The Cuckoo's Calling Paperback – 1 Mar. 2014

When supermodel Lulu Landry falls to her death from her apartment window, the police decide it was suicide. She had been on medication for depression.Earlier that evening having a big bust-up with her boyfriend. But her brother, John Bristow, doesn’t believe that verdict – he’s convinced that Lulu was murdered. So he seeks the help of Cormoran Strike, ex-military man and not very successful private detective, to investigate.Cormoran has a secretary that does more than her job description to aid him by looking up on the internet ; setting up appointments. They work well as a team.The author is J K Rowling not Robert. She did so she could write other books!Well written and a page turner. I will be reading more of this series.

I was drawn into this book immediately. The plot of a murder set in the modelling world was interesting enough because of feeling like you were immersed in that world but this was alongside the introduction of the two main protagonists, the detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. You really want to find out about them, their lives and what makes them tick.I would really recommend this as an entertaining read and a page turner!

Unless you have been living on another planet you are unlikely to have missed the press coverage that followed the leaked revelation that this ‘debut’ novel was actually written by JK Rowling.Like about a million other people, I wanted to read it as soon as I heard. Why though? Yes, I am an English Graduate that loves Harry Potter and no, I’m not in the least bit ashamed to admit it. If you’ve read my other book reviews you’ll know that as far as I’m concerned whichever fictional worlds allow us that escapism are fine by me. But, I wasn’t overly enamoured with The Casual Vacancy, Rowling’s first adult novel published in 2012. So why the immediate need to read this?I think in part it was the genre of this one that appealed – I rather like a good old murder mystery, particularly when set in England. I am a die-hard Agatha Chrisite fan and also absolutely love Susan Hill’s Simon Serailler series for that reason.I probably also partly wanted to give Rowling another chance. It is all too easy for one slightly negative experience with an author to put me off them completely but when that author is the creator of Harry Potter, well, it’s slightly different… She has given me literally days of literary pleasure over the years, the least I can do is try her new book.The blurb says:When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case. Strike is a war veteran – wounded both physically and psychologically – and his life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model’s complex world, the darker things get – and the closer he gets to terrible danger…A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London – from the hushed streets of Mayfair to the backstreet pubs of the East End to the bustle of Soho – The Cuckoo’s Calling is a remarkable book. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is a classic crime novel in the tradition of P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, and marks the beginning of a unique series of mysteries.Which is a damn good blurb actually. The only part of it I’d dispute is the ‘elegant’ part. I actually found the story quite gritty – but not in a bad way. Cormoran Strike is about as far from elegant as possible, so a ‘gritty’ story fits well with his ‘gritty’ character. I haven’t entirely made up my mind about him, but then again I don’t think we are meant to. As the blurb mentions, he is ‘wounded psychologically’ and Rowling doesn’t make it easy for the reader to get inside his head. As any fan of Harry Potter knows, she is a master character builder and as this is the first in a planned series, I’m sure his character will unfold in due course.In any case, as we know, the blurb wasn’t necessary to hook me in this time as the (real) author’s name alone did that. Having said which, it does give enough details to quite possibly have piqued my interest anyway. The only thing it doesn’t do is mention Robin, Cormoran’s Temp, which is rather a shame. She arrives from an agency at the start of the novel and is definitely the most immediately likeable character in the novel. She is very ‘normal’ which sounds a lot less flattering than I mean it to. I just mean she is easy to identify with, in contrast to the slightly strange Cormoran who is always a little out of reach and whose slight weirdness even extends to his name! I have no doubt she will feature in the whole series and I sincerely hope she ditches her whinging boyfriend sometime soon.The question posed at the start of the novel is whether the troubled character committed suicide or not and it is a sibling that kick starts the investigation into the truth. The Cuckoo’s Calling didn’t exactly keep me guessing as to the outcome but then I guess the latter being publicly plastered everywhere as a ‘Murder Mystery’ kind of gives you a clue as to the outcome in this case. It doesn’t matter. I even guessed who did it (although not precisely how or why) and still enjoyed the read to the end.Cormoran’s investigation into the ‘suicide’ is underpinned with snatches of his private life; enough to build up a very basic idea of his Military past but no more than that. Again, I have no doubt that subsequent novels will add subsequent layers and depth to his own personal story. I can even see the possibility of a ‘Ron and Hermione’ type conclusion between him and Robin and sort of hope I’m right.The story is cleverly written – you’d expect nothing less really. All the loose ends are tied up and all the unanswered questions relating to the death are answered. More importantly though, I cared what those answers were. Hence all those original reviewer comments of ‘very accomplished for a debut novel’. One publisher (who turned it down!) described it as ‘quiet’ and I can see what she meant. The pace is steady; if you’re looking for fast-paced, page-turning action with gruesome forensic detail then this probably won’t hit the spot for you. There are no mad chases or urgent deadlines (bar the fear of another death…) but nevertheless, it was far from boring.So why the decision to write under a pseudonym? JK Rowling points out that the Harry Potter series is in the main, also a ‘whodunit’ at heart but goes on to say that she was “yearning to go back to the beginning of a writing career in this new genre, to work without hype or expectation and to receive totally unvarnished feedback”. She also said that by creating a male pseudonym she created an “excuse not to make personal appearances or to provide a photograph”. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we are being the whole story here and no doubt we never will.Some ‘Cuckoo’ facts:• Prior to the leak, the novel had sold 8,500 English-language copies across all formats and received two TV Production offers.• Since the leak, it shot to Number 1 in the hardback fiction chart, selling 17,662 copies and pushing Dan Brown off the top spot. Warner Bros. are now said to be interested in turning it into a film.

