This page is for character introduced in the novel The Silkworm. For characters who appear across the series see here.
open/close all folders
The Quine Family
Owen Quine
Owen Quine
- Played by: Jeremy Swift
A mediocre novelist with an inflated opinion of himself. Strike is hired to find him when he disappears.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: How he blackmailed Liz upon Michael Fancourt's first wife's suicide, which only he knows was caused by a scathing review Liz wrote. Like so many examples of the trope this eventually gets him killed although, unusually, it took years before it happened.
- Dead Artists Are Better: Considering the connection his last book has to his own murder, everyone expects it to be a bestseller regardless of its actual quality. Strike notes that Quine's death also allows his loved ones to carry on with their misguided beliefs that he was a good person.
- Even Jerkasses Have Loved Ones: He seems to genuinely care about his daughter, and the final novel he actually wrote seems to have been quite kind to Pippa and Kath.
- One-Hit Wonder: His first novel Hobart's Sin was a great success with the critics, but nothing he has written since has come even close to match it.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Orlando was a twin, and her brother, Owen's son, died at birth.
- Pet the Dog:
- His love for his daughter Orlando.
- Also the revelation that he really did write a loving and affectionate story about Katherine and Pippa, it was just covered up by Liz.
- He stood by Joe North, during a time where associating with AIDS victims was extremely stigmatized.
- He defended Walgrave when he was being mocked over his wife's affair with Fancourt, which may be why Walgrave stood by him for so long.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Strike’s investigation of his disappearance and murder forms the plot of the novel.
- Small Name, Big Ego: His novels after Hobart's Sin were panned and he never enjoyed much commercial success or fame. This doesn't stop him from believing himself to be a misunderstood genius.
- The Charmer: He comes across as a sleazy jerk, but before his death he had a surprising number of women devoted to him. Several characters note that he could turn on the charm when he really wanted to.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: It’s hard to understand how Quine is still considered part of the literary world considering Jerry Waldegrave is the only one who can tolerate the man.
- We Used to Be Friends: Michael, Liz, and Owen were all friends, but were gradually driven apart over time, professional jealousy, and death.
Leonora Quine
Leonora Quine
- Played by: Monica Dolan
Owen Quine’s long suffering wife.
- The Caretaker: She is the only one who takes care of her daughter Orlando.
- Foil: Leonora Quine is an excellent foil for Cormoran's previous client, John Bristow. John is an unusually extroverted man; fiercely protective of his surviving family; convinced that his sister's death was a murder rather than a suicide; flies under the radar of both the police and Strike for the entire case; and is ultimately revealed to be Lula's killer. Leonora is an unusually introverted woman; shows subtle but devoted concern about her daughter's health at all times, even ahead of her own well-being; shows little to no interest in her husband's whereabouts following his disappearance, and takes his death with an unusual amount of grace. She is immediately tagged as a suspect in his murder, and is even arrested at one point. Unlike Bristow, however, she is completely innocent.
- Love Martyr: Owen treated her like shit for decades, but she stuck with him through it all.
- No Social Skills: Leonora comes off as extremely brusque in her dealing with everyone except her daughter and doesn’t display many emotions when you would expect her to. This helps convince the police and the press that she murdered her husband.
- Textual Celebrity Resemblance: She is compared to a long-haired Rose West by the British press when she is first arrested for Quine's murder.
Orlando Quine
Orlando Quine
- Played by: Sarah Gordy
Owen Quine’s mentally disabled daughter.
- Daddy's Girl: Which is ironic, since Leonora looks after her all the time and Owen is barely ever present.
- Gender-Blender Name: Orlando is a... unique name for a girl, although quite suitable for the daughter of an author known to blend gender themes.
- Morality Pet: For Owen, who is otherwise a totally unlikeable Jerkass.
The Publishing Industry
Elizabeth Tassel
Elizabeth Tassel
- Played by: Lia Williams
Owen Quine’s long-time literary agent.
- Incurable Cough of Death: She spends the entire book with a wheezing cough which is actually a side effect of inhaling fumes from hydrochloric acid.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Her obsession with Michael Farncourt led to her writing the review that pushed his wife to suicide.
- Mean Boss: Her employees are absolutely terrified of her.
- Most Writers Are Male: Her pet peeve. Men like Owen and Fancourt are happy enough to have women review their work, and are especially happy with their female fans, but Lord forbid a woman actually dare to write a book herself.
- Old Maid: She's in her 60s and never married, but she's also associated with the less pleasant parts of this trope, such as being ugly and abrasive.
- Samus Is a Girl: That piece of writing by Michael Fancourt in Oxford? She wrote it. This is also a hint that she also wrote the other version of Bombyx Mori.
Jerry Waldegrave
Jerry Waldegrave
- Played by: Dominic Mafham
Owen Quine’s long-time editor.
