Let’s start where it all started, shall we? I can do that because this is my review…When I read Cuckoo’s Calling I was truly hoping that it wasn’t a one off. I loved the mystery of the book but more than the mystery I really wanted to see where the working relationship between the detective and Robin was going to continue to go. She is so sorely underused in that book, that it was quite a relief that the second book in the series, The […]
My first book for CBR7 was a doozie! The second installment in Robert Galbraith’s (ahem, JK Rowling) series on war vet turned private detective Cormoran Strike, The Silkworm, was quite an interesting crime novel. Set in wintry London several months after Strike famously solves the Lulu Landry case (in Cuckoo’s Calling), Silkworm begins with a tired housewife on the hunt for her artistically-temperamented, mildly-successful novelist husband. Naturally this being a mystery series, said husband isn’t missing; he’s dead, and in quite a gruesome way. Cormoran […]
The Silkworm – Rowling gets dark
Wow, JK Rowling can go dark. Like really, seriously dark. The Silkworm, is Rowling’s follow-up to Cuckoo’s Calling, continuing the story of Cormoran Strike and his now permanent assistant Robin. When Mrs. Quine comes into the agency and asks Cormoran to looks into the whereabouts of her wandering husband, Cormoran takes the case partially to annoy a self-important client he had been meeting with, and partially because he couldn’t help but feel for the odd yet compelling woman. A novelist and serial adulterer, Mr. Quine has a pattern of leaving […]
More impressive work from Rowling
I am one of the few people who adored The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling’s long awaited and highly criticized follow-up to the series that made her a household name. I found it to be an exceptionally smart, if slow, character study; a story that took forever to capture my attention, but that I wound up deeply invested in. The Cuckoo’s Calling, Rowling’s next attempt (under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith), was similarly paced, but seems to have more broad appeal than The Casual Vacancy. The Cuckoo’s Calling is a fantastic read, starring […]
Imagine if Harry Potter was all about the Dursleys.
OK, it took me forever to finish The Casual Vacancy. I probably should have liked it—I know almost all of my friends did—but I just couldn’t with the Little Britain mentality and Middle England class warfare antics that J.K. Rowling describes with such unvarnished authenticity. Having lived in England for a few years, I found the petty, mean-spirited antics of the main characters to be just too real to make this an enjoyable read. Mrs Smith Reads The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
Writers, Publishers, and Murderers
I read the first Cormoran Strike novel for book club. I picked up the second Cormoran Strike novel because I’d already become attached to the characters, and I needed to find out what J.K. Rowling was going to do to with them. The Silkworm (2014) by “Robert Galbraith” follows the continuing story of Cormoran Strike, London private detective, and his assistant Robin. When a dowdy, desperate woman walks into Cormoran’s office looking for her missing, semi-famous, author husband, Cormoran takes her case despite his concerns […]