The Silkworm

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, 455 pages

Ex-army private detective Cormoran Strike is on the case again, as an author has gone missing just after turning in the manuscript for his next novel, Bombyx Mori. The author, Owen Quine, has been known to go on the lam for a few days before, but he's been gone longer than ever before. And there's the plot of his new novel, includes several thinly veiled, yet viciously crude and probably libelous, depictions of everyone who may have ever wronged him. So when he turns up dead, there's no shortage of suspects, and Strike has his work cut out for him, parsing clues out of the manuscript and the real world.

This is J.K. Rowling's Robert Galbraith's second novel about Cormoran Strike, and it's just as good as the first one, with just enough hints and red herrings to keep it interesting. I particularly love how nuanced the relationship is between Strike and his assistant, Robin. I look forward to seeing how it evolves in the future. Given the theme of disguising real people as book characters, one does, of course, have to wonder how many of Galbraith/Rowling's friends, relatives, and enemies have found their way into her novels in some form or another. Anyway, a great book, and while I'd certainly recommend reading The Cuckoo's Calling first (cuz it's good!), it's not necessary to understand this one.