Fresh from her success with The Cuckoo’s Calling last year, J.K. Rowling follows up her immensely popular Cormoran Strike series with “The Silkworm”. Using her pen name, Robert Galbraith, she once again thrusts us readers into a different world of intrigue and whodunit mysteries.
After tackling the glitzy world of the movie industry, Rowling as Robert Galbraith, invites us into her world: the world of publishing. It may not seem as glamorous as her previous book, but with colorful characters with bloated egos and publishing politics, it certainly makes for an interesting read.
Like any good detective story, the story begins with a visit from Leonora Quine, the wife of the once-famous novelist, Owen Quine. With the premise setup and the allure of a new mystery, the hero, Cormoran, begins his investigation into the world of books. However and in true Rowling fashion, nothing is always as it seems, the Silkworm goes through the motions of a traditional detective story, the usual suspects are presented and a series of questioning on Strike’s part presents an intricate web of character profiles enough to make Sherlock Holmes impressed. But when the novelist Owen Quine is found dead and his death is the exact emulation of how his character in the novel dies, it certainly throws a wrench into Strike’s detective work. As Strike delves deeper into the publishing world, it becomes a story of political intrigue with a lot of finger pointing and false alibis to make for a very confusing mystery. For Rowling, this is familiar territory, and she certainly invites her readers to join her for the thrill ride of finding out what goes behind the world of authors and publishers.
As the story progresses, it was difficult for me to focus on the story, unlike The Cuckoo’s Calling, I was zoning out through most of the conversations in the novel. Half the time I was back tracking because my mind simply wandered off and I didn’t understand one bit of the conversation. In fact, most of the story is a blur right now and I can only mention a few events (which are probably irrelevant to the entire mystery) and a few names. Unlike her previous novel, the Silkworm felt half-baked and rushed, it still is a good read but incomparable in the quality of the mystery of the first book.
The Silkworm is available in many of the leading bookstores nationwide.