Leonora Quine hires private detective Cormoran Strike to find her husband, Owen, who has disappeared after an argument with his publisher about his new book, a tell-all about everyone he knows. When Owen turns up dead, the list of suspects is very long.
Quote
“You can’t plot murder like a novel. There are always loose ends in real life.”
Interesting Facts
Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) had the plot of The Silkworm before writing The Cuckoo’s Calling, but she chose to release the latter first, because The Silkworm is more complex, and she wanted to introduce Cormoran Strike and develop his relationship with Robin in a more simple story. 1
Denmark Street, where Strike’s office is located, was a real street with 17th-century buildings, but it has been destroyed to erect a new development. 2
Robert Galbraith decided that Cormoran Strike would be a private detective, rather than a member of the police force, because he wanted him to be a little old-fashioned and not have access to modern ways of solving crimes, like DNA evidence. 2
When the author plans his novels, he knows exactly how the story will go and who the murderer is. He doesn’t make any changes along the way, not even about the characters. 2
Robert Galbraith is not comfortable with public speaking, but he’s become more used to it over the years. 2
The main character, Strike, has an amputated leg and has to navigate the world with it. The author wanted to show how hard life can be when you have a disability (J.K. Rowling’s mother had several strokes and was in a wheelchair at the end of her life). 3
If his writing career hadn’t worked out, Robert Galbraith would have most likely been a psychologist. 3
Cécile Sune was born in Lyon, France, and her obsession with books started when she was 14. Her grandparents had lent her Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and she spent part of the summer indoors reading. Needless to say, her tan didn't really improve that year! It was also around that time that Cécile fell in love with the English language. Several years later, in 1999, Cécile moved to Toronto, Canada, with her cat and 5 suitcases. Her love of reading greatly increased when she discovered that English books were much cheaper than French novels. In 2013, she decided to start a blog to share her passion. Cécile now lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and their daughter, and works as a freelance translator (CS Revision).
When Craig Moore drowns in a lake, Andy Crowl is surprised to learn that his cousin left him his few possessions despite their not seeing each other for years because of a childhood rivalry. Andy and his sister Kate, go to Craig’s house in Mortom to sort through the inheritance when they come upon a dead rat with a key in its mouth. It turns out someone has set up clues for Andy…
Ian Rankin was in Ottawa on Saturday 30 November 2013 to talk about his new book, Saints of the Shadow Bible. Earlier that day, he was having a drink in a pub when he started chatting with one of the customers there. The guy noticed that he was Scottish, and asked Rankin what he was doing for a living. When the author told him, the guy said he was actually…
Summary Cormoran Strike, a war veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan, runs a private detective agency in London and is struggling to make ends meet when John Bristow asks him to investigate his sister’s death as he is convinced that she was murdered. The victim, Lula Landry, was a supermodel with mental health problems and the police have closed the case, believing she committed suicide. With the help of his…
