Book Review- The Silkworm by J.K. Rowling, Robert Galbraith

The Silkworm by J.K. Rowling, Robert Galbraith

Source- Goodreads

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-

A new novel by J K Rowling creates a lot of hype and excitement and rightfully so. When I read the first book in Cormoran Series- The Cuckoo’s Calling I was totally captivated by the tall, bulky, limping detective with his grouchy attitude and his enthusiastic and pretty assistant, Robin. They make an unusual pair ( not romantically, though I wouldn’t be too surprised if they have a link-up in the following series).

The plot is well devised and Rowling keeps the guessing game of the killer’s identity wrapped in the reader’s curiosity till the very end of the book. The story revolves around the disappearance of an author Owen Quine who has written a controversial book- Bombyx Mori, portraying several big names in the publishing industry in not so very good light. That puts a few people under the suspects list with a very plausible motive. Strike comes into picture when Quine’s wife employs him to find her husband but very soon Cormoran finds himself entangled in the intriguing case.

A complex plot and a host of characters who have a very good motive to kill Quine and at the center of the story, a book that is full of perverse sex and arcane symbolism- it doesn’t get better than this. The book is unputdownable right from the very first page. I found it better than the first book The Cuckoo’s Calling and it does not disappoint Rowling’s fan. I would have given it all 5 stars if not for my feeling that there were some details that went unexplained in the end. I cannot explain much without revealing the plot and I don’t want to spoil the fun. Go ahead and read it, you won’t regret it.

I am eagerly awaiting the next Cormoran Strike novel.

Rating- 4.5