The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

The Silkworm is the second murder mystery in J.K. Rowling’s (I mean- Robert Galbraith’s) series featuring protagonists Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.  Cormoran, named for the giant in the old English fairy tale, Jack the Giant Killer, is indeed a large man with a challenged life.  His rock star father ignored him and his groupie mother throughout his childhood and now Cormoran despises when people associate him with his famous patriarch.  After an unstable upbringing, Strike blossoms into a competent MP in the British army while stationed in Afghanistan.  It is here an explosion severs his right leg below the knee thus ending his military career and leaving him dependent on a prosthetic leg.  He returns to London and opens a private detective agency handling mostly infidelity cases until his big break occurs… he solves the murder of a famous model previously ruled a suicide by the police.  The notoriety brings him business but mostly more insufferable infidelity cases.  Meanwhile, his secretary Robin shows promising investigation skills of her own and settles in as a worthy business partner… much to the chagrin of her fiancé.

Then the wife of novelist Owen Quine hires Strike to find her missing husband.  Seems he has disappeared before to cocoon in a nearby hotel to complete his latest novel.  But this time his sabbatical has lasted too long and Mrs. Quine is worried.  As Strike investigates he finds Quine’s disappearance is indeed more serious this time.  Just before his exit, he had delivered to his editor his latest manuscript trashing nearly every known associate based on true but confidential information.  Publishing his novel would ruin lives which means many have motive to silence the aging author.

Upon further investigation Strike discovers Quine’s body brutally and sadistically murdered.  Strikes client, Quine’s wife becomes the primary suspect by the police. Strike is convinced she is not the killer so takes it on himself to find the real offender.  All of Quine’s associates with petty conflicts, grudges, jealousies, and hidden transgressions must be interviewed and analyzed to find who is capable of such a hideous feat.  But culpability alone does not prove responsibility for the murder.  Strike must provoke the killer into action that will reveal his identity … and consequently place Strike and Robin directly in his getaway path.

The Silkworm validates J.K. Rowling’s versatility as a multiple genre writer.  In this mystery she presents many possible villains with enough suspicion to pinpoint any one of them as the perpetrator.  Meanwhile, she reveals more intimate details about the lead characters, Strike and Robin… endearing them to the reader… making them worthy protagonists for future novels.