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<p>When I was in college, I had mono and spent several days stuck in bed. During one three-day period, I plowed through the first three Harry Potter books, which were all that had been released at the time. For reasons I can no longer remember, I resisted reading the series at first, but once I got through the first chapter of book one, I was hooked.</p><p>As an adult, it&#8217;s hard to find a series of books that grab me as intensely. Starting a series seems exhausting somehow, so it&#8217;s rare that I feel a physical pull to a book.</p><p>Maybe it&#8217;s just the power of J.K. Rowling, but within days of finishing &#8220;The Cuckoo&#8217;s Calling,&#8221; the first in her Cormoran Strike mystery series, I picked up the second book, &#8220;The Silkworm&#8221; and finished all 464 pages in less than a week.</p><p><a href="https://www.timesleader.com/features/495308/j-k-rowling-pens-the-cuckoos-calling-as-robert-galbraith-produces-quality-mystery-with-solid-character-development" target="_blank">Set eight months after the first book, private investigator, Strike, is better off than he was after the fame he earned from solving the model Lula Landry&#8217;s murder</a>. He has a host of clients, mainly people who suspect their partner is cheating on them, and is no longer living in his office (he&#8217;s renting the flat one floor above) and is developing a strong rapport with his assistant, Robin.</p><p>In &#8220;The Silkworm,&#8221; Strike is hired by Leonora Quine, wife of writer Owen Quine, who is missing. He periodically disappears and his wife assumes that he&#8217;s at a writers retreat so will be easy to find. While investigating, Strike learns that Quine has just written a novel that reveals nasty secrets about a host of real people in the publishing world. When the author is found murdered in an incredibly violent manner, there are many suspects in the world of publishing for Strike to investigate.</p><p>Suspects include Quine&#8217;s wife, his editor, agent, a rival author and the head of his publishing company, a quirky and interesting set of characters who Strike meets throughout the novel.</p><p>Rowling&#8217;s power of storytelling and description are present as always. You can almost feel the pain Strike feels when he has trouble with his prosthetic leg (he lost half his leg in Afghanistan). You can hear the miserable, hacking cough of agent, Elizabeth Tassel. You can (unfortunately) visualize the horrific death scene of Quine, which was literally taken from the pages of his latest novel.</p><p>It&#8217;s very adult material from the creator of one of the most beloved children&#8217;s heroes of all time. Swearing abounds, as do references to sexual situations. Sometimes if you read a more &#8220;adult&#8221; book written by an author who typically writes for younger audiences, it feels almost embarrassing.</p><p>But Rowling&#8217;s talents lie in storytelling, and no thought of Hogwarts or its various denizens crept into my head while reading.</p><p>&#8220;The Silkworm&#8221; explores more of Strike&#8217;s past. We meet a fellow detective he knew in Afghanistan, as well as a few childhood friends. We spend some time with his half-sister, Lucy. The book even touches on Charlotte, the gorgeous but difficult woman who broke Strike&#8217;s heart. We meet another of Strike&#8217;s half-siblings on his father&#8217;s side. In the first book, we learned that Strike is the illegitimate son of a famous rock star. His half-brother, Al, was the legitimate, beloved son who reaped the benefits of having a famous father. It&#8217;s interesting to compare him to Strike throughout their scenes.</p><p>Robin&#8217;s story also advances. We learn more of her relationship with her fiance, Matthew, who doesn&#8217;t seem like the greatest guy. An awkward night out with Strike and Matthew reveals that hopefully Robin realizes she would be much better off with Strike. She works on honing her fledgling detective skills along the way.</p><p>Like &#8220;The Cuckoo&#8217;s Calling,&#8221; &#8220;The Silkworm&#8221; is a suspenseful page turner. Strike, despite his faults, is a likeable character. Rowling&#8217;s Harry Potter series was built on the foundation of classic children&#8217;s adventures and archetypes reaching back into antiquity. And yet, her ability to tell a unique story with those building blocks makes her a master author.</p><p>Here too, Rowling is doing nothing new with the conventions of British mysteries. But even so, she has the ability to turn all of us into compulsive readers, eager to devour the next book she writes.</p><p>The third Cormoran Strike book is out, but I&#8217;m on a waiting list to get it at the library. Please forgive me for being unable to resist the urge to read more Rowling as soon as possible. With seven books planned for the series, be prepared to read more of my reviews of Strike&#8217;s mysteries.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">&#8220;The Silkworm&#8221; is the second novel in a seven-book series penned by J.K. Rowling under the pen name, Robert Galbraith. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Silkworm.jpg</photo1><caption1>&#8220;The Silkworm&#8221; is the second novel in a seven-book series penned by J.K. Rowling under the pen name, Robert Galbraith. </caption1><photoCredit1>Submitted photo </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dorothy Sasso</p><p>On the Books</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>&#8220;The Silkworm&#8221;</p><p>Author: Robert Gilbraith (J.K. Rowling)</p><p>Page Count: 464</p><p>Publisher: Mulholland Books</p><p>Rating:&#9830;&#9830;&#9830;&#9830;&#9830;</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Dorothy Sasso is a former Soap Opera Digest writer and a private school teacher. She is busy reading books and raising her daughter.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

“The Silkworm,” written by J.K. Rowling, continues the tale of investigator Cormoran Strike