Since I missed the world of Cormoran Strike, when the television show was announced I knew I would do my best to track it down. It wasn’t easy in the States without a Cinemax subscription, but I sent a plea to my brother and he managed to procure the series for me. Talk about perfect timing for The Book Was Better? bingo square.
Most people can’t reread mystery novels; once they know the ending the book loses its ability to hold their interest. Because my brain apparently doesn’t hold onto the salient details the mystery is often new again to me – in fact I didn’t remember who had committed the actual murder until past the 90% mark of the audio book. The clues were there, and it was fun to recognize which I remembered to be the red herrings. The Silkworm remains a fascinating examination at what can bring out a criminal genius.
Until this point in my reading of the Cormoran Strike books I had thought of Charlotte as non-critical to the story. I thought she was there to give us a better idea of Strike’s past, as a comparison point to Robin. Oh how wrong I was. In my first reading of book three, Career of Evil, I pulled apart the ways that sexism and misogyny were being examined in the book and in this reading I saw so many of the ways Rowling was setting up those points in this book. What I had missed, or what I had just assumed as part of the fabric of The Silkworm on my first go through was how Rowling as Galbraith was pulling the strings on unhealthy, codependent relationships and Charlotte and Matthew are part of that important subtext.
Back to the adaptation question, yes the book was better. Odds were always going to be so, how do you slim down a 17 hour audio book into a two hour television show and not lose something crucial to the story? Like the adaptation of the first book this one moved the timeline around a bit, one of the character’s first name was changed for reasons passing understanding, and an entire swath of side characters were left behind. But the television show did keep the main character beats of Robin and Cormoran’s relationship and the mystery, so for that I am thankful but remained ticked off that they didn’t get right *which* leg Cormoran lost (the right, he lost the right!).
CBR10 Bingo Square: The Book Was Better?
(I am getting closer to a bingo… I swear. I have Listicles, So Shiny, White Whale, and This Old Thing lined up.)
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