The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith - Paperback

Great read

Somebody get this woman an editor.Unpleasant and unbelievable characters and a vaguely murky setting that almost has you thinking you're reading some fantasy world story.I started skim-reading at 85% (Kindle) in a desperate attempt to get it finished, no longer caring who had done it, or why.Too many characters and the "literary" device of character A telling the reader via a long-winded conversation with Strike what the writer wants us to know about character B (very little by the end, I just wanted them out of my life) is tedious and very Creative Writing Lesson 1 for such an accomplished writer.In any case, that's me done with Robert Galbraith. The first one was OK, this was like wading through treacle.

I thought The Silkworm was a gruesome (and in places downright unpalatable), but competent thriller. I found Strike and Robin more developed as characters (more so than they were in Cuckoo’s), and it was good that they are shown with flaws and a shared theme of having terrible tastes when it comes to romantic partners.While Strike is pretty much a wreck (is that quite appealing in some men, do you think?), Robin is good-looking, highly intelligent, capable, and someone who reveals ‘hidden talents’. Although, in every way, insufferable like the know-it-all, Hermione. Other depictions of women in the book were considerably less flattering, elevating Robin’s status further. I don’t know if this was intentional, but I felt like HP and Ron rolling their eyes while Hermione patronised, or condescended to them.The saving grace is I do love reading about London, and can follow the characters on their journeys with ease and nostalgic delight. This above all are some of my more favourite parts of these books. Warts and all - having to go past gangs of youth and not quite making your train etc., well, in the days before the virus.All the characters in this book, to certain degrees, are treated sympathetically and they are essentially not wholly good or evil. This does help keep things believable, and the less believable bits are down to luck or serendipitous events. Sometimes detectives need to get lucky (in the words of Columbo), which happens here.Another thing, the unravelling of plots and themes happens a bit too quickly in places, because a couple of times it was difficult to follow Strike’s train of thought, and I found myself reading back the last couple of pages to see anything I might’ve missed the first time round. The author demands complete attention from the reader and presses on whether the reader can catch up or not. Perhaps, in doing so, some readers will just give up on the somewhat convoluted narrative.However, the main lead is not typically handsome, a traumatised veteran and disabled. Yet he overcomes daily pain to focus on his tasks. I can relate to this in terms of dealing with and managing daily pain, but still having to make a living.Strike’s work is not at all glamorous in some places, when stalking unfaithful spouses. I wonder if the editor could’ve been a bit more heavy-handed and removed a couple of these segues into irrelevant events. I do get, however, that the author wanted to show the more unglamorous side of private detective work. This could have been covered in a couple of pages, not several.The other characters are ambiguous and sometimes like ghastly caricatures, which reminded me of Roald Dahl’s style. This does make for compelling reading and despite my irritation of not being able to follow or understand Strike in places, I found myself getting absorbed into this thrilling tale.The real question though: is Robin really Top Gear’s ‘Stig’?!

It's ok to pass the time. But I just can't stop wondering how much exactly Rowling's husband is cheating on her, that she lives under the impression that every woman in a vicinity of any man will not just want to screw him the instant she sees him, but marry him and have a lot of his children, very sexist and hateful of her, especially when you think that she's a woman, what is it, self hate? That aside, the characters are really badly written, there's no character to this Cormoran dude, it's chaotic, like she can't decide who he should be. Robin, his assistant, is a victim of domestic abuse, of which no word is being said, as though it's a normal thing (maybe it is in England?)...But she did write it and put it out there, so kudos to her.

I really wanted to like this one. I loved the first one in the series. However, I had to force myself to finish The Silkworm. The main characters, of which there are many, were lacking any redeeming qualities as far as I'm concerned. I just couldn't get interested in them at all. Even Robin and Cormoran seemed to have lost some of their lustre.

JK Rowling is back again with our favorite post-Sherlock detective!The book starts when a widow visits Strike and Robin in his office asking for help regarding her missing husband. When Strike investigates his death he soon unravels some of the inner workings and deeply contrived attitudes present in the publishing world, a world where getting published at all is like striking gold and reputation is everything. When Strike discovers that the missing man has actually been gruesomely murdered, things get even more twisted from there.This book exemplifies Rowling's signature extraordinary storytelling talents- she hasn't lost her flare. Cormoran and Robin are likeable, well structured and holistic characters. We learn a bit more about Strike himself and see his professional relationship with Robin grow - the two make an unlikely pair and you can't help admire each one's respective talents.However, out of the 3 Strike novels in existence, I felt the ending and subsequent explanation of the mystery of The Silkworm to be very rushed and left many questions to be answered - in fact, the explanation of Strike's mystery-solving took up exactly a page and a half - and that too, of the last few pages of the book! The rationale behind Strike's investigative findings felt hastily hodge-podge at best, but of course by this point in the book you just want to know "whodunnit", -thanks again to Rowling's talents as a master storyteller. Still, a book worth picking up and an essential read if you want to follow this up with Career of Evil (not that the 2 are related, but solely for the relationship developments between Robin and Strike).