I have never been a Harry Potter fan. As I was 37 when the first book was published that is not such a surprise, though I can read other contemporary children's authors with pleasure.
Fantasy literature is more derivative than most genres, but my impression is that Rowling is more derivative than most fantasy writers. And when I open a Harry Potter book at random a cliche generally flies out and hits me.
But there is a major point in her favour.
Her third Cormoran Strike novel has a scene set here in Market Harborough. I quote from StrikeFans.com and Career of Evil:
"The ornate and ages church of St Dionsius rose proudly in the heart of the town, and beside it, in the middle of the central thoroughfare stood a remarkable structure resembling a small timbered house on wooden stilts.
"Once parking to the rear of the building on stilts, Strike left the car to have a smoke. He observed a plaque that told him the building was an old Grammar School built in 1614.
"Biblical verses painted in gold ran around the structure. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
You can see why I struggle with Rowling's prose style.
After their encounter with the Old Grammar School, Strike and companion see out to find the Thai massage parlour in St Mary's Road.
But where exactly is it?
The Tottenham thinks it knows and has posted the picture of a blameless office in St Mary's Road that you see above.
I remember this from when it was briefly a corner shop in the 1990s. More than that, it has appeared on this blog before as the home of Market Harborough's only Green Man.
It makes you think.
If this were Barcelona or Rome or wherever pre-Covid, some enterprising tour guide would have invented a Classical back-story about the lintel figure & prostitution in the ancient world & would assure punters that this was a Roman brothel.
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