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This week's read. Very curious:

I'm not curious in the least. In fact, I find this book's success not worthy. It was not a hit until it's true author's name was released, that does not encourage me to read it.

In fact, only 7,000 books were sold before she revealed her name. Here is another "unworthy" author: Dan Brown. His Inferno is terrible. But, guess what, Inferno is #1 on the WSJ list of top 10. I do think that authors need to write their best story, as flawless as possible, as clear as can be, and perfect for their genre. So many contemporary famous authors just get on a treadmill [once a pub house has picked them up] and simply fulfill a contract ... such as 2 books a year, or 1 book every 3 years plus some novellas in between. I think i'm going to start printing my name LARGER on my books [larger than the title of the book, that is] in hopes of drawing readers/buyers to my books on Amazon. It's pure marketing crapola, but it seems to be the way of things. Large text for name = famous author. Shopper brain cells say: buy this book. it must be good because the author's name is huge.

Heather wrote: "I'm not curious in the least. In fact, I find this book's success not worthy. It was not a hit until it's true author's name was released, that does not encourage me to read it."

Each to their own of course, but I can't agree that just because a book doesn't sell a lot of copies it is "unworthy." It's hard for books to break out; lots of fabulous books go unnoticed (or unpublished). The book was well reviewed before anyone knew who she was (unlike her other adult novel).

Catherine, Good points. It is so very hard to break out. She had a good review in our newspaper today. So the book is certainly worth reading. I'm probably a good reader to do that, as I'm one of the few who have never read anything she has written. Thanks for the opportunity.

I’ve never been a big fan of J.K. Rowling. I’ve read the first Harry Potter book many years ago and saw a couple of the movies but never been very much into her. I did start reading The Casual Vacancy but simply stopped reading after a while. Too many characters were introduced at once and the entire plot did not catch my attention at all, maybe one day I will give it another chance. But I still jumped on the bandwagon after the pseudonym ‘scandal� hit the news.

Having said that, I’m glad because I loved this novel, both the mystery side of it, the typical who did it and why that kept me clueless until almost the end and also the other side, the journey through the trials and tribulations of this unconventional private detective called Cormoran Strike. Let me talk a bit about him. He’s very tall, has hard features, is a bit fat, and hairy like a werewolf and has only one leg. He has tons of debts; very few clients and his girlfriend just kicked him out. That’s when this famous suicide case falls on his lap and maybe becomes the solution for all his problems.

I loved this character so much, his rude sensitivity, his pride and intelligence. I also liked his sidekick, Robin and wish their relationship had been more developed. I kept remembering the 80’s series called Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd that I loved and sensing a bit of tension between them or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
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At first I did suspect John was the killer but because he was the one who hired Strike I thought it just couldn’t be true. He also started to interview so many suspects, different people that populated Lula’s Life for one reason or another, confusing us readers. So clever the way Strike interrogated this so-called friends and family never making comments or conclusions giving us readers that task.

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Bravo, J.K Rowling I mean Robert Galbraith for keeping me in the loop until almost the very end.

I guess what impressed me the most were the incredible gallery of fascinating characters and archetypes, and their perfect characterization; Cormoran Strike off course, Lula Landry, Guy Somé, Evan Duffield just to name a few I enjoyed.

Rowling confirmed in a statement published on her website that she "fully intends to keep writing the series", and will do so under the pseudonym she created. In fact, the second book is going to be published in 2014. I guess I’ll have to add this to growing pile.

3.5 stars. Overall, I enjoyed the story & the great descriptions of places & people. The main character, Cormoran Strike, was interesting & believable although I was worried about that since Rowling has given him every hard-luck/downtrodden aspect she could think of: he's tall, large & hairy, he's the illegitimate son of a rock star father, his mother was a homeless drug addict who dragged him from place to place & allegedly killed herself w/ a drug overdose, he lost his lower right leg in Afghanistan, he broke up w/ his fiancé which left him homeless, & he's almost completely bankrupt. I mean, seriously?!? But, thankfully, Rowling doesn't let her character become maudlin or bitter or wallow in self-pity & despair. He is actually a very intelligent, astute & determined.
Also, Rowling's extreme overuse of semicolons making paragraph-long sentences drove me nuts at times. I believe this book would have greatly benefited from a little more active editing as there were a couple of times when I questioned whether or not I should continue reading it. I did stick it out & am glad for that.
Most likely, I will pick up the next Cormoran Strike book as I am curious to see how Rowling develops this character and his story.

I gave this book 3.5 stars. This is my first book by J. K. Rowling. Good story line, like-able characters, but the book gave out of gas along the way. Not too suspenseful. I definitely need to read the Harry Potter series to see J.K. Rowling's true greatness that everyone raves about.

I would read additional books in Detective Strike series. I enjoyed the developing relationship between Strike & Robin. There's definitely more brewing between those two.

Jacquelyn wrote: "3.5 stars. Overall, I enjoyed the story & the great descriptions of places & people. The main character, Cormoran Strike, was interesting & believable although I was worried about that since Rowlin..."

LOL on the list of misery!

Really enjoyed this as an audio book because the reader was so fantastic he added value to the story. Robert Glenister made me hear each of the characters distinctive voices and the accents they used. It was another layer to the story that I appreciated. Had to sit in the car tonight and listen to the last half of the last CD!

I love them to. This, I actually read in e-book format it it was great as well.

I am clearly reading these out of order and a bit behind but I just finished this one and really liked it. I have never read any of the Harry Potter books because that genre doesn't appeal to me so I was a bit leery of whether I would enjoy this book. To my surprise, I really did. I couldn't put it down and look forward to the series continuing.

I read Silkworm first and enjoyed it so much I went and read The Cuckoo's Calling Second. I agree with Carla I love the characters in the story and the mystery. She keeps you guessing right up until the end. I never read any of the Harry Potter's books but read Casual Vacancy awhile ago and I did like that book.

Arlene wrote: "I read Silkworm first and enjoyed it so much I went and read The Cuckoo's Calling Second. I agree with Carla I love the characters in the story and the mystery. She keeps you guessing right up un..."

Wait, what? No Harry Potter books?? You must read them! :)

I enjoyed this book. The only complaint I have is that at times, the author wrote long sentences and paragraphs describing things. This worked in the Harry Potter books, but not so much in this book.

I finished listening to this a few days ago and really enjoyed it. I sure didn't guess who done it and thought it was really well worked out. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the reader who brought vivid life to each character. Strike's development as a character was interesting. I loved feeling how his physical difficulties figured into the story. Robin continues to be interesting in how she's growing as a would be detective. I'm really looking forward to reading more of Strike and Robin. My only peeve about this book was I felt there was too much from Quine's manuscript but as we did need to know some of what was in it, I'm not sure if that section could have been shortened. But I would liked to have that information taken care of in a paragraph.

Catherine wrote: "Arlene wrote: "I read Silkworm first and enjoyed it so much I went and read The Cuckoo's Calling Second. I agree with Carla I love the characters in the story and the mystery. She keeps you guess..."

Catherine wrote: "This week's read. Very curious: "

I love this new series. Can't wait for the next one! The characters are quite intriguing.