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The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)


                              [Image courtesy : Amazon]
Novelist Owen Quine goes missing. Leonara Quine, Owen’s wife, asks the help of Coromon Strike to find her missing husband. Strike finds out that Owen has just completed his next book and the contents of the same are scandalous and it can potentially offend powerful people in the publishing business. In his search to find Owen, Strike finds that he is  dead in bizarre circumstances. Who has killed Owen? Why did they kill him? The Silkworm answers all these questions.

Full props to JK Rowling for the wonderful writing. No one comes close to her in transporting the readers to the actual location of where the story takes place. Nothing much happens at the initial chapters of the book and the pace picks up once we are half way through the book. 

Robin, Strike’s secretary, is a welcome deviation from the traditional sidekicks whose jobs are confined to be in awe of the investigative officer. Robin comes across as a fierce, independent and intelligent women who uses her psychology and patience in the testing times to help Strike solve the crime. The relationship between Robin and her fiance, Mathew is an interesting subplot that is left unexplored. JK Rowling also uses  Robin to portray the patriarchal attitude of the society towards the working women.  When Strike tells Robin that she might have to work on weekends or when Mathew gets irritated when Strike calls Robin during the weekends or when Robin thinks Mathew never informed her of working late and the expectation that she needs to inform Mathew about working late are the classic instances where the author captures the mirror image of the society we live in. Sadly and surprisingly, Mathew does not make an appearance at all in the second half of the book. I would have preferred to end the book with a conversation between Robin and Mathew.

The best lines of the book are reserved for the character of Michael Fancourt. One could not stop smiling when Fancourt explain the difference between army officer and a writer. The definition of marriage by Fancourt is also true to certain extent. Having said that the conversation between Strike and Fancourt does not seem natural at all and seems to be fit forcefully to the plot. There are also long interviews by Strike with the possible suspects of the murderer and the author has managed to sustain the interest of the readers for most of the time.

The readers are not taken through the process of solving the murder mystery. Infact, I am not sure on how Coromon Strike himself has solved the mystery. The biggest pleasure of reading a whodunit is reading between the lines or looking for hidden clues to solve the mystery earlier than the protagonist. If If I couldn’t find any of the above, I would say that the result is underwhelming. Also, Can we have Strike clear loans quickly in the upcoming books? Having said that the book is an interesting read.

PS: I am not sure why all the detectives in whodunit have a very sad personal life. 

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