Monday, August 21, 2017

The Silkworm


The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2)
-          Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling)

I finished reading The Silkworm in two days (and one of them a working day 😃). Of course, being a murder mystery, it kept me hooked till the murderer was revealed, but I have to confess that I didn't quite like it.

I had fairly liked the first book in the Cormoran Strike series (The Cuckoo’s Calling). It was a clean mystery, somewhat reminiscent of Agatha Christie - even though it was a bit slow, and I felt as if Rowling created deliberate red herrings. But I had hoped to find improvement in the sequels. In that respect, this one was better in terms of narrative, as there weren't as many deliberately misleading threads. But - it was too gruesome for me ️. Thrillers and mysteries have been my favorite genre, but I have given up on reading the contemporary works in this area, because they usually derive their thrill from psychopathic elements. And this goes right into that territory, deep into it. I also can't shake off the feeling that (as with the first book) this was longer than it should have been

I was also disappointed to find her perpetuating stereotypes. The female characters are almost all stereotyped, and the one that isn't - Robin - just drives this point further by over-stressing that she is not like other girls (There are more, but a mention of them would make this review a big spoiler.) Frankly, that was not what I expected from the creator of Hermione Granger. And the male characters are portrayed in the same clichéd style too – the brilliant, moody and down-in-the-dump detective, and the shallow and jealous fiancé.

I was quite disappointed, and not sure if I want to read the next one in the series.

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