The Detective novel thing is a joke gone wrong:

[link]

"This is a joke that got out of hand," said Rankin, describing how the remark was made on stage during the course of a festival event.

"There were 600 people in the audience, and only one person didn't laugh," he added.

"There were 600 people in the audience, and only one person didn't laugh," he added.

And that person went right out and reported it to everyone he or she saw .....

That is funny. Although she is pretty good with embedding clues with in the text. I'd like to see what she could do with a detective novel.

I finally finished over the weekend. And spent much of the last couple days catching up on this thread.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed. Probably because Rowling's great creation (and I'm sure I'm hardly original in saying this) was the Wizarding World. And so much of the book seemed to take place outside that world. Or maybe that much of the novel involved characters talking about what happened years ago, and we never got to see any of it as it was happening.

Also, the repetition came up again. Did we really need to go through "They find a clue, go to someone to follow up only to find that it's a Death Eater trap" twice? OK, not as bad as the pen in OOTP, but it seemed a little more than necessary in light of all that Rowling left out.

Impressions, some of which may not have been offered before:

Did anyone else spend half the book thinking Mad-Eye wasn't really dead?

So all Harry had to do to win over Kreacher was treat him with a little respect. Great concept, but Kreacher's conversion was a little too fast for me. I'd have liked to know what happened to him, also.

Very, very glad that Neville Longbottom really came into his own. Not so much as Professor of Herbology (I saw that one coming from about Book 2), but that he became the head of Dumbledore's Army in Harry's absence.

Many got weepy over Dobby, and it did affect me, too. But the emotional moment for me was when Harry was going through Sirius's bedroom. Lily's letter and the half-photo of Harry riding around on a broom just hit me too hard as signs of what Harry's childhood could have been like. I also had a moment when Dudley thanked Harry -- so perfectly adolescent in the way he did it.

Upthread, there was a question of who got to name their firstborn Fred. I'll accept that George might have had first claim on the name. But I'd like to think there was a fad for the name (and a few others) for some time after Voldemort's defeat. Nothing to prevent multiple parents from using the same name (or multiple names like Alfred, Frederick, Wilfred, that lend themselves to the same nickname). When I was growing up, there were always two or three boys named Mark in any group.

I hope Rowling either reconsiders her decision to leave the Wizard World or licenses a few novels by other authors. She left several fascinating stories untold -- for example, Hogwarts during 7th year, what happened during the year after Voldemort was defeated. And while they might not be able to carry a novel on their own, I'd be interested in seeing something focused on the Lovegoods.

But I'd like to think there was a fad for the name (and a few others) for some time after Voldemort's defeat. Nothing to prevent multiple parents from using the same name (or multiple names like Alfred, Frederick, Wilfred, that lend themselves to the same nickname).

I absolutely love this idea. There is certainly a precedent for children being named after heroes. Generations of Freds, Alastairs, Nymphadoras, is a nice idea.

And yes, I'm with you on wondering if Mad-Eye was really dead. Pretty much until the last page.

Did anyone else spend half the book thinking Mad-Eye wasn't really dead?

Oh, God yes. It wasn’t until Harry saw the eye in the door that I knew for sure.

She left several fascinating stories untold -- for example, Hogwarts during 7th year, what happened during the year after Voldemort was defeated.

Yes, these would be interesting, but I suspect that nothing really happened except they finished. After the excitement of the first books, would that work? Actually, what I think would be really fun is if Hermione or Luna started a blog during her 7th year.

Luna started a blog

This, I would pay to see.

Or maybe a counterpoint blog with the two of them bickering over what does and does not exist.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember ever seeing computers in the wizarding world? Wouldn't it be fun if Luna brought this marvelous new magic object to Hogwarts?

Mr. Weasley would wet himself.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember ever seeing computers in the wizarding world?

Magic could probably substitute for most uses of the computer.

Now I'm imagining a Google curse. You'd say, "Googleus bike!" and then the victim would compulsively start listing facts and uses for bikes.