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Strike 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.
Harlan Coben, The New York Times Book Review
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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 (a.k.a. the girl with the
dragon tattoo).
Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
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The plot zings along...Swift and satisfying
Carolyn Kellogg, The Los Angeles Times
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'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 (3.5/4 stars)
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A compulsively entertaining yarn.
Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly
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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
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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, Daily News
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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, The Washington Post
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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
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[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, The Wall Street Journal
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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, The Seattle Times
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Having just the better part of a day and a night making my way through
the 455 pages of The Silkworm ... I must say, I don't mind at all... The
murder mystery at the heart of The Silkworm is a genuine mystery with
an altogether satisfying resolution."
—Malcolm Jones, The Daily Beast
-
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 (a.k.a. the girl with the
dragon tattoo).
Michiko Kakutani, The New York 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 (3.5/4 stars)
-
Having just the better part of a day and a night making my way through
the 455 pages of The Silkworm ... I must say, I don't mind at all... The
murder mystery at the heart of The Silkworm is a genuine mystery with
an altogether satisfying resolution."
—Malcolm Jones, The Daily Beast
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A gritty, absorbing tale.
People
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Cleverly plotted... Rowling serves up a sushi platter of red herring, sprinkling clues along the way, before Strike draws a confession out of the killer in a climax straight out of Agatha Christie.
Entertainment Weekly
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Highly entertaining [with] a team whose further adventures the reader cannot help eagerly awaiting.
Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
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[Rowling's] literary gift is on display in this work. She crafts an entertaining story [and] comes up with an ending that I'll admit I was surprised by. . . . A fun read, with a main character you can care about and one you'll want to see again in other adventures.
The Washington Post
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“A second absorbing whodunit starring detective Cormoran Strike…Astutely observed, well paced…The Silkworm thoroughly engages as a crime novel.”
People
-
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
-
...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, The Washington Post
-
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, Daily News
-
“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.”
USA Today, 3½ out of 4 stars
-
“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 and even more
to do with her detective hero, who, at the risk of offending, is the
second husband of every author’s dreams.”
Washington Post
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“Rowling proves once again that she’s a master of
plotting over the course of a series; you can see her planting seeds,
especially when it comes to Robin, which can be expected to bear narrative
fruit down the line. It will be a pleasure to watch what happens.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“Popular British actor Glenister takes
on a highly-charged crime puzzle, peopled by a panoply of mainly vile
suspects as well as a totally engaging pair of detectives. Matching
Rowling’s praiseworthy ear for dialogue, he catches the subtleties—a
touch of snark in cocktail party chatter, the arrogance in the voice of
the overprivileged, the fear almost hidden in the raspy croak of a
chain-smoking literary agent.”
Publishers Weekly (audio review)
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“This is a wonderful listen! Once again, talented narrator Robert Glenister brings detective Cormoran Strike from the printed page to full life…Glenister captures the likable but flawed Strike with a voice as gritty and heavily accented as London’s North End. Yet he transitions easily to more refined accents and softer tones to convincingly portray all the memorable characters…and gives each character a distinct voice by merely varying tone and pace. Fans of Rowling’s previous works and listeners who simply like a good mystery will be hoping Rowling and Glenister continue their partnership. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
AudioFile