Jenn's Review: The Silkworm

Author: Robert Galbraith (Pseudonym), J.K. Rowling
Series: Cormoran Strike #2
Publication Date: June 24, 2014
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Pages: 455
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  Crime, Mystert
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: Captivating
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Blurb:  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 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... 

  Review:   Rowling as Galbraith is just as enthralling as Rowling as Rowling. There is something engaging about the worlds and characters she creates that makes them captivating. I’ve actually been saving this novel for a while because I knew I’d be disappointed to have to wait for the next installment… and I am.

Cormoron has been busy since the Landry case, although for once he’s not scrambling for cases, he’s scrambling to keep up with his caseload. Yet when Mrs. Quine walks into his office with an odd request that may or maynot recompense, Strike feels inclined to take on her case. From the beginning nothing plays quite right with the case and as the idiosyncrasies mount, Cormoran gets pulled further into the case.

Robin is frustrated at home and at work. Her fiancée continues to disparage her career choice and her association with Strike in general. Strike, sensing the tension, has been trying to shift investigative responsibilities away from Robin which is making her miserable as that’s the part of her job she enjoys most. When Strike is forced to rely on her, Robin does her best to prove her value but her extra efforts will not go unnoticed on the home front.

As per usual, I had no idea where the mystery was headed. The twists and turns had me completely flummoxed… and thoroughly intrigued. I had a difficult time putting it down. If you are looking for spellbinding contemporary crime novels with realistic characters the Cormoran Strike series is definitely for you.

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