As many twists and turns off-page as on-page

LIKE any mystery novel expected to be a summer blockbuster, Robert Galbraith's The Silkworm, released last Thursday, features shadowy subtext and crafty machinations - but in this book's case, the manoeuvrings are both on and off the page.

That's because Galbraith is not a run-of-the-mill thriller writer but the pseudonym for JK Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series, and the publisher is Little, Brown and Co, a division of Hachette Book Group, which is locked in battle with Amazon, the giant online retailer.

Amazon, wh…