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.

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.

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 is another very good effort from JKR in the detective fiction milieu. Cormoran Strike grows on you pretty quickly. In this caper he's attempting to find the murderer of an odious novelist, the identity of whom could be any number of the unpleasant victim's unpleasant friends, editors, agents, publishers or other unsavory players in the publishing world. While it's easy to dislike many of the other characters in The Silkworm, it's only because Rowling does such a terrific job depicting them. It seems rather to be the point. The relationships between each of these appalling people are discovered and revealed with surprising twists, allowing them to show off a deep variety of reprehensible, sad and sometimes kinky personality traits. We also get to know more of Strike's back story, which is interesting, and are introduced more thoroughly to his assistant, Robin, and her family, which is also interesting. Both Strike and Robin have complicated personal lives and these are expressed with sympathy and intelligence. All the while, Strike limps back and forth around London, putting together the pieces of an especially nasty homicide. I disagree with those folks who say the book drags (although, ironically, this novel concerning the London publishing scene could do with some editing - it's a bit long). There's a lot going on, the pacing is excellent, the twists and turns are exciting. Rowling's gift for dialogue is tremendous, too. She certainly knows her way around profanity. On the down side, the discoveries made by our hero Strike are tenuous and difficult to swallow. A few of the leads go nowhere and are unceremoniously dropped. The usual suspects are well known by the time the killer is identified - at which point it doesn't really matter which one of them did the deed because they're such an interchangeably awful bunch. The way the facts of the crime are surmised and then confirmed seems improbable and contrived. Strike doesn't solve his whodunits with old fashioned logic and deductive reasoning. Instead, he has a highly developed sense of suspicion that leads him to impossibly coincidental hunches that just happen to be spot on. Lastly, as in this novel's predecessor, a well-constructed build-up is let down by another dubious, anti-climactic reveal scene. Still, The Silkworm is a very good, gory story that's a lot of fun to read. The arrival is something of a let-down but the journey is well worth the trip. As with the HP books, this novel takes care to acknowledge the previous one and anticipate the next. There are very promising developments between Strike and the increasingly-loveable Robin, which bodes well for the future of this series. Hopefully, the payoff will be up to par with the delivery next time out.

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.

Absolutely engrossing reading. Loved every minute of the book!!! 'Robert' is a really talented writer and his style sucks the reader into the book from start to finish!

JK Rowling ( aka Robert Galbraith ) sitting in her castle in Scotland, secure with her millions of euros rightfully earned from her Harry Potter books probably doesn't need my praise to sleep well at night. Still, I have to say I loved this book and the other two Post Harry Potter novels. The critics gave mild praise Rowling's first post- Potter book, A Casual Vacancy,which she published under a pseudonym. When the world learned that it was a JK Rowling book that , gasp, had nothing to do with wizards but instead was a look inti the lives of those in a small English town, the reviews were pretty scathing. (Had I received such reviews, I would've taken to my bed with a severe case of the vapors. But that's just me. I suspect JK rolling is made of much sterner stuff. Which is why she is still writing and I am not. ). In any case, I found the criticism of her new book to be unfair. To me, A Casual Vacancy was a brilliant commentary on society in the tradition of George Elliott or Charles Dickens. The endingof A Casual Vacancy still haunts me. But back to the Silkworm and by extension, The Cuckoo's Calling. Short version, these are terrific books! I won't emote on the well drawn characters, the intriguing plot, and all the fascinating details of modern London culture. All that and more are covered well in other reviews. I will just say that I admire JK Rowling for daring to do something different. She spread her wings and tried another genre--albeit both a supportive agent and editor at her side. Still, daring to go undercover and under the radar and risk anonymity is pretty amazing and there was a great deal of risk: The possibility of being ridiculed by critics who didn't know or care just how good she could be. Or worse, she could have been outed as the author of the famous Harry Potter books and held to an unrealistic standard. Which, as it turns out, is pretty much what did happen. As someone who once wanted to be a writer, I so admire people like Rowling who keep on keeping on merely because they ( apparently ) love the act of writing, of creating characters who never existed before but who wiill because of her talent, soon become our closest and dearest friends. Let's give thanks for authors like her who once wrote in coffeehouses with the baby at their side, and who now even though wealthy beyond imagination and so comfortable in their realm that they could keep churning out the same old ,same old for years, that they dare to pull another marvelous rabbit out of an entirely new hat. How lucky are we that she breaks out of her comfort zone and takes great risks. Bravo to her and thanks for giving us something new and quite wonderful on its own

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'...)

Livro com enredo interessante e bem estruturado dentro do "mundo" do detetive Strike e sua assistente.

Well written and good mystery, very believable characters, very enjoyable holiday read, looking forward to reading the next one in the series

Avevo letto il primo, che mi era piaciuto. Ho quindi acquistato anche questo. Come sempre parte un po' lento, ma la trama poi ti coinvolge. Difficile comprendere chi sia il colpevole fino all' ultimo, e questa è una grande capacità.ultimamente mi sono capitati romanzi in cui avevo già capito tutto a metà libro... Continuerò a leggere la serie

Muy bien escrito y trama bien hilada. Incluso mejor que el primer libro. Londres pasa a ser un personaje mas, un Londres invernal, frío y desapacible. Este segundo libre ahonda en la descripción de los protagonistas, muy lograda. Realmente recomendable. Yo ya me he comprado el tercer libro, me he quedado enganchada a Cormoran y Robin.

日本語訳本が出ないので自分で頑張って読みました TVシリーズも本も、とても面白いので3巻以降も是非日本語版欲しいです