The Silkworm

The Silkworm is the second novel in the British detective series featuring Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott by Robert Galbraith. After critical acclaim for volume 1, J. K. Rowling acknowledged that she is the writer behind the Galbraith nom de plume. Rowling explained that she wanted the freedom to publish novels without being judged against her history of international success writing the Harry Potter books. This judgment was harsh, in my opinion, when Rowling published her Potter breakaway novel, The Casual Vacancy. That was an excellent stand-alone novel and I wondered what direction her writing would take. I hoped some of the criticism would not cause her to abandon writing fiction for adult readers. Well, it did not. The Casual Vacancy, published in Rowling's own name, is a British village story with great character development and interaction that involves elements of mystery. The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm are excellent beginnings of a detective/mystery series in the British tradition of Robert Barnard (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/25/robert-barnard) and Simon Brett (http://www.simonbrett.com/books/), two of my favorites. The plots are complicated but realistic in that Rowling uses Cormoran's perspective to reveal clues to murders, withholding information causing the reader to puzzle over the guilt of several suspects. Cormoran is a large, gruff, disabled British Army veteran of the current war in Afghanistan. He was a military detective, Special Investigation Division, and he now uses the systematic investigative skills he learned in the military in his private detective work. Cormoran has an interesting and challenging personal history that influences his current social relationships and work life. One fairly stable relationship is with Robin who has become a partner (at her insistence). She does not want to remain a secretary in his office. The pair make a good team, but it is a complicated situation; there is only one undisputed boss. In The Silkworm, a well-known British writer is missing, and his widow seeks out the detective to find him even though the woman cannot pay him. Cormoran finds the author's mutilated body in a London mansion, and he and Robin make room in the office caseload to solve the crime. The "Bombyx Mori" (the Latin term for Silkworm) is the name of a novel written by the murdered author. It is a metaphor for a private cocoon of obsessive resentment, guilt, envy, and retribution enclosing the perpetrator of the murder. The novel starts with a recap of Cormoran and Robin's activities including the prior case described in The Cuckoo's Calling, so readers can begin the series at volume two with enough information to understand the general detective situation. Because the action takes place in the context of novel writing and publishing, it is interesting to hear Rowlings voice as she criticizes electronic self-publishing that may make anyone feel like a readable author. I was happy to read that Rowling plans to write "many" more novels in the Cormoran Strike series, and she is half way through volume three with an idea for volume four(http://time.com/3013543/jk-rowling-cormoran-strike-novels/). What makes this series so good is the wonderful writing style of J. K. Rowling and her ability to encourage readers to identify with and like the key people in her mystery stories. I am hooked for sure.

Bottom Line First: "Robert Galbraith", AKA J. K. Rowling rose to fame by writing what the British used to call rattling good yarns. The Silk Worm is a good yarn. This is a solid addition to the tradition of the private detective who honestly figures out who done it. Everyone is a suspect. The police, here called the Met get it wrong. There is an obvious red herring and the clues are there for the alert. The problem of proving the solution leaves the reader in suspense to the final reveal. All of this is the within the traditional formula and it is to the author's credit that we ride the formula aware of and indifferent to the formula. "Galbraith" passes the tests of being entertaining, and of not cheating the reader from having a chance to solve the case. A good read. ???????????????????? When we last saw the budding team of Cormoran Strike and his sidekick/ fellow private detective Robin Ellacott they had just solve a very high visibility case involving the murder of a super model. Now that the firm has some money and the additional cases load born of good press; Strike accepts the case of a missing writer from a dowdy wife, much burdened with a mentally challenged daughter. The team soon finds that the writer is widely despised and the author of a book taunting everyone he knows. Technically everyone he knew because we find him the victim of a gruesome murder accomplished in an overly detailed crime scene. The game is not so much afoot as hanging. With the Silk Worm we have two detective stories set in high profile media related industries. A third novel is in the release process and we soon learn if this will be another constant milieu for the older, more cynical ex-military investigator and the fast learning , fast driving back up . The information is that he will always have to deal with a local police force that resents being shown up by a civilian. All of these details create a sense that we are seeing behind the scenes. Witness to the private world of the media elite. Strike has connections via his past military work and through his father a successful (rich rock star). Always we are privy to the secret world of the connected. On the other hand, Galbraith/Rowling is not handy at building suspense or a sense of danger. Her stories tend to move along in a simple trajectory with a minimum of risk and the day to day details of getting a job done. Early on Rowling realizes that the daily rituals of a burly single man with one leg are not things we need endlessly reported. Filling this space is, fortunately, more about the story. The author simply lacks an edge. Her heroes lack the money for a true British Drawing room mystery so they are scruffy and slightly down at the heel. The story remains mostly gentile. Strike seems to be a capable brawler, maybe one day we will have him in a brawl.

