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Loading... The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike) (original 2013; edition 2014)by Robert Galbraith (Author)
Work InformationThe Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (2013)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I never really got into this. It just never pulled my interest in. I kept reading cause I knew I was reviewing it. unfortunately I couldn't get a free copy and the preview I got only had a few chapters so I wasn't able to finish reading the whole book. I was aware of the author but have never read nor gotten into any Harry Potter books so there is no comparison for me to do. I will need to get this at my public library but I am only going to review by what I had read. The kudos for this completely engaging story go to author, Robert Galbraith, AKA J.K. Rowling. My husband (who listened to this book with me) and I agree that she is every bit as good a crime writer as she is a fantasy writer. And narrator, Robert Glenister, is up to the task. As with the fabulous Potter series narrator, Jim Dale; Glenister's characterizations are so well delineated that you know who is speaking before you are told. If I knew when I put this book in my "want to read" list that Galbraith was actually Rowling, I didn't remember it by the time I was listening to it, so I had no expectations for it, and was just enthralled with how good it was. This is the first book about private detective Cormoran Strike, an ex-soldier who is in a difficult private situation. His secretary/assistant Robin starts working for him and they solve their first case together. A supermodel falls from her balcony in an apparent suicide, but a few months later her brother approaches Strike because he is convinced that his sister was murdered. I must say that the action moved far too slow for me and I never really warmed to Strike and Robin. I enjoyed the case and the London setting, and towards the end, when the plot finally picked up, I was excited, but all in all I found it a bit boring. To me, it is an odd crossover between cosy crime and a city setting with grim aspects, and the narrative perspective is not what I like in a crime novel - it is too detached, which creates an imbalance between the plot and contents and the style.
Ublodig, men ikkje blodfattig Når Harry Potter-forfattar J.K. Rowling går til krimmen, satsar ho meir på person- og miljøskildring enn på å dikte opp utspekulerte drapsmetodar. Det er heilt ok. In “The Cuckoo’s Calling” Ms. Rowling — er, Mr. Galbraith — seems to have similarly studied the detective story genre and turned its assorted conventions into something that, if not exactly original, nonetheless showcases her satiric eye (most in evidence in the Potter books in her portraits of the bureaucrats and blowhards associated with the Ministry of Magic) and her instinctive storytelling talents. The Cuckoo’s Calling and Harry Potter both feature dead or absent parents, adoptees, and family intrigue. They both imagine highly complex worlds that are nonetheless knowable—if you study their laws closely—and amusing, and beautiful, and dangerous. If I’m honest, though, I liked Galbraith just a bit better than late Rowling. (The first four Harry Potter books still reign supreme.) While both writers are funny, suspenseful, and sharp about race and class, he seems under less pressure to take himself and his story seriously. I wonder why. There is no sign whatsoever that this is Galbraith’s first novel, only that he has a delightful touch, both for evoking London and for capturing a new hero. It is an auspicious debut. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
A brilliant mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. 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 now 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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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The investigation takes Strike inside the worlds of the wealthy and high fashion, neither of which he fits into with any grace. He conducts his investigation methodically and thoroughly, interviewing her neighbors, the upper-class white mother that adopted the biracial Lula, her designer and model friends, shopgirls who saw her the day she died. When one of his contacts, a poor girl from a rehab group, turns up dead, Strike knows he's on the trail of someone truly dangerous. With Robin's help, he draws a trap for his suspect...while dealing with his own personal drama, like a sister he loves but struggles to connect with and the breaking of his engagement to a beautiful, unpredictable socialite.
I don't often read mysteries...the genre just doesn't do much for me. If it's too simple, I'm bored, but if it's convoluted, I get annoyed. This mystery wasn't much of the exception I was hoping it might be. I followed the interviews one-by-one, and while I can say that I never guessed the outcome, I also didn't quite buy it. The murderer's motives never really fell into place for me. It also just feels like the first in a series. There are plenty of allusions to both Cormoran and Robin's personal lives and issues, and they're given a little bit of context, but it seems clear that they're meant to be fleshed out properly with later books.
That being said, though, Rowling's writing is as good as ever. Both of the primary characters are vivid, and I enjoyed the non-romantic relationship she built between them. As to be expected, the world-building is also a high point. Rowling's London feels like neither the brightly burnished version we see on tourism ads nor Dickensian in its roughness. It feels like a modern, cosmopolitan city, with wealth and class and race divides and pockets of ease mixed alongside areas you might not want to walk alone at night. The storyline was engaging enough, for what it was, but I'm not much of an expert on what makes a good mystery. This is a promising series debut, and I'm interested to see how it develops! ( )