When supermodel Lulu Landry falls to her death from her apartment window, the police put it down to suicide. She had been seen earlier that evening having a big bust-up with her boyfriend. But her brother, John Bristow, doesn’t believe that verdict – he’s convinced that Lulu was murdered. So he seeks the help of Cormoran Strike, ex-military man and not very successful private detective, to investigate.Strike has a complicated family and backstory, clearly designed to be a recurring detective in a long-running series, as of course he has indeed become. Son of a hippy groupie mother and a rockstar father, with a parcel of half-siblings on his father’s side with whom he has very little contact and one half-sibling on his mother’s side to whom he’s close, when we first meet him he is in the middle of a messy break-up with his long-term fiancée which leaves him homeless and sleeping in his office. Add to this his background as a military veteran who lost a leg when his vehicle was bombed, and, as I said, complicated. All of this complication may be why the book is ridiculously overlong.Lulu Landry has an equally complicated background which we learn about at equal length. The adopted mixed race daughter of white parents, her beauty has made her rich and famous but not necessarily happy. Her boyfriend is perpetually drunk or high on drugs and the two regularly have spectacular rows. Her brother, also adopted, seems to love her to an unhealthy degree. Her adoptive mother, who seems to have treated Lulu like a pretty doll, is now dying of cancer. But there’s no real reason why Lulu would have committed suicide on this particular night – in fact, it seems highly unlikely. Just as well the police were so easily satisfied, though, or there would have been no case for Strike to investigate, I suppose!Strike is assisted in his investigation by his new temporary secretary, Robin, who has secretly always wanted to be a private detective and discovers to her own delight and Strike’s surprise that she has something of a talent for the work. Soon she’s out from behind her typewriter, joining in on the action. Fortunately she finds Strike’s habit of descending into drunken maudlin self-pity more endearing than I did, and soon becomes a kind of emotional prop to him along with all her other skills.I feel I’m being unfairly negative about the book. In fact, I quite enjoyed reading it. Galbraith’s writing style has an easy flow to it which keeps those pages turning even when there’s a lot of repetition and extraneous padding. I could have lived without the constant unnecessary swearing, which I assume Galbraith throws in to show she can write for adults as well as children. I’m pretty sure that in fact children would appreciate the foul-mouthery far more than this adult did. But otherwise I found it very readable, easy on the brain and, sadly, almost instantly forgettable. I wouldn’t refuse to read another in the series, but I won’t be rushing out to acquire them either, especially since I believe they actually increase in length as they go on, with the latest one coming in at a frankly ludicrous 944 pages. They would have to be chocolate pages to tempt me to pick that one up!

Perfect reading whilst travelling