For more reviews, please visit[...] This is the second book in the Cormoran Strike series, and I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery novel. I love how enjoyable I find these novels when there is limited action throughout. Galbraith has made it a point to utilize dialogue more than violence or full-throttle action in order to move the plot along, and while I would think this method wouldn't work for me, it actually keeps me glued to the page. Strike is able to interrogate suspects and think through each piece through dialogue in the novel, keeping the reader in the loop with each individual piece of evidence that he acquires. The only time the reader does not get full reign on Strike's thoughts is at the climax of the novel, when Strike has put together what happened and who the killer is, and the setup is needed to reveal it to the reader. As in the previous novel, Robin serves as Strike's secretary/partner, and she is a wonderful addition tot he novel. I love how Galbraith takes the time to explore Robin's relationship with her fiance, Matthew, and how it affects her employment with Strike. Galbraith took the time to develop this relationship more in this book, which I appreciated since I'm a fan of Robin. I also think there were some of the same subtle hints to burgeoning feelings between Strike and Robin in this novel as there were in the first, which is interesting and has left me wondering what is to become of them. As for Galbraith's writing, I have to point out that one of the things I love most are some of the silly details that get thrown in with the more serious subject matter that the plot of the book relies on. The farting leather couch in Strike's office never failed to make me smile each time it was mentioned, and Strike's constant awareness of the cost of things in his time of debt felt close to home to me. Galbraith knows how to slide in little pieces of amusement without taking away from the seriousness of the book. That being said, this one was definitely gruesome. Both the description of Quine's murder and the detailed descriptions of excerpts of his book occasionally made me shudder because of the grotesqueness of them, but because I'm a little bit morbid, I also appreciated it. This was also a good tool for Robin's character development as she got to experience some of the more morbid sides of Strike's work. Overall, this was a great second addition to the series. I loved the first book and I loved this one. I already have the third on TBR and imagine that I will continue to read the series.

The plotting and characterization in The Silkworm were of the same style as the previous installment in this series, and that means that they were excellent. The style is the same, also: slow burn with a rising action and a great denouement. I loved the mystery itself, and again failed to figure out who the killer was before Strike. He's just that good, I guess. And I really, really want to read (view spoiler)Bombyx Mori. Just to see what all the fuss is about. I still really, really like Strike and Robin and their calm camaraderie. I like watching them interact with each other, although I still read in fear that they will end up together and ruin everything. I'm pretty sure this series would jump the shark at that point, but I could be wrong. J.K. can make anything work, I guess. I still hate Matthew, as I'm sure we're all meant to. He's just...ugh. Get a clue, Robin. There were only a few little things that made this less satisfying than Cuckoo, and it's hard to describe them. The ending, the "solve," just wasn't as neat or as precise, and I didn't understand the "why" as much this time, either. I didn't like the way Strike treated Nina at all. It wasn't like his liaison in the first book; he treated Nina rather poorly, in my opinion. But I did like this book a lot more than some mysteries I've put myself through lately, regardless. I'm waiting for the paperback to come out to read Career of Evil , just so it will match my copies of the first two books, but I'm so looking forward to it. TL;DR: These books are some of the most carefully plotted and beautifully written I've read in a while. The characterization ain't shabby, either. Check them out, for sure.

