December Read

Title: Cuckoo’s Calling

Author: Galbraith, Robert

Call Number: F

Genre: Mystery

Number of Pages: 455

ISBN: 9780316206846

Book Description (from the inside of the book jacket)

            After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

            Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

            You may think you know detectives, but you’ve never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you’ve never seen them under an investigation like this. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

My Read:

            Talking about motif for a murder there are unique categories attached to it: Money, love/hatred, and revenge. In this book the case is about money: ten millions.

To the main character, Cormorna Strike, it’s been obvious to him from the start that the person who benefits most from the supermodel’s death is her adopted brother, John. (page 430) Upon facing John, the killer, Cormoran commented: I said you’re bat-shit insane. You killed your sister, got away with it, and then asked me to reinvestigate her death. (page 429)

            Even before I finished the book I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be just one time story; this book would be the first book of a series featuring the old-fashioned, note-taking, sharp-observing, and one-legged sleuth named Cormoran Strike. Cormoran’s personal life is complicated enough and the author skillfully weaves his personal agendas with the progress of the case he undertakes the investigation.

           And don’t forget the ever efficient and extremely considerate Robin, Cormoran’s temporarily hired secretary. From the ways and methods she handles Cormoran’s requests and threats from her boss’s creditors intrigued readers would consider her to be the smart and must have sidekick of Cormoran’s and expect to see her again in the next books following the Cuckoo’s Calling.

            I admire Cormoran’s methodological tactics on investigation and his seemingly harmless yet to the point questions he presents to the people involved directly and indirectly to the case. It seems like he gathers piece by piece from asking questions and the followed answers to complete the broken and messy puzzle.

            If you like the TV series Columbo starring Peter Falk and the Lincoln Rhyme series books by Jeffery Deaver you will find yourself fully engage in reading this book following Cormoran’s thinking and action he takes. Check it out yourself!