The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith

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 realises. 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 . . .

I’m a JK Rowling fan but to put this review into context I actually hated The Casual Vacancy. So it was with trepidation I first read her alter ego Galbraith.

However, I loved the first book featuring Cormoran Strike “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and was eager to read the sequel “The Silkworm”.  I have to say it did not disappoint. It was wonderful to be riding shotgun with Cormoran again as he traipsed around London. So much so that I am sad it is over and I now await hopefully a third book. I liked the way that in this book Cormoran called in favours from his connected family, giving a different dimension to the plot.

I see that other reviewers think this is not a crime novel. I read a lot of crime and to me the development of the characters adds more to the book than a basic whodunit. It’s almost starting to feel like the TV series Moonlighting for those who can remember that, with the chemistry developing between Cormoran and his PA now decidedly sidekick. Also the writing is so evocative, really transporting you to the scene, especially the snowy setting.

I didn't guess “whodunit” but without giving away the plot I did guess part of the mechanism, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.