Goodreads Reviews: Cormoran Strike #2 - The Silkworm

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What starts out as an ordinary missing person's case, ends in a gruesome murder scene that is nightmarish and beyond all sense of reality.

The disappearance of author Owen Quine is brought to the attention of private detective, Cormoran Strike and his assistant, Robin Ellacott. Thinking of it to be a week long case, Strike finds Owen in an abandoned family house, tied down, gutted and murdered. However, the murder scene is disturbingly like that of a murder novel. Owen Quine's own unpublished novel to be exact.

Quine's manuscript of his latest book, Bombyx Mori (the silkworm) holds unlikely clues to Quine's life, his work, his family, acquaintances all leading to his subsequent death. Bombyx Mori, although, is an acid trip in itself. A graphically sexual allegory that deals with rape, abuse, deceit and death. All of the characters in Quine's novel are somewhat inspired by people in his life. Cormoran and Robin must calculate and understand the story in order to piece together Quine's death and why his death was so exact to the ending of the novel.

Meanwhile, Robin and Strike must unravel their personal mysteries concerning the significant others in their lives. Robin must deal with her fiance's jealousy toward her job and her boss and somehow find a balance between the two men in her life. Although she wants to see her fiance, Matthew Cunliffe, as the wonderful man she has known since college, his opinions regarding her job and Strike begin to reveal a petulant and spoiled boy, who does not always seem to have Robin's best interests at heart.

Strike's love life leaves much to be desired. And he's comfortable with the now and again one night stands. Yet he is unable to forget his long term relationship with beautiful socialite, Charlotte Campbell that was tortuous, toxic and filled with deep regret. Although he has no general romantic feelings toward Robin, he sees someone who can be a great asset to his work and to himself.

This book was certainly strange on every level. Quine's actual novel, Bombyx Mori, is actually intriguing and certainly does not lack creativity, but at the same time was rather interesting to read (if you can get pass the gore and sexual content). And of course, the continuing relationship between Strike and Robin as they go from employer/employee to eventual partners.