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The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
Jun. 30th, 2014 11:42 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he 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 realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel is published it will ruin lives – so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.
And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against tie to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before …
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
J K Rowling’s second crime novel (writing as Robert Galbraith) is an entertaining page-turner that lampoons London’s publishing elite but ultimately can’t quite deliver on its premise with a rushed and incoherent resolution. I loved Rowling’s skewering of literary London and the introduction of Strike’s old friends (including the man he saved in Afghanistan) and the progression of his break-up with Charlotte (who I really hope doesn’t appear as a character because she works so much better shown in Strike’s memories). There’s a hint of something traumatic within Robin’s background as well, although her relationship with the awful Matthew has doom written all over it and I could do without the brewing romance between her and Strike. Ultimately though what lets the book down is the ending, which is rushed and contains a car chase that makes absolutely no sense at all. This is a shame because while I had guessed the murderer (Rowling over-egging the main clue just a little too much), I was looking forward to a tense resolution. That said, there’s a lot of fun here and as such I’ll definitely be reading the next in the series.
When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he 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 realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel is published it will ruin lives – so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.
And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against tie to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before …
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
J K Rowling’s second crime novel (writing as Robert Galbraith) is an entertaining page-turner that lampoons London’s publishing elite but ultimately can’t quite deliver on its premise with a rushed and incoherent resolution. I loved Rowling’s skewering of literary London and the introduction of Strike’s old friends (including the man he saved in Afghanistan) and the progression of his break-up with Charlotte (who I really hope doesn’t appear as a character because she works so much better shown in Strike’s memories). There’s a hint of something traumatic within Robin’s background as well, although her relationship with the awful Matthew has doom written all over it and I could do without the brewing romance between her and Strike. Ultimately though what lets the book down is the ending, which is rushed and contains a car chase that makes absolutely no sense at all. This is a shame because while I had guessed the murderer (Rowling over-egging the main clue just a little too much), I was looking forward to a tense resolution. That said, there’s a lot of fun here and as such I’ll definitely be reading the next in the series.
