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On October 1, 2018, Marc Aramini wrote:</div>
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<span><br>
</span></div>
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<span>>And those sandwiches are part of the swan-n-sweetheart spiking of the<br>
</span><span>>chocolate which may or may not have greased the slippery slope to hell</span><br>
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<span><br>
</span></div>
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<span>The Swan-N-Sweetheart is interesting for reasons you already pointed out in the write-up. That is to say, we need to pay attention</span></div>
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<span>to its obvious reference to Cob and his fiance. I think this is very important to the story because of things that Greg Kurzawa pointed out</span></div>
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<span>when we were talking about this shortly after the book's release. Back on December 14, 2015, he wrote:</span></div>
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<span><br>
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<span><span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>When EAS2
escapes from</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>Fish and Payne
he heads for the bus station with the intent of rescuing</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>Colette from
her kidnapper(s). He writes: "... I was the cat ... Now it</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>was Puss in
Boots time, and Colette was the Marquis of Carabas."</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>In the Puss
in Boots story, the Marquis of Carabas was a low-born fraud.</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>Puss, using
deceit and trickery, gets him married to the son of a king.</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>To me, this
is a dead giveaway that Colette is not who she says she is.</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>The girl we
know as Colette is a low-born fraud. We know that Conrad</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>Coldbrook Jr.
("Cob") had a fiancee, but we're not told anything about</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>her. Could this
fiancee be the girl pretending to be Colette throughout</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>the entire book?
She's included in the family painting in the sunroom,</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>but who's to
say this isn't Cob and his fiancee, rather than Cob and his</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>sister? They
are holding hands, after all. And Conrad Sr. has one hand</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>on his wife's
shoulder, and another on his son's, almost as if to</span><br style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
<span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">>declare, 'these
are mine. The girl ... not so much.'</span><br>
</span></div>
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<span><span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important"><br>
</span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<span><span style=" font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important">I have
always found this hard to argue with. The question really is, as Greg says just after the quoted material, who is the fiance really? </span></span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">To that end, I think it is helpful to remember this odd bit. Ern asks himself whether Swan-N-Sweetheart is "brandy or whiskey" (pg. 100). </span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">I think I mentioned this years ago, but I'll do it again. E&J Brandy is a very popular brand. So is Canadian Club for the whiskey side. Canadian Club </span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">is a CC, just like Collette. This might help bolster Greg's contention that the fiance is playing at being Collette. But the E&J is interesting too, if not </span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">for the same reasons. Ern is an "E" name. Joanne (Collette's mother) is a "J". Does this suggest that they were involved somehow? Perhaps years ago when Ern </span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">was a living human?</span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Notice that Collette's mother's name is Joanne *Rebecca* Carole Coldbrook. There are suggestions that she was suicidal. I think it is helpful to recall the plot points of the famous novel/film
*Rebecca* in this light. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_(1940_film)#Plot" id="LPlnk120586">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_(1940_film)#Plot</a>. See what I mean? Supposed to be suicidal but really murdered. There is an extramarital
pregnancy as well just to complicate things. But that might tie in with the E&J stuff I mentioned before. If Conrad Sr. killed Joanne because of an extramarital affair a la *Rebecca* and she was carrying Ern's baby at the time, that would be provide him
a significant motive for murdering Conrad Sr. This ties back to </span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Ern's name meaning, as I have point out earlier, "the true striker (killer)". </span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">A final note as well on the Puss in Boots bit. Marc, you've pointed out several times the cat motif that goes through the story. Puss in Boots adds to that. Perhaps following the cat references
can point us towards the fiance.</span></div>
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<a target="_blank" id="LPUrlAnchor524624" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_(1940_film)#Plot" style="text-decoration: none; color: var(--themePrimary);">Rebecca (1940 film) - Wikipedia</a></div>
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Rebecca is a 1940 American romantic psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.It was Hitchcock's first American project, and his first film under contract with producer David O. Selznick.The screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison,
and adaptation by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan, were based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier.</div>
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en.wikipedia.org</div>
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