The Silkworm is the second crime fiction novel written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, and ‘starring’ private investigator Cormoran Strike and his (female) assistant Robin Ellacott. (The first was The Cuckoo’s Calling, 2013). The Silkworm is set in the publishing world. A middle-aged woman, Leonora, comes to Strike’s office to ask for help to track down her husband, Owen Quine; a semi-famous writer, who seems to have disappeared. He’s been known to go off on his own before, but this time he’s been away for ten days without getting in touch. The family situation is getting difficult (they also have a daughter with some problems) and his wife wants him found. Leonora does not seem overly worried that something might have happened to him – she assumes he has probably just gone off on some kind of writer’s retreat, but she does not know where, and she has not been able to find out herself, as her phone calls to people in the publishing world who might know have not been returned. She also mentions, more or less in passing, that there have been some recent unpleasant incidents adding to her distress – someone putting dog excrements through their letter box at night, a strange woman turning up on their doorstep leaving a mysterious message, and another woman following her in the street… Strike decides to take on the case. One problem with this novel, from reader’s point of view, is that during the first 1/3 or so of the novel, nothing much seems to “happen”; except for Strike arduously limping around a dreary wintry London (he lost half a leg in the Afghan war), meeting various people in the publishing world, and slowly finding out bits and pieces about Quine - all mixed with bits and pieces from Strike’s and Robin’s personal lives, where various developments are also going on. As for the gossip that Strike is gathering from Quine’s acquaintances, it is hard to make out how much is true or false, and what might be important or not. Then Strike manages to get hold of one of Owen’s previously published novels, and also a secret copy of his last, yet unpublished work. The book proves to have a tedious and gruesome plot full of allegorical names and gory details of a kind I always find it rather tempting to speed-read rather than pay much attention to… In retrospect, though, I must advise readers of this particular book not to skip too hastily through all that, if you want a chance of understanding the rest. Another piece of advise is not to skip the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. If you take the trouble to look up some of those authors and titles (if you don’t know them already), there are clues there too. (The connecting theme will also be spelled out later within the context of the story, though.) As I was aware from before, Rowling is also in the habit of hiding clues and hints in the names of characters. In this novel, we’re dealing with double and sometimes even triple layers of that kind, as she lets her fictional writers within the book use similar tactics; although in the more obviously allegorical way, like it was often done back in the 1600s. At the end, I have to confess I still had difficulties piecing everything together. Even though I did guess at some things, I also realised I had “missed” a lot. But when I went back and reread the first 1/3 of the book again – and especially the parts that I was tempted to just skim the first time – of course the details were there, hidden in all the chitter-chatter that at the time did not seem all that important… Because of the complexity of this story, with its double or triple plots, and references to old plays using the same techniques – I think this is one novel that could benefit (just like a play) from having a list of characters at the beginning (or at the end). I did not check out the Wikipedia article until after I’d finished the book – to avoid spoilers – but it seems this idea occurred to the authors of that page as well (because they did compile such a list of characters). I find myself hesitating when it comes to rating the total reading experience – my problem being that I can’t really say I ‘love’ the story as such; but at the same time I do recognise that it is cleverly constructed and gave me a lot to think about. (For one thing, it lead me on to also reading Virginia Woolf's 'Orlando'...)