- The Alcoholic: He turns to the bottle after the Bombyx Mori debacle destroys his career.
- Beleaguered Editor: He has spent years putting up with Quine’s crap and delusions of grandeur.
- Berserk Button: Absolutely loses it when his estranged wife rings him on his daughter's phone.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He's gentle and genial for the vast majority of the book, but has a very nasty argument with his ex-wife in public while drunk.
- Butt-Monkey: Played for Drama When the contents of Bombyx Mori come to light, it destroys his career, costs him his marriage, and turns him into an alcoholic.
- Family Man: He genuinely adores his spoiled daughter, and it devastates him when Bombyx Mori reveals she isn't actually his daughter to everyone, although this revelation turns out to be false.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: His daughter Johanna may be the product of an affair between his wife and Fancourt; she seems to think so. Turns out that Fancourt's infertile, so she likely is Jerry's biological daughter.
- Off the Wagon: He's a reformed alcoholic who turns back to the booze after Bombyx Mori spills his darkest secrets.
- Only Sane Man: With the possible exception of Leonara he comes across as the most rational and stable person in Quine's life.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He resigns from his job during the investigation, to the shock of his compatriots. Given what he's gone through, it's hard to blame him.
Michael Fancourt
Michael Fancourt
- Played by: Peter Sullivan
A famous bestselling author with a decades-old feud with Quine.
- Adaptational Name Change: He's called Andrew in the TV adaptation, for reasons not entirely clear.
- Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: He actually writes novels geared toward the people who analyze in this fashion.
- Happily Married: He was genuinely devastated by his first wife's suicide and seems to have cared for her.
- Hypocrite: He is furious at both Liz and Owen for the anonymous parody of his wife's work, believed to be written by Owen, that drove her to suicide. But according to Liz Tassel, he had made a career out of similar writings.
- Jerkass: The man is a misogynistic asshole.
- Straw Misogynist: Exemplified by his explanation why Most Writers Are Male… women with children simply cannot write good literature, apparently.
- We Used to Be Friends: Back in the day, he and Quine used to be extremely close.
Daniel Chard
Daniel Chard
- Played by: Tim McInnerny
The president of Roper-Chard, a London publishing house that specializes in modern literature.
- Depraved Homosexual: Played with. His handsome male staff members seem scared of him, with one even implied to have attacked him (possibly due to unwelomce advances), and he's definitely creepy. But he's not the murderer.
- Entertainingly Wrong: He's convinced that Jerry Waldegrave helped Quine write Bombyx Mori. His logic behind this is a bit sketchy, and he's wrong.
- No Social Skills: His behavior is bizarre, to put it mildly.
- Transparent Closet: He is assumed to be gay by most of the characters.
Nina Lascelles
Nina Lascelles
A junior editor at Roper Chard.
- Adapted Out: She isn't present in the TV adaptation.
- Animal Motifs: Frequently compared to a mouse.
- Girl of the Week: She has a sexual relationship with Strike for a good part of the novel. They grow more distant after the murder and his conduct in the investigation upset her.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: She's happy to flout her boss's orders to remain silent on Bombyx Mori and helps steal a copy of the book with Strike. He notes that since her father is a Queen's Counsel, there's not much Roper Chard can do to punish her.
Others
Kathryn Kent
Kathryn Kent
- Played by: Dorothy Atkinson
Quine’s mistress and talentless aspiring writer.
- Heel–Face Turn: She eventually becomes cordial towards Cormoran and Robin, once she realizes that he wasn’t sent by Leonora to harm or frame her.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Her writing is absolutely dreadful and has been rejected by every publisher in London.
- Hypocritical Humor: Her blog is rife with misspellings and grammatical errors, yet she has a tongue-in-cheek "Keep Clam and Proofread" coffee mug.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Uses a photo on her blog that Strike judges as both "very flattering" and "ten years out of date".
- Parental Substitute: To Pippa.
- Small Name, Big Ego: She's nowhere near as bad as Quine, but is convinced that her poorly written erotica is actually "quite literary" and was only rejected by publishers because they weren't visionary enough.
- Those Two Guys: After a certain point in the novel, she only appears or is mentioned together with Pippa.
Pippa Midgley
Pippa Midgley
A transgender woman undergoing therapy ahead of gender reassignment surgery. She was very close with Quine and Kathryn.
- Adapted Out: She also isn't present in the TV adaptation.
- Heel–Face Turn: She eventually becomes cordial towards Cormoran and Robin, once she realizes that he wasn’t sent by Leonora to harm or frame her.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Her attempts to deal with Strike are downright laughable.
- Those Two Guys: After a certain point in the novel, she only appears or is mentioned together with Kathryn.
- Trans Tribulations: Makes constant reference to having suffered these, but they're mostly Played for Laughs.
