Silkworm (Galbraith) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[Rowling's] appealing detective hero Cormoran Strike is back, and so is his resourceful sidekick, Robin Ellacott, a gumshoe team that's on its way to becoming as celebrated for its mystery-solving skills as Nick and Nora Charles of Thin Man fame, and Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander.… What keeps the suspense percolating along is Ms. Rowling's instinctive sense of storytelling and her ability to make the reader sympathize with Strike and Robin, two middle-class strivers plugging along in a status and increasingly money-conscious London.… The result is an entertaining novel in which the most compelling characters are not the killer or the victim, but the detectives charged with solving the crime.
New York Times - Michiko Kakutani


[E]ndlessly entertaining.… Strike himself may at first appear to be something we have seen too often—a brooding, damaged detective …but there is an optimism to him that is refreshing and endearing.… Strike also shares a trait with many great fictional detectives: He is darn good company.… The Silkworm is a very well-written, wonderfully entertaining take on the traditional British crime novel.… Robert Galbraith may proudly join the ranks of English, Scottish and Irish crime writers such as Tana French, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, John Connolly, Kate Atkinson and Peter Robinson…to put any author on that list is very high praise.
New York Times Book Review - Harlan Coben


[The Silkworm is a] swift-paced, suspenseful mystery.… Robert Galbraith has announced himself a fresh voice in mystery fiction: part hard-boiled, part satiric, part poignant, and part romantic.
Tom Nolan - Wall Street Journal


The Silkworm is fast-paced and entertaining.… Strike is heroic without intending to be and has a great back story. He's the illegitimate son of a rock star whose half-siblings grew up in privilege.… And he's brooding, but not annoyingly so. Strike has all kinds of potential. It'd be a crime not to keep up with him.
Sherryl Connelly - New York Daily News


Why is "likable" the first word that comes to mind upon finishing The Silkworm? Surely, that has something to do with Rowling's palpable pleasure in her newly chosen genre (the jig may be up with her Robert Galbraith pseudonym, but the bloom is still on her homicidal rose) and even more to do with her detective hero, who, at the risk of offending, is the second husband of every author's dreams.
Louis Bayard - Washington Post


Bring on the next one, please.… Galbraith writes with wit and affection for detective-novel tradition (it's impossible not to see her central duo as a modern-day Nick and Nora, minus the marriage), and races us through a twisty plot so smoothly that you won't notice as the hours tick by.
Moira MacDonald - Seattle Times


The last line of The Silkworm, which will lift the hearts of readers who have come to love its deeply sympathetic characters, offers the prospect of more of that joy both for her and for us.
Charles Finch - USA Today


The story is enthralling, not only for its twists and turns, but for the fun of the teamwork.… [It's] a cast of characters who you'll want to meet again and again.
Ashley Ross - Time


A compulsively entertaining yarn.
Thom Geier - Entertainment Weekly


Robert Galbraith… has written a second absorbing whodunit starring detective Corcmoran Strike to follow last year's stealth hit, The Cuckoo's Calling.… Astutely observed, well-paced.… The Silkworm thoroughly engages as a crime novel.
Sue Corbett - People


(Starred review) J.K. Rowling, under her Galbraith pseudonym, again demonstrates her adroitness at crafting a classic fair-play whodunit in a contemporary setting, peopled with fully realized primary and secondary characters.
Publishers Weekly


As we all know, Galbraith's first Cormoran Strike novel won great reviews but not great sales until it was revealed that Galbraith was actually J.K. Rowling. Wouldn't you know a famous novelist is at the heart of this second Strike outing.
Library Journal


(Starred review) [P]lunges readers into the dark side of book publishing.… Stay tuned for the next installment in this highly acclaimed and fast-moving series. —Connie Rockman
Booklist


(Starred review) Cormoran Strike, Rowling’s hard-living private eye, isn’t as close to the edge as he was in his first appearance. His success …has brought him more clients than he can handle.… Rowling proves once again that she’s a master of plotting.
Kirkus Reviews