The Silkworm cover art

The Silkworm

Cormoran Strike, Book 2

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Silkworm

By: Robert Galbraith
Narrated by: Robert Glenister
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

 'Teems with sly humour, witty asides and intelligence ... A pleasure to read' TIMES

-----

Now a major BBC drama: The Strike series

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days - as he has done before - and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were published it would ruin lives - so there are a lot of people who might want to silence him.

And when Quine is found brutally murdered in bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any he has encountered before . . .

A compulsively readable crime novel with twists at every turn, The Silkworm is the second in the highly acclaimed series featuring Cormoran Strike and his determined young assistant Robin Ellacott.

*** The latest book in the thrilling Strike series, TROUBLED BLOOD is out now! ***

-----

PRAISE FOR THE STRIKE SERIES:

'One of the most unique and compelling detectives I've come across in years' MARK BILLINGHAM

'The work of a master storyteller'DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Unputdownable. . . Irresistible' SUNDAY TIMES

'Will keep you up all night' OBSERVER

'A thoroughly enjoyable classic' PETER JAMES, SUNDAY EXPRESS©2014 Robert Galbraith Limited Crime Thrillers Modern Detectives Mystery Private Investigators Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction Exciting

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Detective Sebastian Clifford, Books 1-3 cover art
The Murderer's Son cover art
A Real Shot in the Arm cover art
The Snow Killer cover art
Dreaming of the Bones cover art
The Poet cover art
The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1 cover art
Little Girl Lost cover art
The Scorpio Races cover art
Cut Short cover art
Rebus cover art
The Catch cover art
A Is for Alibi cover art
The Potter cover art

Critic reviews

An unputdownable tale of malice and murder in a toxic literary world . . . this almost preposterously compulsive page-turner is irresistible summer reading
Teems with sly humour, witty asides and intelligence ... A pleasure to read
A damn good read ... It's a book to gulp down
Galbraith has pulled off a thoroughly enjoyable classic and I'm already looking forward to Strike's next outing
A superb and polished thriller . . . an ingenious whodunit
Pacy, unputdownable . . . I can't wait for the next one
An enticingly macabre whodunit ... taut and believable
You are absolutely carried along ... Well written, exciting
A great detective novel: sharp, immensely readable, warm-hearted but cool-headed ... populated with dozens of memorable characters
Enthralling, not only for its twists and turns, but for the fun of the teamwork
An atmospheric, propulsive narrative
An entertaining novel in which the most compelling characters are not the killer or the victim, but the detectives charged with solving the crime
A pacey detective story ... moreish
Fast-paced and entertaining ... Strike has all kinds of potential. It'd be a crime not to keep up with him
The Silkworm is a deeply satisfying work of crime fiction, more complex and darker than its predecessor
Galbraith brings flair and wit to [his] reflections on the state of contemporary publishing ... [He] takes the existing strengths of the genre and uses them as the building blocks for [his] own considerable storytelling gift, crafting books crammed with memorable characters that make irresistible reading ... There are aspects of the traditional English crime novel reaching right back to the golden age of Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh ... The Cuckoo's Calling was a calling card for a series that has legs
If [Galbraith] had as much fun writing The Silkworm as I did reading it, [he] had a blast
An absorbing puzzle with vivid characters . . . Robert Galbraith deserves the inevitable bestseller
An intelligent and captivating drama driven by fascinatingly real characters. This is storytelling at its very best
Bring on the next one, please ... [Galbraith] writes with wit and affection for detective-novel tradition ... and races us through a twisty plot so smoothly that you won't notice as the hours tick by
A gimlet eye for detail and beautifully crafted plot make it a delight from start to finish, and a perfect summer read
A properly addictive whodunit. And in the unlikely pairing of ungainly Strike and his clever young assistant, Galbraith has created an investigative duo with spark and empathy
All stars
Most relevant

What did you like most about The Silkworm?

Strike continues to unfold into an incredibly stubbly character, sullied and brilliant. Also the storytelling and description is a powerful whirlpool.

Any additional comments?

I just loved this book, a great sequel... Really looking forward to Book 3!

Gripping, fascinating and very very likeable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As other reviewers have said this book is slow to start but in my eyes that's no bad thing. A writer disappears and the fall out that follows throws up a load of unexpected twists and hidden secrets. It is dark and contains descriptions of torture and porn, for me it didn't detract but if you're squeamish it may put you off.

Excellent narration and I much prefer Strike to Potter...

Slow, slow burner...but it's excellent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having listen to the first book 'The Cookoo Calling' , I was looking forward to the second book in the series and I wasn't disappointed. There are several complex characters/suspects set in the world of authors & publishing. The descriptions of the winter setting of snowy London made me feel very cold & I even felt like I was experiencing the blizzardy weather in some places. The working relationship between the two main characters Comoran Strike & Robin Ellacot is developing well. Robert Glenisters narration is perfect & I could envisage the characters in a dramatisation. Unlike a few other reviewers I thoroughly enjoyed this second book, would recommend it & urge others to listen & make up there own minds.

Loving these Cormoran Strike books

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed the first book (Cuckoo's Calling) and was so looking forward to this one. I read the first two chapters as a sample prior to the book being published and it looked really interesting and my already whetted appetite was even more whetted, should that be possible! Somehow though the book was not quite up there. It actually felt like a second book, and as we all know who the author is we know it's far from her second book, but it felt as if bases were being set.

However, it doesn't mean I won't look forward to a possible third book!

Wanted to like this more

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The writing of these books is nothing but perfection. The Narration by RG is Oscar worthy. I never want these books to end

“Robert Galbraith’s” writing is a highly addictive substance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews