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.

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

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.

After reading Cuckoo's Calling, I couldn't wait for the next installment in the life and foibles of the wonderfully named ex Special Branch Operative, PI Cormoran Strike and his eager and quite adorable side-kick, Robin Ellacourt. Well, The Silkworm didn't disappoint. It opens with Cormoran dealing with the influx of clients (wealthy) he's attracted as a consequence of the fame his last case brought him - tracking down infidelities, finding proof of betrayal, things that he does because they keep the till ticking over but are not very fulfilling. When he's asked by a worn down and quite ordinary woman who arouses his sympathy and protective streak to track down her missing author husband, Owen Quine, and with a fairly obscure promise of payment, Cormoran (much to his surprise) agrees. Flung into the literary world where egos reign and revenge is lexically bitter-sweet (the adage, don't piss of a writer, you may well appear in his or her next book rings so true here), Strike cannot find the narcissistic and selfish Quine, though he does discover that the man has written a book set to turn the publishing world upside down. Taking the notion of the "poison pen" literally, Quine has written a terrible expose of all those who ever wronged him in his long and with one exception, not very successful career. Learning the limits of this unattractive (in terms of personality) and flamboyant writer, both through his unpublished manuscript and anecdotes from those who knew him, Cormoran also discovers many people with a motive to kill him. When a horrendously brutalised body is discovered, what was once a sick literary fantasy fast becomes a shocking reality and Cormoran understands he's dealing with a psychopath who will do anything to protect their identity... Wonderfully paced, filled with fabulously drawn characters who are flawed, angst-ridden, funny, acerbic and also naive, The Silkworm is a terrific sequel to Cuckoo's Calling. While Quine's book is filled with metaphor and allusion based around Pilgrim's Progress, there's a sense in which Strike undergoes his own progress - him and Robin who is keener than ever to establish her credentials as not just Strike's PA, but a professional partner. Encountering the bizarre people who populate the literary landscape, fiendish personalities and some very gory and weird scenarios, Strike has to deal with egos, intellect and lexical word games, dissembling and lies (or are they simply versions of the truth?) in order to uncover the killer. As in the first novel, Strike's personal life and his awareness of own weaknesses feature and this makes him such an attractive character. His self-reflections, his understanding that he occasionally uses people and the way this pricks his conscience, are beautifully drawn. You feel Strike's physical and emotional pain, but also his stoicness in the face of forces beyond his control. Thus, you engage with him even when you don't necessarily approve of his decisions - how can you not when the most critical judge of Strike's choices is himself? Robin really comes into her own in this novel as her personal life throws up questions and challenges and she's forced to make some clear cut choices. You can feel the relationship between her and Strike grow - but it's also organic, respectful and extremely gratifying, even when the lines of communication fail. Found this book very hard to put down - clever, eminently readable, and for a genre that's well trod, highly original as well.

