Englischsprachige Literatur

Galbraith Robert i. e. J. K. Rowling

The Silkworm

Sphere,Little, Brown Book Group, London 2014

Galbraith3

J. K. Rowling is so very famous now, that she can indulge in any literary fantasy and no lector would dare to correct her.

This is her second Cormoran Strike novel, and in calling it a novel Rowling makes it clear that the criminal plot is not her first priority, although Strike is a P.I.

So what is her priority? To ridicule the literary circles of London society, the media-obsessed authors and their weird books, a menagerie she knows all about. Second comes  London, which she describes with intimate love. Then her characters, first of all Strike who is in constant pain with his leg stump. Then his secretary-partner Robin and her difficult fiance´Matthew, soon to be left behind, but that will be in the third book of the series.

And all the literati, mere caricatures. One of them is the  brutal murderer of novelist Owen Quine, a mean bastard himself.

The thing is, the reader never really gets interested in the plot, a bit in the characters and a lot in Rowlings masterful prose, but when Strike comes to the final stage of his investigation, his deliberations are shrouded in fictional mist. Why can´t somebody tell Rowling how to write a proper mystery?