The Cuckoo's Calling
Robert Galbraith.
Mulholland Books. First published 2013.
This is an 'adult' detective novel by J.K. Rowling, i.e. it is not specifically targeted at children. She wrote 'A Casual Vacancy', another adult story, and apparently a boring one, soon after she finished the last of the Harry Potter books. Then she wrote this book, featuring for the first time the ex-army intelligence officer, Cormoron Strike, now an unsuccessful private detective, working, when he does work, mainly gathering evidence for divorce cases. He is asked to investigate the presumed suicide of a beautiful and accomplished model by the brother of the deceased.
Strike has just been thrown out of his house by his wife, who is now filing for divorce. He lives in his two roomed office, drinking, eating from take-aways, sleeping at the office desk, and bathing, occasionally and without authorization, at a nearby club. He has very little money, and is hounded by his creditors. But despite his dire financial straits he engages a temporary secretary, an attractive and rather naive young lady. Rowling may have planned to have her serve as a Della Street to his Perry Mason (and not John Watson to his Sherlock Holmes), but in this book at least, the first of what could eventually be a 'saga', she plays only a minor role, and does not really advance the story forward. And no, she is not the love interest, though that naturally was my initial expectation.
In his precarious financial state, 'the adventure of the possible murdered model' is most welcome. On the strength of a solid sum of money advanced by the client, Strike investigates, interviewing all the interesting people associated with the deceased, and occasionally running foul of the police. The story glides smoothly on, from one idiosyncratic character to another, all of them inhabiting the sub-culture of fashion, advertising and popular music. Drugs, sex, excessive drink, wealth, fragile egos, parties, and people of all sorts of enthnicities and backgrounds, form the milieu, one which Strike navigates easily. After several hundred pages of this, during the course of which a few red herrings are scattered in in the path, only to be brushed away, the death is explained, the mystery is solved, in a rather disappointingly conventional way, and the bad guys get their comeuppance.
The writing is smooth and the book is a pleasant read. It does not bore, though it does not grip, either. Strike is a sort of updated Philip Marlowe, but the style is more Agatha Christie than Raymond Chandler, though, of course, it is actually J.K. Rowling. A different J.K. Rowling, however, not too much of a throwback to the Harry Potter books.
Strike has just been thrown out of his house by his wife, who is now filing for divorce. He lives in his two roomed office, drinking, eating from take-aways, sleeping at the office desk, and bathing, occasionally and without authorization, at a nearby club. He has very little money, and is hounded by his creditors. But despite his dire financial straits he engages a temporary secretary, an attractive and rather naive young lady. Rowling may have planned to have her serve as a Della Street to his Perry Mason (and not John Watson to his Sherlock Holmes), but in this book at least, the first of what could eventually be a 'saga', she plays only a minor role, and does not really advance the story forward. And no, she is not the love interest, though that naturally was my initial expectation.
In his precarious financial state, 'the adventure of the possible murdered model' is most welcome. On the strength of a solid sum of money advanced by the client, Strike investigates, interviewing all the interesting people associated with the deceased, and occasionally running foul of the police. The story glides smoothly on, from one idiosyncratic character to another, all of them inhabiting the sub-culture of fashion, advertising and popular music. Drugs, sex, excessive drink, wealth, fragile egos, parties, and people of all sorts of enthnicities and backgrounds, form the milieu, one which Strike navigates easily. After several hundred pages of this, during the course of which a few red herrings are scattered in in the path, only to be brushed away, the death is explained, the mystery is solved, in a rather disappointingly conventional way, and the bad guys get their comeuppance.
The writing is smooth and the book is a pleasant read. It does not bore, though it does not grip, either. Strike is a sort of updated Philip Marlowe, but the style is more Agatha Christie than Raymond Chandler, though, of course, it is actually J.K. Rowling. A different J.K. Rowling, however, not too much of a throwback to the Harry Potter books.
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