The Silkworm

J.K. Rowling has published seven novels in the Cormoran Strike mystery series under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, beginning in 2013 with The Cuckoo’s Calling. The Silkworm was released in 2014 as the second installment of the series. The novel received praise for its intricate plotting and satirical take on the publishing industry, though it also drew criticism for its controversial portrayals of gender and graphic imagery. Set in the London literary world, The Silkworm satirizes the egos, pretensions, and rivalries of authors, editors, and agents. Rowling’s insider knowledge of publishing informs the book’s satire, while the mystery framework follows the classic private investigator structure popularized by Golden Age crime writers.

This guide is based on the 2014 Mulholland Books edition of The Silkworm. 

Content Warning: This guide and the source material contain discussions of graphic violence, sexual assault, ableism, and transgender discrimination. 

Plot Summary

The story opens with private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott being hired by Leonora Quine, the wife of the temperamental and largely forgotten author Owen Quine, who has disappeared. Leonora reports that Owen often does attention-seeking stunts and hopes that the disappearance follows this pattern. Strike initially agrees, assuming it will be a simple find-and-return job. He is also quietly pleased to have work during a slow period, as his growing reputation after solving the Lula Landry case has not yet translated into steady income. 

However, Strike soon discovers that Quine has completed a manuscript called Bombyx Mori, a grotesque allegory full of vicious caricatures of nearly everyone in his personal and professional life. The manuscript’s characters—many of them barely disguised versions of real people—are portrayed in horrific and humiliating ways, including scenes of torture, sexual degradation, and cannibalism, making it a toxic bombshell within the London literary scene. The unpublished novel has been leaked, setting off a firestorm of fear, anger, and potential career ruin.

The case takes a macabre turn when Quine is found brutally murdered in a deserted house. His body is arranged to look exactly like a scene from Bombyx Mori. He has been disemboweled, partially dissolved in acid, and bound in a theatrical pose, echoing the grotesque fate of the book’s central figure. Leonora is arrested for the crime based on circumstantial evidence and her perceived lack of emotion. The police are confident she is guilty, but Strike is not. He believes the crime’s staging and symbolic details suggest someone with a deep familiarity with the manuscript’s internal logic, and a much more intimate vendetta. 

As Strike investigates, he encounters a web of literary bitterness, jealousy, and betrayal. The key suspects include Elizabeth Tassel, Quine’s ailing agent, whose career has faded; Michael Fancourt, a literary celebrity with a dark history with Quine; Daniel Chard, a publisher desperate to distance himself from the scandal; Jerry Waldegrave, Quine’s former editor who is spiraling into addiction; Kathryn Kent, Quine’s mistress and a failed writer; and Pippa Midgley, a young writer whom Quine was mentoring. Strike’s investigation leads him through private clubs, dusty literary offices, and emotionally volatile interviews, often requiring him to manipulate suspects or pose indirect questions to catch inconsistencies. His prosthetic leg causes him increasing pain and strain as the case drags on, underlining the physical toll of his work. 

Strike ultimately uncovers that the murderer was Liz Tassel. She staged evidence at various locations and edited the manuscript of Bombyx Mori to get revenge on Quine and attempt to frame his wife for the murder. Tassel’s motive is rooted in long-held resentment: She had ghostwritten large parts of Quine’s earlier work without credit, only to see her own career stall while he became briefly successful. Her manipulation of Pippa Midgley as a courier for the manuscript and a potential scapegoat further illustrates her cold, calculated orchestration of the crime.

The novel ends with Leonora exonerated, Robin proving her worth as a detective, and Strike once again outmaneuvering both the killer and the official police investigation. However, personal tensions between Strike and Robin simmer, particularly regarding Robin’s controlling fiancé, Matthew. Robin grows increasingly torn between the life she is building with Matthew and the one she is discovering with Strike, which is marked by intellectual partnership, growing respect, and emotional complexity. These tensions arise later in the series, and the relationship between Strike and Robin becomes a primary throughline that ties the Cormoran Strike books together. The Silkworm deepens the series’s psychological tone, anchoring its murder mystery in critiques of literary ambition, authorship, and the corrosive cost of artistic ego.