Robert Galbraith: The Cuckoo's Calling

'The Cuckoo's Calling'

When it first came out that J.K. Rowling had written a book - The Cuckoo's Calling - under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, I wasn't all that bothered. I'd been a massive fan of the Harry Potter books (after a year or so of refusing to read them - they were popular and therefore not for me and my refined 9-year-old tastes), but that J.K. Rowling was their author was just one of those things. So when A Casual Vacancy came out, followed by Cuckoo and The Silkworm under the name Galbraith, why would I be interested? They weren't even the same genre of fiction.

Having just read Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry, I was on a bit of a thriller/crime kick so when I came across Cuckoo on the shelves in Oxfam (along with SJ Watson's Before I Go To Sleep and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale - reviews forthcoming), I thought 'Why not?'.

Why not indeed. In fact, I can't give you any reasons not to read The Cuckoo's Calling, there are just so many which suggest you should. Ultimately, this is a brilliant old-school detective novel.

The book follows ex-military policeman turned private detective Cormoran Strike as he investigates the apparent suicide of supermodel Lula Landry at the request of her brother. Beautiful, but troubled, Lula's suicide seems like an open-and-shut case, what with the history of drug abuse and the rocky relationship with a known bad-boy, but as Strike begins to look closer at the events that surrounded that night, he begins to suspect foul play. (Hint: he's right.)

The plot is well thought out and intricately & cleverly planned, filled with little revelations which at the time seem insignificant but can either end up having a serious implications or be complete red-herrings. The pace of the book is perfect; as Strike moves through the book interviewing witness and collecting testimonies he begins to get a picture of what happened to Lula, something which remains a mystery to the reader until the very end of the book. Some have criticised the explanatory ending, where Strike details how he put the clues together and confronts the killer with his findings, but I rather enjoyed it. Having been totally in the dark throughout the book, I liked hearing and recalling where each bit of evidence came from and following Strike's thought process. 

The book is also subtly funny, with sly jabs at social commentary. Lula's birth mother is money-grabbing and out to sell her story (probably to the Daily Mail) and her tortured boyfriend is almost a Pete Doherty parody, though he turns out to be more complex and sympathetic than one expects.

In fact, all of Cuckoo's characters are well rounded and intricately detailed - Strike, though the bastard son of a rock star, has only met his famous father twice and feels out of his depth in the moneyed world he's thrust in to. Despite his size - he's 'a lumbering bear of a man' - and military background, he uses his wits, rather than physical intimidation, to solve the case. His secretary, Robin, though meticulous and precise, is surprisingly resourceful, and as a newly-engaged girl with a solid relationship, is the perfect female companion for Strike, the victim of an obsessive and almost abusive partnership with ex-fiancé, Charlotte. We even learn a great deal about Lula as a person, rather than just a body on a slab, through her emails and the remembrances of her friends and colleagues. Despite being somewhat spoiled, Lula is a girl searching for a family to accept her for who she is, rather than what she represents or how much money she earns.

The Cuckoo's Calling was a pleasure to read, and happily the first in a series of Cormoran Strike crime novels, the next instalment being The Silkworm, released in 2014. I will certainly be looking out for it, and recommend you do too.

8/10.