Review: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

So I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now that Robert Galbraith is actually the pseudonym of J.K.Rowling.

The Silkworm is the second installment of the Cormoran Strike series, but I don't think that you would have to read the first one (The Cuckoo's Calling) in order to read this book. Sure, you may miss some of the characterization and the development of the relationships between characters, but for the mystery itself, which is the main point of the book, The Silkworm on its own is enough.

This is a story about a private detective who is hired by a writer's wife after he goes missing. When searching for the writer Owen Quine, Strike actually finds his body and discovers that he was murdered in the exact way that the main character in his new book was.

The book itself is called The Bombyx Mori (aka Silkworm) and it's actually quite controversial, because it tells the secrets of a lot of people in Quine's publishing house. A lot of them read the manuscript, so it's up to Strike to find out who of those people is the killer.

I really liked this book. I liked the first one also, but I feel that this one is even better. I think that J.K.Rowling's experience in the publishing world really contributed to the atmosphere in this book, all the petty arguments and games that the publishers and writers have and play. I also quite liked that there were some subtle hints towards the actual end and the revelation of the killer. There were signs of some of the components to the solving to the murder, which I guessed somewhere in the middle. I really liked that because I feel that in some mystery novels you don't actually get any hints, and you're kind of in the dark the whole book until the very end, when everything resolves itself in a deus ex machina kind of way, like it resolved on its own, with the appearance of some new evidence or character.
Also, I feel that the crisp, honest writing that celebrated Rowling is still very much there and I love it. The writing doesn't drag on, but still it isn't very fast and unreadable, it's just right, totally on point.
The story is really intriguing and I just wanted to know more at all times. It was also quite eerie at times, kind of ominous, which I quite enjoyed. The characters are really likable and you can feel for them.
I really loved this book, and even though I picked the first one up just because it was J.K.Rowling, I kept reading just because it was good.