The cuckoo's calling

Despite a few missteps, this was a solid opening book in the CB Strike series. I really enjoyed the set up, as a truly down in the dumps private detective hires a new temps secretary, who proves her worth several times over. Cormoran Strike is a fun character, with both good and bad habits. Robin is a clever character, as she has always wanted to be a private eye(!) and is a fun discovery as she works out her issues as well

The actual mystery of a big time model "committing suicide" wasn't all that interesting and there was far too much exposition. And Galbraith (Rowling) got away with too much hidden information, because it isn't a first person book. Strike would "know" things but wouldn't let the reader in on the secret. And his habit of looking at women as objects was a little overdone.

But like I said, the set up was great. And I'm looking forward to seeing how Robin and Strike work out their relationship. Robin is a great character, with lots of potential. Probably a 3.5 star book, but worth the round up.

JKR isn’t perfect and a lot of her faults are on display in this book. There’s some heavy-handed treatment of social issues, some over description, and a lot of casual misogyny. This last point is particularly felt in her obsessive need to describe every character in terms of their attractiveness and comparing the female characters against each other. She doesn’t just describe what they look like, but explicitly explains whether they’re attractive to men or not. Male characters are constantly ogling female characters. Con-stant-ly. And the main female character, while I like her quite a lot, is a stereotype of a 50’s attractive, efficient secretary who never speaks up for herself even when she’s being treated horribly.

HOWEVER, JKR’s strengths are also on full display. This is a well-plotted mystery with many reveals and interesting characters.

I think JKR has 3 main strengths: world building, characters, and whodunit plotting. Let’s examine these in order.

1) World building. While this is set in the real world, it’s in a noir version of this world. The London in this book feels alive and real. The private detective office is evocative. She inverts some of the tropes of the noir detective genre while leaning in to certain other aspects which I really liked. There are some moments that are so noiry I literally squealed.

2) Characters. JKR has a particular talent for creating characters that feel like they might exist in the real world. OK, the secondary characters feel a bit cartoonish, which is normal for JKR. And I have a problem with how every character is either beautiful or ugly, no inbetween. However, the two main characters are likeable but complicated with flaws and details that hint at interesting backstories. I like both of them a lot and want to see where they go. This book is a great set-up for a series. I want to know more about these characters’ backgrounds and want to follow them as their relationship develops.

3) Plot. If you’ve read Harry Potter (if you haven’t we can’t be friends) you know that JKR can write the hell out of a mystery. Does that sound like a weird thing to say? Well, I think that many of the HP books are essentially mysteries. At least they kept me turning page after page to find out who was behind everything, was it Voldemort? Omg how is Voldemort pulling that off? It IS Voldemort! OMG no one believes Harry that Voldemort’s back!!! How will he prove it!?!?? etc., etc. JKR is expert at planting clues and introducing red herrings and sucking you in to the story. There were several reveals in this book that kept me going through the parts I found objectionable. I was genuinely invested in the story and how the characters were going to crack the case. I did guess who the bad guy was near the end but I don’t consider that a failure for a mystery. A good mystery should give you the chance of being able to guess. It’s a balance between making it too obvious and making it impossible. I guessed it but I didn’t figure out all the details by far. It’s one thing to guess who the killer is and another to figure out how their entire plot worked. There were many details to this mystery, which made the ending enticing.

Overall I’m giving it 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the story and the characters and will read the next book. It’s just that I kept getting upset at the negatives. This book deals with racism, mental illness, suicide, addiction, fame, classism, and disability, and JKR gives her usual clumsy “progressive” treatment to most of them. I just wish she would consult people who are actually affected by these issues before she wrote about them because she comes across as a well-meaning but oblivious white person in everything she does. I can’t speak to the issues of racism, classism, fame, or disability (point me to reviews from people who do experience these issues), but as someone with a mental illness I found the representation to be well-meaning but inaccurate. She seems to use it more as a plot device than anything. Even though it’s really important to the whole story! And, Jesus Christ!, the treatment of women! The old-fashioned gender roles. The obsession with every character’s looks. The murder victim is the most beautiful person in the world and the murderer is super ugly with hamster teeth and blotchy skin. JKR clearly has some internalised misogyny she hasn’t dealt with. But that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Just. It’s an OK book and I’m hooked. Shrug emoji.

