Monday, July 14, 2014

BOOK REVIEW: The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2), by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)

It pains me to write anything negative about J.K. Rowling because I have such affection for the Harry Potter series, but I did not like this book at all. I read it all the way through--I couldn't imagine abandoning a J.K. Rowling book, even if it was one written under her pseudonym--but it never got more enjoyable for me. In fact, I found it more irritating and unbelievable as I went on. Mostly I just found the whole thing to be a giant case of, "Who cares?".

First there's the main character, the unlikely named Cormoran Strike. I couldn't get a read on him at all. He's described as big and lumbering, someone who sleeps in his office and looks quite rough, but then he's described as neat and particular thanks to his military training. He doesn't seem neat and particular. In fact he seems rather slovenly.

The same goes for his memory. Several characters comment on Cormoran's steel trap memory, his ability to remember anything and everything, yet his secretary has to remind him numerous times about their plans to meet for drinks. He keeps forgetting the date and time they're supposed to be meeting. Does he have selective memory? Is he teasing her? He's a completely humourless character (everyone in the series is) so I can't imagine it's that. If it's so out of character for him to forget something, you'd think his assistant would have at least commented on that.

So is Strike a complex character, a man of contrasts? Or just an unbelievable one who isn't very well written? If it were anyone other than J.K. Rowling writing this book, I'd say it was the latter. But I find it so hard not to give her the benefit of the doubt because I love her other writing so much. I don't think I'll ever be truly objective when it comes to her. So far that has resulted in me plodding threw three increasingly unsatisfying adult novels.

The most troubling point of the book, however, isn't just Cormoran Strike's character but his motivation. I never understood what on earth compelled him to take on the case of the missing writer in the first place, after being hired by the man's sullen and boring wife. He knows she's unlikely to be able to pay him, and I can't imagine he found her enticing or even likeable. (I kept picturing her as this character from American Horror Story, not because that's what she looks like but because she's so dull.) Why does he care what happened to her husband? Of course it turns out that her husband is dead (or else this would have been a much shorter book) but Strike doesn't know that when he takes the case.

And the case itself is ridiculous. Writer Owen Quine is murdered because his dreadful new--but unpublished--fantasy novel is a grotesque parody of the behaviour of people in the publishing industry? What?? Rowling--sorry, Galbraith--keeps insisting we should care about this but the whole thing doesn't amount to enough tension to go slack-lining, let alone keep up the interest of mystery reader.

BOOK DETAILS:
The Silkworm
by Robert Galbraith
Series: A Cormoran Strike Novel (Book 2)
Published by Mulholland Books
Publication Date: June 19, 2014
View on Amazon

Source: my local library

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