History Literature / TheRunningGrave

* [[spoiler: FedToPigs: Daiyu Wace's real fate. Not lost forever when she drowned in the North Sea but murdered on the farm and fed to pigs to dispose of the body.]]

* BuxomBeautyStandard: Cormoran finds finds Bijou Watkins annoying and unpleasant, but has to admit that she has "an undeniably fabulous figure, small-waisted, long-legged and large-breasted." He later has sex with her against his better judgment and is disappointed to find out that her breasts are fake.

* ForeignCultureFetish: Mazu Wace has this for China. She claims to be half-Chinese, is obsessed with the "I Ching", names all the children Chinese names, etc. And while Mazu claims motherhood over all the children in the UHC, she gives special attention to one Chinese baby born late into the novel.

* ImprobablyPredictable: At the end of the novel, Strike meets with Amelia, the sister of his former girlfriend Charlotte, who [[spoiler:committed suicide earlier in the novel.]] Amelia reveals that Charlotte [[spoiler:left behind a lengthy suicide note. She admits to having burned it in anger, but tells him that she still remembers the essentials. She offers to share the portion relevant to him, but he tells her he can guess essentially what it said and proceeds to do so. She admits that he basically nailed it.]]

* TheVietnamVet: PosthumousCharacter Rust Andersen (an early Chapman Farms resident) was a Vietnam veteran who never returned to America, looks prematurely aged in a picture Robin sees, and spent decades living in a tent and avoiding crowds. He still comes across as having been [[OnlySaneByComparison more benevolent and grounded than most of his neighbors, both before and after the Waces’ takeover of the farm]]).

* PrecisionFStrike: Strike confronts the creepy church leader in the inner sanctum of his own temple with all of his elders present, and he's not intimidated: "I'm not as humble as you are, Jonathan. I don’t need to ask myself whether I’m up to the job, because I know I’m fucking great at it, so be warned: ''if you do anything to hurt either my partner or Rosie Fernsby, I will burn your church to the fucking ground.''" [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome And he does.]]

* FedToPigs: Daiyu Wace's real fate. Not lost forever when she drowned in the North Sea, but murdered on the farm and fed to pigs to dispose of the body.

* BabyFactory: Acknowledging blood ties ''and'' refusing a sexual proposition are anathema at Chapman Farm, with the result that all the women are essentially surrogates, with Mazu claiming motherhood over their children. [[spoiler:The kids that get to stick around, anyway--the entire UHC system turns out to be a cover for a massive child trafficking scheme, with the above conditions geared toward creating as many parentless children as possible.]]