Summary

In Chapter 6, Strike meets with Christian Fisher, the founder of Crossfire Publishing. Fisher, it turns out, is anxious to find out who hired Strike. He is astonished to learn that Owen has gone missing and that Quine's wife hired a private detective to find him. Fisher explains that Quine's first novel, Hobart's Sin, was good, but his subsequent work falls into the "so-bad-he's-good category" (40). Fisher received a copy of the manuscript for Quine's new novel from his literary agent Elizabeth Tassel who later asked Fisher to return it immediately, unread. Fisher, who kept it and read it, says he cannot publish Bombyx Mori because he cannot afford lawsuits. Quine's manuscript, Bombyx Mori, is a roman à clef (literally, novel with a key), portraying clearly recognizable and wildly disparaging portrayals of people in their literary circle.

Leonora Quine suggests, in Chapter 7, that Strike check the...