Book Review: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

OMG stop. Wait. Have you heard?? Robert Galbraith IS JK Rowling! No way! What, you have heard? Eugh I’m always late on the gossip…

Being honest here, I totally read this book because JK wrote it – I’m a huge fan (I will review The Casual Vacancy soon as well…). In a way I think it’s good that she was busted for writing this because, and I am a perfect example of this, it encourages people read a certain genre that they wouldn’t normally go to. I’m not really a crime fiction and it’s always good to try new things ‪#somethingnew. I genuinely think that she has a very good writing style and I think this book is another testament to that. Rowling achieves a really good balance of description, characterization and dialogue that sustain the 450 pages that start this “classic detective” crime series. I say series because you really get the sense that there is so much more for her to give us. The “who-dun-it?” plot line is laced with the personal life and history of the private detective main-character - an ex-war-hero who has lost the leg below his knee. He’s got a famous rock-and-roll father and an infamous mother too and I’m sure that we’ll get a lot more of that in the other books…

So to summarize the plot, a model falls from the window of her very swanky apartment. Did she jump? Was she pushed? Why? And what? So many questions! Enter our detective to solve the mystery, hired by the model’s adopted brother.

I really enjoyed this book, and the twists and turns are great leading you on piece by piece to the satisfying conculsion. I loved the writing and the whole mystery of it, and even keeping up with all the characters and all their different stories through the middle section completely maintains the interest in the story. It’s like a modern-day classic reworking of an Agatha Christie-esque novel. So get involved – I, for one, am looking forward to the next one…

The back blurb...:

"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 the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith."