Clara’s Verdict
The second Cormoran Strike novel is where I felt the series truly find its feet. The Silkworm takes Strike out of Mayfair glamour and into the venomous world of publishing, and Galbraith plainly relishes the chance to skewer the industry. It is darker, stranger and more grotesque than its predecessor, and I mean every word of that as praise.
At its centre is a missing novelist whose final manuscript is a poison-pen letter to everyone he knows, which hands Galbraith a whole gallery of suspects with excellent motives. The mystery is baroque, the eventual crime genuinely disturbing, and the London she conjures, wintry, literary and faintly seedy, is a pleasure to inhabit. Strike and Robin, meanwhile, deepen beautifully.
It runs long, and a few readers find the middle stretch leisurely. I did not mind in the slightest; I was too busy enjoying the company. As a follow-up that raises the stakes without losing the warmth, The Silkworm delivers.
About the Audiobook
The Silkworm is the second book in the Cormoran Strike series, and it begins with a disappearance rather than a death. When the novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife asks Strike to find him and bring him home, assuming, at first, that he has simply wandered off by himself as he has done before. But the further Strike looks, the clearer it becomes that Quine’s vanishing is no ordinary sulk.
Quine, it turns out, has just finished a manuscript stuffed with poisonous portraits of almost everyone in his life, a book that would ruin reputations if it ever saw print. That gives a great many people a reason to want him silenced. And when Quine is discovered brutally murdered in bizarre, ritualistic circumstances, the search for a missing man becomes a race to understand a killer unlike any Strike has faced before. Galbraith keeps the twists coming at every turn, and once again pairs Strike with his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott, whose partnership grows more compelling with every chapter.
The Narration
Robert Glenister returns to narrate, and the continuity of his voice across the series is one of its great comforts. The Silkworm gives him even richer material to play with than the first book: a rogues’ gallery of preening authors, waspish agents and wounded egos, and Glenister clearly savours every one of them. His gift for accent and inflection turns what could be a confusing parade of suspects into a vivid, distinguishable cast, and his weary, wry Strike anchors the whole thing.
At seventeen hours and sixteen minutes, this is a longer listen than the debut, and it needs a narrator who can sustain both momentum and mood. Glenister manages both. He leans into the novel’s dark, almost Gothic streak without overplaying it, and he lets the growing rapport between Strike and Robin breathe. The result is an audiobook that feels less like being read to and more like being told a story by someone who knows exactly where the bodies are buried.
What Readers Say
The Silkworm holds an average of 4.2 across seventy-six ratings, with reviewers particularly taken by its old-fashioned, puzzle-box construction. Sonya Bhonsle called it a true throwback to what crime thrillers used to be, praising the structured interviews, the red herrings and the slow chipping away at motive, and confessed to the classic affliction of telling herself she would stop after one more chapter, then not stopping at all. Alessandra echoed that pull, describing the book as twisty, dark and totally addictive, and admiring writing she found sharp and vivid, with just the right mix of grit and elegance.
Others noted how the series draws in even reluctant crime readers. Girlwithherheadinabook, awarding four stars, said the genre was not usually her territory, yet found something different in Strike, crediting Galbraith with lending her disheveled detective a world-weary humour she loved. Stephen Clynes was unequivocal, saying he could find nothing wrong with the book and that it works well as a standalone. The most reserved voice came from Lola, whose three-star review found the pacing slow-boiled and the wait for clues a touch too long. It is a spread that captures both the novel’s devotees and its doubters.
Who Should Listen?
The Silkworm is ideal for readers who love a rich, twisty, character-driven mystery and do not mind a generous running time. If you enjoy a whodunnit steeped in atmosphere, with a satisfyingly baroque crime and a detective duo you genuinely care about, this second Strike novel is a treat. Anyone who works in or around books will find its portrait of the publishing world especially, and wickedly, entertaining.
You could listen to it without having heard the first book, but the growing partnership between Strike and Robin rewards those who follow in order. If a dark, literary London mystery is calling to you, you can Listen to The Silkworm on Audible and let Robert Glenister lead you deep into Owen Quine’s poisonous final manuscript.
