I read the first Cormoran Strike mystery while sitting in a tent at high altitude in Ladakh, on a climbing expedition last August.
I have just read the second in the series, “The Silkworm” while sitting in a tent at high altitude in Ladakh, on a climbing expedition this August etc etc
Just thought I’d share the scene setting with you.
I had eagerly looked forward to the second book, having loved “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and yet again, the author does not disappoint. This is another cliff hanger of a whodunit, with the final unravelling of a macabre, baffling, literary infused investigation only happening in the dying seconds of the book.
Cormoran Strike is, as ever, hugely likeable – he is a big man in every sense of the word – in size, appetite, honesty, integrity. His amputated leg (the result of an explosion in Afghanistan) is a very powerful and frequent factor in his life, hurting him, making him weaker than he would like to be – and therefore very angry at his own weakness.
His assistant Robin get more and more likeable by the minute and I for one harbour the hope that she might finally leave her impossibly good-looking but unbearably pompous fiancé Matthew, for…who knows…I had my hopes up at one point in the book, but by the end was not too sure anymore. Robin appears to have forced the arrogant Matthew to accept the worth of her job, so who knows?
The plot of “The Silkworm” revolves around a particularly grisly murder of a has-been author whom no one appears to like very much, but whose posthumous work “Bombyx Mori” manages to ridicule and caste aspersions on just about everyone in London’s tight-knit, gossipy, bitchy literary world.
We meet writers and wannabe writers, literary agents, publishers, and everything unfolds against the powerful backdrop of London, very much a character in its own right. The buses, the tube, the taxis, the pubs, the freezing winter weather – London is beautifully portrayed…
You can feel the cold, and you savour the glorious views…
I thoroughly enjoyed “The Silkworm”, ensconced in my tent against the howling Himalayan winds but not, if I’m honest, quite as much as “The Cuckoo’s Calling” which I loved.
Having said that, can’t wait for the next Cormoran Strike mystery.
And yes, how right you are – no plot spoilers. I would never do that to you.
If you wish to order the book/e-book, nothing could be simpler. Just click on one of the links, below: