The Silkworm

Private investigator Cormoran Strike receives a call from journalist Dominic Culpepper. He agrees to meet Culpepper at a cafe in Smithfield Market to hand over evidence from a case involving a woman who was betrayed by an aristocratic man. He has a file about the man’s financial crimes that Culpepper hopes to use to expose the man. Strike insists that the woman who gave him the information not be included in the story.

Strike makes his way home on the tube, where he ponders his position as the illegitimate child of a famous musician, and how many people see him only through that lens. He makes his way back to the tiny apartment above his office and falls asleep. He is soon awoken by his assistant, Robin Ellacott, accompanied by a client named William Baker and an unknown woman. Strike ignores Baker in favor of the woman, who introduces herself as Leonora Quine.

Leonora describes the last time she saw her husband: He was planning to attend a writers’ retreat and refused to tell her where he was going. She has not seen him in 10 days, and strange occurrences keep happening at her house.