Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo’s Calling. When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days–as he has done before–and she wants Strike to find him and bring him … to find him and bring him home.
But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives–meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.
When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…
A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, THE SILKWORM is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant, Robin Ellacott.more
I finished The Silkworm this weekend, and I’m really enjoying this detective series set in London. This one (the second of three published so far) was particularly fun because the central crime is set in the publishing world! It’s so satisfying to see how talented J.K. Rowling is beyond the HP world. @HMish, have you read the third one yet?
This book almost made me miss my subway stop a few times because I was so caught up in it. I love mysteries that involve literature, writers and stories within stories, like The Thirteenth Tale and Possession, so the fact that this centers around a publishing industry scandal and some feuding authors interested me right away. The more disturbing, meta-literary, and Jacobean-revenge-tragedy like the story got, the more I was pulled in.
However, aside from the bookish aspects it’s also just a well crafted mystery tale–I didn’t guess the culprit until the very end but still felt pretty satisfied with how all the threads came together. The detective, Comoran Strike, is gruff yet lovable antihero, and his partner Robin is written a bit thinly but still someone you root for.
It’s also quite interesting to read this book’s (somewhat satirical) depictions of the publishing industry, writerly ambition and fame and wonder what J.K. Rowling (Galbraith is her mystery pen name) really thinks about those things… I didn’t actually finish her first Galbraith novel, but I might return to it–and pick up the third one–after enjoying this so much.
I really enjoyed the way this story was written. Fast paced, yet patiently woven in the way all the suspense and depravity of the plot unfolded. A great mystery taking place in the literary world-fantastic! Author friends, you’ll get a real kick out of this one. Perhaps you’ll figure out who the culprit is long before I did. This one kept me guessing until the end. FYI- listen to it for even more enjoyment. The narrator is terrific!
This followed the HBO show pretty closely. Love these people.
This is the second of the Strike novels and I have to say, it just didn’t live up to the first for me. It was still a good book. It had its mystery and twists and turns. It kept me guessing about who and why and how, but it just felt… forced. I can’t put a finger on exactly what it was that didn’t work for me. Maybe it was all the talk of the grotesque story within the story since it was set in the publishing world. It was offputting. I liked the development of the two main characters. The growth of Robin standing up for herself with both the men in her life was great to see. I loved their interactions as usual. But the book as a whole was a bit of a letdown after how amazing I found book 1. I’ll be moving on to book 3 as soon as it’s available from my library and I’m hoping this was nothing more than a sophomore slump because I want to see great things for this duo.
I am obsessed with the Cormoran Strike series by ‘Robert Galbraith.’ I am late to the party but love devouring these books.
This is a wonderful read. Cormoran and Robin are engaging and you care about their personal conflict without losing sight of the main conflict in the story. The author shows a deep understanding of the human condition, as usual.
Fabulous series, well written, and with descriptions that do not bog down the narrative. Love main characters. Very good mystery
I’m not a big fan of detective stories but both this one and the first Cormoran Strike novels are superb. With great characters and a brisk pace it is a book that will keep you turning pages deep into the night. Cormoran Strike is a former British army intelligence officer who after being discharged sets up his own detective agency. Strike is a very well formed character, a large powerful man with keen intellect, with a super back story: the illegitimate son of a rock superstar and a rock groupie, the on and off fiancé of a former super model aristocrat, and a war hero who lost a leg saving his comrades during an attack in Afghanistan.
While in the first novel his agency was struggling to get by, after having solved the murder of the world’s reigning super model business has been brisk. Unfortunately not the most satisfying kind, is mostly rich people trying to get back at there wives, husbands and lovers. So when lesser known writer goes missing after having threatened to publish an expose of London’s publishing world he is very interested to take the case up.
This is the second book of the series, and one even better than the first one. The main characters are very believable, interesting, and the reader wants to know as much as they can of them. The plot is straight forward and easy to follow. I highly recommend this book.
Yet again we have been given another first rate book by the hand of Ms Rowling – aka Robert Galbraith. It is an addictive read and hard to leave for ‘real life’ things that intrude on our reading time!
The characters continue to grow and they flow together throughout the story. Robin and Strike seem to bounce off each other to find trains of thought that lead to answers they are looking for and succeed brilliantly.
The story as a whole is extraordinary yet believable and the plot thickens and comes together perfectly.
I heartily recommend this book to anyone who likes a mystery/thriller
I own a soft back copy of this book
Great series!
This followed the HBO show pretty closely. Love these people.
I’m not prone to giving books bad reviews, but I can’t believe I bothered to finish this one. Luckily, I had an audio copy and was able to crank it up to 1.5x. That almost made it tolerable.
The good (what kept me from hitting the Delete button): I did like the characters of Cormoran and Robin and their relationship in the first book of the series. I wanted to see how that played out. How Cormoran would handle his respectful crush on his assistant, how he would work through his recent personal troubles, how Robin would deal with her jealous fiancee.
But even that interest fizzled out in this book.
The bad: As one reviewer hilariously points out….the book is WAY TOO DAMN long for the story. There’s a point of building tension, of delaying the big reveal, of teasing your readers, but damn, not when you’re doing that by forcing your crazy number of characters to have long, rambling, pointless conversations about literature, about symbolism, about…gads, i don’t even know what because I was so sick of hearing about it.
The bad continued: There’s too many events that aren’t so much plot points, as lengthy, wordy fillers. Too many dinner/drinks parties. Too many scenes of Cormoran whining about his leg (go to the doctor, man! It’s not like you’re in the US. You have NHS health care!!). Too many scenes of Robin grouping about her fiancee (only to find out all she had to do was talk to him…what a concept). Too many insults toward indie authors. Too many roundabout scenes that went nowhere and did nothing to advance the case.
One last bad: I found it impossible to believe an author who no publisher can stand to work with is being sought after by what seemed like every other publisher in London.
I liked the first book well enough, but this book sealed the deal for me. I’m done with this series.
I enjoyed the first book and can easily say that I liked this one even more. The mystery is uncomplicated, but the characters are what drives my enjoyment, their growth, expanding and changing. I am always sorry to see the end, and thankful to know there are more in this series, so I don’t have to wait.
I really like these books. The story is interesting . The characters a re addicting. And, you can’t wait until another book comes out. I want more!
Book II of JK Rowling’s series about a disabled veteran of the Afghanistan war and his plucky assistant, both of who are still trying to figure out who they are professionally and personally. Awesome characters and character development. Will definitely continue the series to see how things go for good o’l Robin and Cormoran.
Good to great.
Great mystery had me fooled for a long time. The characters were interesting and very different. There are recurring characters from an earlier novel, The Cuckoos Calling, that I was glad to see again.
Another riveting, page turner by the author. Receiving notoriety by proving supermodel Lula Landry death was by murder not the suicide that the police had concluded, business has picked up for detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant, Robin. He is only accepting high paying cases, so he can pay off his debts and raise robin’s salary. However, when Leonora Quine walks into the office, looking for help finding her missing husband, he takes her case anyway. He succeeds too well, tracking him down to a gruesomely staged murder scene, straight out of his latest unpublished book. When the police lazily charge Leonora with murder, Strike and Robin set out to find the real killer, putting them both in danger. Intriguing characters, though so many, that I found myself confused and mixing them up a bit, a gripping plot and well written narrative.