Audio Review: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before...

The Silkworm was an enjoyable sequel to Robert Galbraith’s debut, The Cuckoo’s Calling. I’ve stuck with the audiobook format because of its narrator, Robert Glenister. The Silkworm follows months after the ending of The Cuckoo’s Calling. After solving such a high-profile case, Cormoran Strike and Robin now have high-paying clients that are keeping them super busy and in employment. As per usual, Strike is pushing himself hard past exhaustion, and Robin is firmly getting more and more involved in the business and doing more work for Strike that’s not in a receptionist’s job description. The murder mystery this time takes part in the book publishing world, where temperamental literacy author Owen Quine has gone missing. Exhausted, Strike agrees to what he thinks is a missing person’s case after Mrs Leonora Quine manages to tug on the emotive strings of a sleep-deprived Strike. But what begins as a missing person case turns into a gritty and horrific ritualistic murder, with Strike determined to find the real killer, and navigating the world of book publishing with individuals who have motives of their own in why they may want to kill Owen Quine.

I really enjoyed The Silkworm and I’m really getting into the audiobook experience. I thought it was juicy as hell that the murder took place in the book publishing world with larger than life literary characters, such as a dragon-breathing agent, egotistical asshole male authors, and a rampant gossip mill amongst the publishing crowd. It was a fun and grizzly read but quite emotive when Lenora becomes the prime suspect. Strike has to tread carefully as he’s not the police’s biggest fan after the Lula Landry case in which he showed them up. As Strike digs deep into the mystery, interviewing possible suspects, there is a frustration that he no longer has the authorial power he had in the army. Strike is forced to use his contacts and use his own intuition and skills to find a killer that is seriously unhinged. I gagged a little at the scene when Strike finds Quine’s body.

Robin again is just so bloody marvellous and did I mention I’m crushing big on her? She and Strike work so well together and the tension between them is fantastic. They bring out the best in one another, and despite Strike keeping a distance between them, there’s a fabulous scene in where Strike is brought down low and very, very drunk after his former fiancé is married. That scene with Robin is one of my favourites because drunk Strike is very funny and a little bit sad, and Robin is there for him and goes with the flow. Robin’s Matthew is a still a major knobhead and Strike and Matthew finally meet and it does not go down well for the three of them. There are more great surprises with Robin, where Strike finds out she is a total “petrolhead” and the two of them go on a long-drive to interview a person of interest. In the background, skulking like a petty and miserable sod as Robin gets more involved in the investigating world, is Matthew. Horrid Matthew constantly brings her down and is ever increasingly jealous of Robin’s working relationship with Strike.

The mystery again kept me guessing until the end, but when the killer is revealed there were two big linking clues that Galbraith seeded that I totally missed. The big scene in which the killer is revealed was great, though it came off as a little comical with *spoiler*. Sorry *grins*. Al, Strike’s half-brother, is involved and became a sidekick, with Robin playing a big part too that had me going, OMG. I love this series and the tension between Strike and Robin. As a romance reader I am counting down the books for when hopefully (and I mean hopefully because there is no guarantee that it will happen, especially after the third book *grumbles*), that Strike and Robin become ever closer and perhaps engage in ROMANTIC TIMES. Because the tension is certainly there, especially on Strike’s side where he determined to never cross that line.

The Silkworm was another fantastic read with another set of great characters and a mystery that kept me guessing until the very end. I will review the third book, A Career of Evil, at some point when my irritation over its ending subsides somewhat because grrrrr. Fucking Matthew *grumpy face*

The audio experience of this series has been nothing but pure entertainment that has me sucked right into the investigative world of Cormoran Strike and his partner, Robin. Because Robin is his working partner. She’s no sidekick!

I give The Silkworm an A

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