For a mystery reader, or for anyone who reads for that matter, there is nothing like finding a new series. Comoran Strike and his assistant Robin form the most interesting new detective team in a long time.
I feel bad that J. K. Rowling did not get her wish to remain the anonymous author behind the Robert Galbraith books. The character development in the two books already published might have raised a few eyebrows concerning the “first time” author because the characters are so good, so well fleshed out, so immediately recognizable as different from every other character you have read about.
In The Silkworm Galbraith takes on the publishing industry. As the New York Times Book Review author commented, the comments about publishers are all the more poignant coming from Rowling. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/books/review/the-silkworm-by-j-k-rowling-as-robert-galbraith.html The murder is executed in the same way as in the victim’s last book. Agents, editors, publishers, authors, and fan-girls are all suspects and while all won’t be found guilty of murder, they are all guilty of something.
I have been reading primarily mysteries from the Golden Age and historical mysteries set in England. Cormoran Strike makes me want to visit London again and slip into some of those lovely pubs, jump between train lines on the underground, and explore some of the posher neighborhoods mentioned both here and in Galbraith’s prior novel The Cuckoo’s Calling. I’d like to take Robin by the hand and shake some sense into her regarding her love life. She’s a good detective learning from a master.
Cormoran Strike is described as a big man–so big that he makes all others in a room look small when he enters it. That’s true of this new detective series as well–it makes all new characters in other detective series look small by comparison. The only exception to this might be Armand Gamashe from Louise Penny’s wonderful Three Pines series. The book jacket reveals that there will be seven books in this series. Perhaps, like Harry Potter, Rowling will favor us with some additional writing about Strike’s background or Robin’s detective course to keep us happy between novels.
Scrambled Books 