I was very pleased to see another case arrive for Cormoran Strike, the one-legged chain-smoking out of shape detective in his mid 30s, to solve. Although it took me a while to get into the story, once I was there, I was keen to see how it all panned out. I think it was probably down to the disjointed nature of my available reading time when I started. I’m not going to fill this review with a rundown of the plot, that’s what the blurb is for. The bare basics are that there’s been a gruesome murder and Cormoran is on the case. One of the things I like about these books is that they are very dialogue driven. I find that engaging, like I’m along for the ride as an observer lingering off to the side. It hooks me, and I think that Cormoran’s questioning technique is great. Just like a real investigator, he collects seemingly unrelated little snippets from each encounter and stores them in his box of clues. Then we reach the point where he has an epiphany that links them all together. I love how RG (JK) doesn’t just end the story there, he (she) then goes on to find ways to prove everything before revealing it to the reader and the cast. It reminds me of Mrs Marple mysteries. Robin is a great character as well (probably my favourite). She’s eager to hone her investigative skills, but has a constant battle with her fiancé, who doesn’t like her job, and Cormoran who she doubts really takes her seriously. She’s a bright lady, and it takes a few incidents before Cormoran finally realises what a gem she is. I really enjoy reading the discussions between Cormoran and Robin, where she is an integral part to solving clues and bringing clarity to the situation. There were a number of nice touches in there too, which made me smile along the way. Like the mention of Emma Watson on a magazine cover. What a nice nod to Emma from JK. And the book also mentioned Cormoran going to Hamleys, which sounded familiar to me, so I Googled. It’s a toy store that I visited on my last trip to London. Coincidentally, on the Hamleys landing page there were Harry Potter toys advertised :) In a nutshell: I really enjoyed this new Cormoran Strike case. The plot had me guessing along the way and changing my mind a heap of times. At first I thought it was (.) then (.) but when I found out it was (.) … I was surprised. Recommended for fans of crime solving, JK and RG. Note: I don’t claim to be a pro-reviewer, I am a reader. My reviews are based on my personal thoughts around the story that the book is trying to tell. I try to focus on the story (which is the reason I read) rather than dissect the book and pass comment on typos, writing style or structure.

This one was even better than the first. Had me reading it every chance I had. It’s been the only thing to get me off tiktok lol

It’s somewhat surprising that publishers have allowed The Silkworm to continue to be listed under the name Robert Galbraith instead of J.K. Rowling – after all, this is an industry where female writers are often asked to abbreviate their names so that sales don’t get affected, so I can’t imagine that leaving Rowling’s name off is appealing to them. And yet, in a lot of ways, it’s completely appropriate – the Galbraith books don’t feel like the public assumptions of what J.K. Rowling writes. They’re private detective books with a little dose of hard-boiled mixed in – they’re occasionally violent (even graphically so, in the case of The Silkworm), suspenseful, and full of shady characters. Even so, much like that more famous other series she wrote, the joy here isn’t always so much the plot as it is the rich characterization and general gift for storytelling. In creating the jaded war veteran Cormoran Strike and his Girl Friday Robin Ellacott, Rowling’s come up with two outstanding characters that have a way of pulling you along even as the plotting occasionally gets bewildering in the way so many mysteries do. After all, The Silkworm is full of absurd touches, red herrings, colorful characters, and elaborate plot ideas, not the least of which is the central hook – the absolutely brutal and graphic killing of a notorious author that seems to have been inspired by his unpublished manuscript, which mocked and ridiculed pretty much everyone in his life and in the publishing industry. The result is a pretty solid detective novel that scratches all the right itches for the genre – tense interviews with reluctant witnesses and suspects, power plays, bluffs to draw out the villains, covert surveillance, lots of red herrings, and secrets galore. If you know the genre, you know what you’re getting, and it’s no small thing to say that Rowling generally does it incredibly well. The Silkworm feels silly at times, especially when you try to put it all together – and that’s especially true with the answers of who did it and why – but none of that keeps it from being an incredibly entertaining and gripping read, nor does it stop it from being a really great piece of detective fiction (one that feels different enough from Rowling’s other writings to merit the pseudonym). But the real treat here is the character work, which gives The Silkworm the investment you need in a good detective story. The contrast between cynical, world-weary, literally walking wounded Cormoran Strike and his hopeful, eager, earnest secretary / assistant / trainee Robin Ellacott is easy and obvious, but Rowling makes it work incredibly well, bringing both characters to rich life and letting their friendship and mutual respect speak volumes. It’s a great central dynamic to the book, and the way Rowling plays with it – and the tensions between them – and uses them to supplement her labyrinthine (but engaging) mystery is what makes The Silkworm so satisfying. That Rowling got so pigeonholed that she felt like she couldn’t write the Cormoran Strike books under her own name is a bit sad; that she’s writing them, though, and that there are more to come? That’s very welcome news indeed, because if they’re all this fun and captivating, well, I won’t be complaining.