The setting for the second novel Silkworm is London’s publishing world. And as someone with nearly ten commercially successful novels under her belt she has no doubt seen this edgy world of London publishing almost inside out.
Silkworm by Robert Galbraith is about the rocky, mean, cold, and somewhat dog eat dog world of publishing. A world which is fast spiraling down the hill due to the growing popularity of e-books and also due to the phenomenon of “more writers writing books than people reading”.
This uncertain publishing world of London is faced with a murder of a little known literary figure. What happens as a consequence of this grisly murder forms the plot of
the second novel starring private detective Cormoran Strike and his smart assistant Robin Ellecott.
Expectations were quite high after having read The Cuckoo’s Calling, the first in this series, more so since Silkworm involved the publishing world, publishers, a writer, a murder and a limping detective. All of this was enough to make me eagerly want to read the second book.
It starts off pretty interestingly, exploring the quirks of Detective Cormoran Strike, his office, his poky attic apartment, his girlfriend etc. All this is quite fine since elements such as these add colour to a novel and its characters. And then lands a curious case of a missing writer on detective Cormoran Strike’s shabby office. He takes it up, although reluctant initially. No sooner that he accepts this case that he finds himself occupied with it with little or no headway for a really long time. This long time is also a long time for me as a reader. Halfway into the book and very little light has been shed on the mystery. And this proved to be quite frustrating.
Cormoran and his assistant meanwhile also juggle other cases that have come their way as a result of successfully solving the Lula Landry case that had made headlines in the city of London in the previous book The Cuckoo’s Calling. This is the interesting part because the kind of cases that come their way are a little weird and a lot more ‘boring’. But it’s these mundane cases that usually pay well. So Strike follows these cases sincerely. He literally does follow his subjects and suspects. From suspicious rich wives not sure about their husbands’ fidelity to rich business men making sure their girl friends are theirs alone and not being shared by other men. These and many other such cases where the rich clients all want his ‘surveillance’ services. And sure he does keeps an eye on all of these cases while trying to find headway into the case that interests him the most but not really promises to pay him a bomb.
The way the mystery unfolds seems to bear resemblance to the previous mystery of the Lula Landry murder case. The similarity lies not in the actual mystery per se but the way each characters and their side of the story come to light as they talk to detective Strike. It felt as if the same pattern was followed in the second novel as well. But one of the strong areas of J.K Rowling’s works is the detailed characterisation of each of the characters. Be it Harry Potter series, The Casual Vacancy or this recent detective fiction series, all of these novels’ characters have been sketched with fine detail. Even if the plot does not manage to hold your attention the characters definitely do! (At least it managed to hold mine). Take Cormoran for example, he is an imperfect detective with personal problems, not really charming or polished. He is definitely one of the most interesting detectives of recent times.
However, Silkworm appeared almost pale when compared to The Cuckoo’s Calling. It was almost a torture since there were times when pages after pages nothing substantial was happening. As the end of the novel was nearing I was literally begging for the mystery to be revealed. I could not take it anymore (this might sound like an exaggeration). Having said this overall the novel was not really a complete bore and a waste of time and hence I am looking forward to read the third soon to be released ‘The Career of Evil’.
Why you should consider reading this book?
After writing the fantasy series Harry Potter the author wrote the dramatic tragicomedy The Casual Vacancy and now this cozy mystery series starring detective Cormoran Strike. This pretty much establishes the fact that J.K Rowling is a versatile writer.
The popularity of Harry Potter series brought fame and money to her.Today she is one of the most popular people in the world. And who better than her will know the flip side of being a celebrity and constantly being under the radar of pesky paparazzis? This world of celebrities and paparazzis is the setting for the first in the detective series The Cuckoo’s Calling. Interestingly, immediately after the book was released under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, her real identity which was supposed to be a carefully guarded secret was leaked, bringing along with it all the media attention which the author was probably trying to avoid.
Similarly, the setting for the second novel Silkworm is London’s publishing world. And as someone with nearly ten commercially successful novels under her belt she has no doubt seen this edgy world of London publishing almost inside out.
One of my favourite aspect of this novel, along with, The Cuckoo’s Calling, is the subtle social commentary that runs throughout.
P.S: Watch out for his assistance Robin Ellacott.
I suppose that’s because the books weren’t selling? Someone at the publishing house must have thought “well we could actually make money if people knew, let’s leak the info!”