A couple of days ago I checked my Kindle library and saw that the pre-ordered digital edition of Robert Galbraith's (RG) second novel, The Silkworm, had been magically delivered. Immediately, I dropped everything, and began to read, and when not reading, listened to the Audible version. 48 hours later, here is my take on this terrific book. OK, first, I am a devoted fan of the classic whodunit, especially the private eye sub-genre. I now have placed Cormoran Strike, RG's detective, up near the top of the scale between Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey. RG has purposely studied the best, and now made it 'his' own. Strike is unlike most British detectives, who are usually sensitive cops; he is a private detective, a hulking ex-Army investigator with the face of a failed boxer, a metal strut for a right leg, and a head of "pube-hair", tied together with the glinting twine of being a rock star's bastard son, named for a Cornish Giant. In The Silkworm, RG takes on the literary "establishment", plotting the horrific acid-eating disembowelment of a grotesque and narcissistic author, by one of the publishing world archetypes: the bitter agent, the drab wife, the enraged mistress, the closeted publisher, the abused editor, or the competitive uber-author. RG, aka, RK Dowling, knows this world all too well, having experienced, herself, the arc of going from struggling unpublished writer to envy-producing megastar, with both help and hindrance, no doubt, from each of these players. RG's first whodunit took on the celebrity world, it's paparazzi, lovers, publicists, bodyguards, and parasites. I can't wait to read what type of dough RG kneads next: perhaps rock star dad's glam? Ex-girlfriend's peerage? Finance investments in the City? The cast of Cormoran Strike's friends and allies grows in this book. Robin, his lovely, smart, strawberry blonde assistant finally stands up to her nimrod fiancé, and reveals hidden driving skills and bravery. Al Rokeby, his dad's legitimate son and well liked playboy, lends a hand. Strike's oldest childhood friend and master diver provides key evidence. And Cornish pals Nick and Ilsa jump into legal defense when called. The writing is a joy to read. Like Cormoran Strike himself, the sentences are big and muscular and robust, the plot is a tough modernized Jacobean revenge story, and the narrative is revealed from the ground of Strike and Robin's POVs. My only complaint is that the author lets us in on all of their musings about the suspects and evidence, until, about three-quarters through, Strike has an epiphany, after which we, the readers, are left out. Strike gives Robin and his other well-drawn allies instructions and explanations and shares his 'insane theories' without letting us in on them. Then there is a big reveal confrontation, a great scene in the snow, with the killer in the end. Happily, the killer was a huge surprise to me. I realize it may have been tough to let us in on the progress and still protect the mystery, but it felt like the easy way out for the denouement. No doubt, RG will get it right with practice!!!

'The Silkworm' is a fantastic read! The few hours I spent every weekend morning reading this book was a great way to begin a sunny summer day energized! I don't usually read in the morning because it tends to put me back to sleep. Not a chance of such a thing happening with this novel! As was true of the first in the Cormoran Strike series, 'The Cuckoo's Calling', the main characters are the best thing about 'The Silkworm' - fascinating and cute. The continuing drama surrounding Strike's and Robin Ellacott's personal lives mix seamlessly into the body of the mystery; the book is stronger for it. Robin's fiancé, Matthew Cunliffe, has a problem accepting Robin's job as secretary and Strike's quasi-partner in investigations; and Cormoran's disability issues from his missing leg alongside his annoyance at his connection with the aristocrat family of Rokeby he so doggedly ignores even as he uses the social power they give him are the spices which make this tale extra tasty. Uh, perhaps I'm thinking of food metaphors because a disembowelment 'opens' the Pandora's box of deadly threats facing our brave duo. I guess it's how I roll.....but, perhaps I should mention this is an adult mystery, but not with unnecessary graphic violence. Strike relies heavily on the skills he learned in the Special Investigation Branch of the Army while in Afghanistan to run his detective agency. Losing his leg has slowed him down tremendously, but he never gives in to the disability, though I found several tight spots because he cannot run or balance in the snowy weather of London that come up in the course of proving the innocence of Leonora Quine in the disappearance of her husband, Owen Quine, very intense and frustrating! Owen Quine is disliked by most. He is a literary writer who became important when his first book proved a critical success. His personality and habits of betrayal did not win rave reviews with his publisher, editor, agent or friends, however. As a husband, he cheats on his wife. Only with his mentally disabled daughter, Orlando, does he remain a beloved man. He produces a second book which viciously exposes the dirty secrets of all of his acquaintances. Somehow a draft version is delivered to most of the principals in the publishing house, as well as to his bitter ex-friends and now rivals. Whatever the devious reason behind this act, it succeeds in riling up everyone included in the vengeful author's book to such a heightened level, Quine apparently goes into hiding. Leonora does not appear to love her husband, but she has bills to pay and a special needs daughter to raise. Not understanding that the police would consider her a good suspect for murder if Owen does not return, she simply wants him found to resume his financial support. Strike is aware of the bigger difficulty Leanora will face if he cannot trace Owen's movements. He is very concerned when he realizes that Mrs. Quine is one of the most honest, if idiosyncratic, people he has met lately. He can see how the more dull-witted police will not look for anyone else as a suspect because of her mannerisms. He must find Owen Quine soon. Hopefully alive....