At first I was very happy with The Silkworm. After all, it's beloved JK Rowling's latest and it picked right up where Cuckoo's Calling left off, both of which pleased me. About a third of the way in I decided it was a little stilted. I started to see some of the same flaws attributed to the much flawed author character (he's a pig of a person and his name is Quine - a thinly veiled analogy to a swine I thought. It was a bit cheesy considering the book is about an author who writes a thinly veiled hit piece about his enemies. But, Rowling knows how to tell a story and won me over. I finally plowed through the last hundred pages. There weren't a lot of twists or turns, but there was a bit of Rowlings wonderful foreshadowing that you only realize was foreshadowing after you finish the book. Also, for such a scrupulously planned and executed gory, gory murder, there's not a lot of suspense and the conclusion is almost thrown at you. At times I found it a bit disjointed and in need of a good edit. It's not as thoughtful as even Cuckoo's Calling much less Harry Potter or Casual Vacancy. I was happy to see a tiny little step forward for Strike and his secretary, though Strike is an unlikeable character who seems to have a lot of inexplicably loyal friends. I also liked the colorful characters and the way Strike's secretary, Robyn, was given a more meaningful role. So often characters like here are relegated to the sidelines as a useful but unimportant device or maybe comic relief. Though flawed, The Silkworm a fun summer read and I look forward to the next "Robert Galbraith" book. ;)
