The Silkworm

Leonora Quine wants private detective Cormoran Strike to find her husband, writer Owen Quine.  He’s been missing for two weeks which, as it turns out, is not unusual for him.  She’s sure he’s at a writer’s retreat.  But Own turns up dead–murdered in a grisly, bizarre fashion.  At the same time, his book is published–a grisly, bizarre book that infuriates Owen’s editors, publishers, lovers, and fellow writers with its gruesome, barely fictionalized depictions of them.   Everyone’s a suspect, and they’re all also pretty unpleasant people.  But are they so unpleasant that they’d murder Owen in such a terrible, terribly deliberate way?

One thing I loved about this book is that the crime-solving had so many false starts, plausible suspects, and possible motives, but the criminal mastermind remained mysterious (at least for me!) until the very end.  Our heroes are preoccupied with the case, but they also go about their daily business, taking other cases, dealing with their pill of a fiance (Robin) and drama queen of an ex (Strike).  The pacing is excellent and realistic.  The characters are deftly drawn and odd but believable.  The relationships seems real, the frustrations and inner monologues ring true.  And the murder is creative, if grisly.

Plus, it’ssuper  interesting that Galbraith/Rowling chose to set this mystery in a world that she knows so well–the world of publishing.  As one review in the Times said, “As written by Rowling, “The Silkworm” takes “write what you know” and raises it to the 10th power. Is this crime fiction, a celebrity tell-all, juicy satire or all of the above? The blessing/curse here is that you turn the pages for the whodunit, but you never lose sight that these observations on the publishing world come from the very top…Do these observations take on more weight when we know that the writer is a superstar female author rather than a semi-obscure male one?  I think they do.”  I kept wondering the same while reading it, and it did not lessen my enjoyment of the plot at all.  In fact, I’d say it made me all the more curious and alert to the layers of commentary Rowling was putting into her character’s mouths.