strike 8