The Cuckoo's Calling

By: Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

My Rating: 3 stars

Who Should Read This: Anyone who likes mysteries, but nothing too scary. This had a good plot twist, but you don't have to worry about anything gruesome. People interested in J.K. Rowling would probably also want to check this out!

Synopsis/My Thoughts:

I tried to dive into this book without any expectations. I knew that J.K Rowling had been the ghost writer, and although I LOVED the Harry Potter series, I was afraid I would find myself comparing the two when I shouldn’t because I knew these books would be so different from each other. The book started off great with the death of Lula Landry, coveted supermodel, and then jumps to a couple of months later with the character Robin starting a new temp job with a man by the name of Cormoran Stirke. The story is predominantly told from the point of view of Strike, with bits of Robin’s perspective from time to time. Strike has just broken up with his fiancé, is having loads of money woes, and has a lack of clients. Then a man by the name of John Bristow, older brother to a deceased friend of Strike’s, comes into the office and requests Strike find the person who killed his sister, Lula Landry. The problem is Lula’s death has already been deemed a suicide. Although Strike himself thinks that John is wasting his money he decides to take the case on. Of course, through his investigation Strike comes to realize John is correct in his assumption of foul play in regards to his sister’s death, and so Strike becomes determined to find the truth.

The storyline overall, was pretty good. It could have been a little faster paced and a tiny bit more dramatic for me, but being from mostly the point of view from Strike, the story was very meticulously written. It was written in the way that showed the reader how Strike worked and enhanced his character’s subtle, no drama attitude. I think at some points I got frustrated because I wanted to know exactly what Strike was thinking in regards to who the killer was, and you are left in suspense of this for the majority of the book. I mean, I definitely kept reading because I was trying to see if any of my assumptions were correct. The writing was well written, not really surprising, but the one thing that I would have liked more of is having more character development for Robin. I felt like the reader kept getting small glimpses into who she was and how she felt, and then all of a sudden it went back to the point of view of Strike. I really liked Robin’s character because of her enthusiasm for the job and how dedicated she was even though her fiancé didn’t approve of it, so I thought she deserved more time in the book. There was even some teasing I felt in relation to her and Strike’s relationship. They meet at the beginning of the book, but I feel like the reader could start to subtly see some chemistry between the two of them, and I started to kind of root for them. Probably one of my favorite characters though was Guy Some. He plays a small role in the book, but his attitude and eccentricity was addicting, and I found myself hoping that he would pop up in other parts of the book.

Even though I had my differences with parts of the book, I commend J.K. Rowling in writing a book for a different genre. Although the book was a little slow at times I found that overall I enjoyed it. As I stated before it was very well written, and in the end I was surprised on who the killer was. Once Strike started to explain the pieces I found myself wondering how I didn’t see it! I am a fan of trying to figure it all out and finding out in the end if I am right or wrong. This time, I was wrong. Way wrong. But maybe that is just a testament to the book! If you have read the book let me know what you think!