This is a modern noir detective story about a young model who falls from her balcony window. Her adoptive brother hires private detective Cormoran Strike to investigate the circumstances around her death, which he believes to have been more than the suicide the police resolved it as. Cormoran is a former military investigator who lost part of a leg in Afghanistan, and is generally down on his luck. He takes the case which leads him to interview people from the very top and bottom of society as he starts to piece the real events of the night together.

It's not hard to believe this was written by the same author as Harry Potter as the writing is clear and entertaining, and there's a strong recurring theme of death and mortality. It also deals with clashes of social classes and cultures, including old money, newly minted celebrities, the homeless and plenty in between.

While I found it engaging enough to read through to the end, I'm not sure I'm sold on reading more. Cormoran's character feels like it's most been built out of gimmicks, and while he's a nice change from the hard boiled, abusive, alcoholic cliché, I didn't feel like there was much more to him than his service, disability and parentage. In many ways his underpaid and overskilled secretary was a more interesting character, which doesn't really bode well.

I'll probably watch the inevitable tv serialization or movies though.

I wish I hadn't known this was written by JK Rowling prior to reading it. It's impossible for me to know if it colored my opinion of the book. But it's out there, and was part of the reason it was moved to the top of my long "to read" list, so I guess it's of no consequence now.

The good: I liked Cormoran Strike. He met my expectation of a struggling, down-on-his-luck PI. I also enjoyed Robin, his accidental assistant. I am looking forward to seeing their partnership develop in future books and found I cared about both characters by the end. The plot, while a traditional mystery format, was tightly woven and took intricate turns. Well done.

The bad: I hated Cormoran's ex-girlfriend. I'm not sure the Rowling wanted or expected that response, but I would be happy if she never came up in another novel. This may be caused by the lack of true backstory around their relationship and perspective on why they both seemed so done at the time of the mystery, but she adds nothing to Cormoran's character for me. He can be a wounded soldier with a past without wasting time on her.

Overall, a good start to the series. I will read the next one when it comes out.

JK Rowling's post-Potter books have been interesting. It's not just that she is no longer writing fantasy stories, but that she approaches different books differently. The Potter books were about creating a magical world and about complex plotting and mysteries. The Casual Vacancy was about suburban intrigue and small mindedness.

The Cuckoo's Calling is about investigation. The story is not especially involved (certainly not compared to something like The Maltese Falcon or Farewell My Lovely), and it focuses on a fairly small number of people.

While the book does create a fully fleshed detective/receptionist combo, and a pretty good mystery, it is most interesting for it's portrayal of a very methodical detective. Unlike most fictional detectives, Cormoran Strike takes copious notes, reviews things in detail, collects evidence doggedly without constant intuitive leaps, and builds his case slowly. I really like that.

I still hope that someday Rowling will write another book in which she creates the sort of complex stories of the Potter series, but on its own terms, I quite enjoyed this one.

"The Cuckoo's Calling" is filled with cliché's and genre staples, but despite that it was a surprisingly enjoyable read.

The central role of the 'flawed detective with a past and carrying much baggage' has been done to death, yet somehow Rowling managed to draw me in and make me interested in Cormoran Strike, his assistent Robin and his London.

I actually used to live around the corner from where Strike has his offices, and while I don't necessarily recognise his world as reality, it was real enough for me to care about it. The plot deals with race, adoption, wealth, poverty, greed, fame - its a good mix, particularly in view of the tensions in modern london and the western world in general, but unfortunately all of these areas are dealt with in a rather superficial way. This may be more to do with the target mass market readership, but was disappointing none-the-less.

The mystery itself is interesting enough, although Rowling does play some slightly unfair tricks on the reader to obscure the truth, such as withholding certain important facts or even allowing the detective to make some leaps too far in their deductions. And the final resolution, with the client being the perpetrator was ludicrous, particularly with the inevitable question about why the client would bother hiring the detective in the first place - this was poorly answered. But it's a credit to the book that despite this major flaw, I still enjoyed it and didn't regret reading it.

What Rowling does very well, as with her previous books, is write with a perfect pace and interesting enough characters and characterisations to draw the reader in. She is also easy to read, with a well judged balance between narrative and dialogue. I did feel like I was reading an ITV or BBC crime drama; that's not necessarily a bad thing but gives you an idea of who this book is aimed at. Regardless, I enjoyed it, and would likely make the time to read the sequel or her next book.