Robert Galbraith - The Silkworm

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he 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 published it would ruin lives - so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.
And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any he has encountered before . . .

Comment: I'll definitely need to kep my comments short for the near future, mostly this month, since between work and chores, I've had a lot less time to read and to be online. I trust next month things will be calmer at work and I might have more free time again out of that period.

This is the second story in the Cormoran Strike series by the author. I did enjoy the first book and decided to keep up with the series.

This time, Strike has a new case and he is hired by a woman to investigate her missing husband whereabouts. What seems an easy case actually turns into something in the world of weird for the missing man is an eccentric author and his work, although not consensual and as important as he believes himself to be, is still at the public eye and inspires interest.

Strike starts his investigation quite simply but the more he uncovers, the more intriguing things get. When the author is found dead, Strike will need to his best to prove his client didn't do it and, even more so, who is the real killer...

This story follows along the lines of the first one in terms of plot and characterization:

- an investigation that starts out simply but that becomes more complex as the clues pile up.

- two protagonists who seem to be co workers, who do well as a team but who still manage to (very) slowly be more concerned with each other.

In fact, I should say my favorite part of these stories has been to see what happens to the characters emotionally speaking. It's obvious they will evolve as time goes by.

The plot is filled with weird references and situations, some do feel a little complicated but it's interesting the identity of the killer is so obvious when we learn a certain fact...of course this only happens at the end. I still liked the way things were developed although, comparing to the first book, this one seemed to be a little less appealing. It's not the investigation path for some things we learn in the process are quite fascinating if not a little too weird, but the whole case felt a little slower, thus also a bit boring at moments. It is a fact the story drags...

The victim is an author which means we do have some inkling to the world of publishing and despite knowing this can be both an exaggeration and abased on realistic situations, I still didn't find it to be as engrossing as I imagined, being a book lover. I suppose it's a lot better to maintain a certain ignorance or indifference in one's head to better savor the books without real life implications.

Like I said, the main characters' relationship and how it progresses is the most fascinating element. It's a pity things happen too slowly but on the other hand, if they do become a couple at some point (hopefully), the journey will feel a lot more special then.

I'm going to read the next book next month and I hope it can allow things to move a little more in the path I imagine.

Grade: 7/10