I liked this book more than its predecessor, due in large part to the setting of the mystery. Messy publishing drama of the fictional variety is extremely my jam. It’s right up there with cheesy disaster flicks. Only more believable. I worked for a small press for a short time, and the drama that went on there was sometimes intense, sometimes trivial and petty, and always plentiful. It was entirely believable to me that half of the members of a small literary community could be suspects in the gruesome murder of an obnoxious author, and that made it that much easier to get sucked into the mystery.

The other thing that increased my enjoyment was Robin coming out of her shell a little more, standing up to both Strike and her fiancé and coming into her own as a fledgling detective. She’s hands down my favorite character.

Strike I liked a bit less this time around. He goes on an unapologetic people-using spree, and I just had no sympathy for him when things didn’t go his way. I’m hoping his behavior is part of a larger character arc and that his acting like a self-centered tit comes back to bite him in the ass sooner or later. Preferably sooner.

I did raise my eyebrow at the depiction of self-published authors. The sneering disdain was almost palpable. On the one hand, it makes me wonder what Rowling’s own attitude toward self-publishers is. And on the other hand, I have seen the real-life likes of the fictional Katheryn Kent in action on the internet, right down to their accurately depicted low-traffic, typo-ridden blogs.

I know this is a bit disjointed and rambly, but I’m actually doing pretty well for someone with a work-fried brain who can’t remember if she ate breakfast this morning. I mean, some of these sentences are actually coherent! Score! Anywho, the TL;DR version is: I liked it more than book one and I’m looking forward to book three.

(Read for Halloween Bingo 2019 Film at 11 square)

I'm nowhere near as organized for Halloween Bingo this year, and work might prevent me from repeating my adult-responsibility-shirking blackout performance of last year, but I'm still gonna play, gosh darn it! This book has been in my physical TBR so long that it references William and Kate's engagement as a current event. :o

I'm using it for the Film at 11 square.

I have never read any Harry Potter and would probably not have read this if I hadn't been given the unabridged audio CDs by a friend. Happily it turned out to be an unexpected combination of good narration and mystery and kept my attention to the end.

Private investigator, Cormoran Strike, is visited by Eleanor Quine when her author husband can't be found. Owen Quine is known for his dramatic disappearances, so the alarm bells are slow to ring, but when Owen is found dead, Strike is the only person who believes that Eleanor is not guilty.

The character of Strike, a veteran of Afghanistan (where he lost half of one leg), is brought to life by the narration of Robert Glenister, as he attempts to make sense of the disappearance of the author. Just before he vanished, Quine released the manuscript of his new novel, full of insults and innuendos about the publishing community. Many people are angry and insulted and a whole host of possible murder suspects is produced.

Whilst I enjoyed the interaction between Strike and his assistant Robin, I was less convinced by Matthew, Robin's fiance, who objects to Robin's irregular hours and resents her devotion to her job. I hope the two of them make a go of it in subsequent books, because it seems just too obvious that they are heading for a split.

I was also not keen on the quotes at the beginning of every chapter. If you're reading, it's easy to skip these, but if you're listening they can become quite irritating. I've never understood why some authors feel that they are necessary at all.

I hadn't realised that I had started with book 2 of the series, not sure now, whether to go back to book 1 or move on to book 3.

I've never read Rowling's other piece of adult fiction, The Casual Vacancy, and I haven't heard anything about that causes me to put it on my mental TBR list, so in my own mind, at least, I had written her off as a bit of a one-trick pony. A really, really good one-trick pony, a one-trick pony who wrote the most popular series in the history of, well, forever, but a one-trick pony nonetheless.

She has proved that this assumption was absolutely incorrect. She is at least a two-trick pony - the woman can write mysteries.

I really should've known better, because the things that make Harry Potter shine are easily transferable to other genres. Her characterizations are, always, delightful. She has a gift for creating memorable supporting characters who feel both quirky and real. She also has a gift for creating main characters who are flawed and likeable. She knows how to build suspense and reveal clues. Now that I spent more than a few seconds thinking about it, of course she can write mysteries. Harry Potter was one big mystery. With magic.

This book was gross. I mean really, stomach churningly gross. The murder is not for the faint of heart. But, if you can get past the grossness, there is a ripping good story here, almost Shakespearean in its vengefulness. Owen Quine, the victim, was a truly awful human being, mythic in his misogynistic terribleness. He was abusive to every woman who ever encountered him.

She also has a lot to say about the publishing industry, little of it very flattering. She paints a picture of industry that is self-satisfied, smug and endlessly white and male. I'm sure that there are lovely people in publishing, and I'm equally sure that J.K. Rowling has the advantage of picking and choosing from those lovely ones, but the ones we meet in The Silkworm are pretty universally horrible.

Cormoran Strike (have I mentioned that she has a near-Dickensian way with names) continues to impress. He is a seasoned, talented investigator. She seems to be taking her cues on Strike from the old golden age authors (did I mention that she simply must have read Gladys Mitchell? There is no way that "Bellatrix Lestrange" is a coincidence) with her proclivity for the dramatic reveal. Cormoran, working behind the scenes, shows up the police as deliciously as Hercule Poirot ever did, although Dame Agatha would cringe at the disgusting nature of the murder itself.

Cormoran's trusty assistant, his modern Miss Lemon as it were, continues to develop in ways that I am really enjoying. My affection for her fiance, Matthew, was pretty thin towards the middle of the book, although he somewhat redeemed himself at the end. Perhaps he isn't quite the ninny I thought he was. I still think that, given Robin's rapid emotional and intellectual growth, he'd better step up his game or he'll be gone, but at least he has a chance of holding onto Robin.

I was going to read this for Modern Noir, but I picked up an audiobook by Anne Holt, so I'm using it for Darkest London, instead.

Gross.

We're definitely not at Hogwarts anymore, Toto.