Robert Galbraith's The Cuckoo's Calling
So, here it is--the literary mystery that JK Rowling published under a pseudonym months ago, only for all to be revealed by an intrepid reporter! Considering that it apparently got good reviews from Publisher's Weekly and others, I'm a little surprised that I hadn't heard of it until now--literary mysteries are my JAM. Though, to be fair, the description--it's about a private eye investigating the apparent suicide of a famous model--and the fact that she chose a male pseudonym may have been enough to keep me away (I just don't read a lot of books by men--there are so many good books by women that I always want to get through first!). And I don't think I'd ever have guessed this was written by Rowling (but do you remember how, post-Harry Potter, she talked about writing a detective novel????), but, knowing it, there are clues, like a couple of phrases I noticed from the HP books appearing here and there. Plus, the names! Cormoran Strike, Lula Landry, Freddie and Tansy Bestigui, Kieran Kolovas-Jones, Guy Some. And the line "you ought to give up detecting and try fantasy writing" is extra hilarious knowing Rowling wrote it.
All that rambling is prelude to this: I liked this a lot. Former military police guy Cormoran Strike is a really interesting protagonist, ably assisted by his plucky temp Robin (she is AMAZING! A lot of the book is from her POV, too). The investigation itself moves a bit slowly, but plenty of reveals about Strike's background are doled out too, so generally it's a pretty quick read for a longer-than-average mystery, especially once things really get moving in the second half (another Rowling tell?).Even if Rowling wasn't the author, I'd have really liked it, but I'm just so tickled by the whole situation! Very satisfying and highly recommended. It looks like Rowling is planning on writing more in this series, and I can't wait. A/A-.
No comments:
Post a Comment