The Cuckoo's Calling

Really great. Looking forward to the next one.

Robin is a brat
a moody cardboard cutout
just forbidden fruit.

I had a difficult time getting into this book at first because few of the characters were likable. But I stuck with it and wasn't disappointed.

Finally finished this book. While I love the characters (Robin and Strike are a great team), the plot took me forever to get into. I felt like I was constantly forcing myself to read more of the book instead of picking up a different one.

The writing was good, I think the plot was just too slow for my taste. I have the next book and I'll probably read it. I just hope it is easier to read than this one was.

Very Agatha Christie-esque mystery. What you would expect from JK Rowling - someone we know can write - but adult. I was invested in the story and characters, and I didn't think the particulars were blatantly obvious. I would definitely read the next book.

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. I picked it up mostly just because I was curious what Rowling would do under a pseudonym and without the shackling of Harry Potter.

I think the writing here is terrific. There's a rather large cast of characters that come into the story at different points, and each one of them had a distinct personalities and backgrounds. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Robert Glenister and he does such a great job with voicing the characters that I don't know if I would have loved the characters as much had I just been reading it. I loved hearing all the slightly different London accents and the way he captured the emotional state of all these people.

Giving the main character, Strike, an estranged father who was a famous rock star is a stroke of genius. It makes sense of the way all these rich socialites deal with him and gives him ins to certain situations that he shouldn't be in otherwise. I think there are a few little nice touches like this throughout the book.

I also kind of just love this type of hard-boiled detective story. There isn't really even a lot that happens throughout the actual events of the novel, it's a lot of interrogating and recounting of events, but I found it gripping my attention the entire time.

I was really close to giving this 5 stars, but ultimately the story isn't super unique or daring, even though I think it's quite excellent for what it is. And the central mystery, while things are teased out a bit and there are threads left out there for you to connect before the big reveal, results in a scene that really dumps everything on you at once. I liked it, but I think it could have been handled a bit more gracefully.

I didn't realize there were three more books in this series when I started it, I'm excited to check them out at some point now!

Listened to the Audible recording.

I was going to give this 3 stars until I realized I had stayed up past 1:30 AM on a work night to finish the book.

That should boost a book's rating by 1 star. Trading sleep for knowledge.

o livro é realmente... muito bom.
suspeitei que era o irmão, pois, sempre o melhor criminoso é o mais tosco. e os tiques nervos de vermelhidão no corpo quando mentia foi uma ótima dica...

mas embora algumas horas o livro fossem bem parado, o final valeu SUPER DUPER a pena cada página, cada raciocínio e caminho que Strike fizera para chegar a resposta correta.

sensacional.

dessa vez JK acertou na mão.

really.

e o mais fantástico é que vc se apaixona pela personagem, não de uma maneira “príncipe encantado” mas sim, como um cara que vale a pena acreditar, e de uma inteligência impár!

muito bom, recomendadíssimo!

L'm giving this book a 3.5 stars. It was an okay book. Wasnt that suspenful as i thought it would be. The story was ok, the characters were not bad but I didnt feel any like I learned anything about them in the story.I know there`s a 2nd book coming soon and I will read it, maybe it will be a little better.

3.5

BLUF: More writing than action. Good story, good writing, but unsatisfying ending.

The Cuckoo's Calling revolves around recently heartbroken Cormoran Strike. Down on his luck, and his funds, he is less than thrilled when the temp agency sends him a new, wannabe P.I. receptionist, Robin Ellacot. Lucky for him, he has a new client who is willing to pay Cormoran much more than he's worth in exchange for investigating a clear, and well-publicized suicide. Cormoran, against his better judgment and morals, takes on this case and soon discovers that things aren't what they seem.

There is little action in this book – it's all words. For me, that wasn't a problem at all. I love the way Rowling writes. The downside for me is that I'm not familiar with British English. I had to look up A LOT of words..

Another aspect of the book that presents an issue to the reader is the ending. It leaves more questions than answers.

I listened to it, which I thought was perfect, and enjoyed it far more than I expected too. I have issues with the lack of nuance and more often than I'd like ugly=unpleasant/bad, but Cormoran and Robin were both fun to hang with.

I have to admit, if I didn't know the name that's on Robert Galbraith's birth certificate, I don't know that I'd have picked this book up. It's possible– I pick up odd mysteries sometimes(the U.K. cover would've been more likely to get me to do it than the U.S. cover). But by the time I was halfway through with this one, I was ready to buy the next 2 or 3 in the series, regardless how this one turned out.

This is not the J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter – that's obvious, and as it should be. Nor is this the J. K. Rowling of The Causal Vacancy – and that's just merciful and wise. Here, she taps into the same vein that brought her success – a different voice, a different world, different characters – but the same ability to tell a story. Not necessarily all that new, perhaps not written in the most “literary” way, but in a way that grabs the reader, draws them in and keeps them turning pages.

Our entry into this world comes via Robin Ellacott, newly moved to London with her fiancé who comes to the office of a P.I. as a temp secretary. She's smart (and we eventually get an idea just how smart), spunky, and has long had an interest in detecting, it turns out (which must be nice – I've never had a temp job that was in a field I'd been interested for years and years). It's through her eyes that we get confirmation that yes, the protagonist is a decent guy,despite problems he might be having – and a good detective. While we are introduced to this world through Robin's eyes, we eventually get to the point where we envy her as she gets to take part in the investigative work.

Her temporary boss, on the other hand isn't someone we envy – nor is he noticeably spunky, there's reason to doubt his intelligence from time to time – although he's clearly an experienced and well-equipped detective. Injured in Afghanistan, he now (almost) ekes out a living doing private investigations. He has an interesting – and novel – past, one that opens doors for him (although he hates having to cash in on it). With the unlikely (but inherently cool) name of Cormoran Strike, he's a member of a long-line of down-on-their luck, idealistic, hard-boiled, hard-drinking, lone-wolf detectives that goes back to Chandler (if not further). The friendship that Strike develops with Robin gives him the motivation–at least temporarily – to be a better version of himself than he's apt to be, if only to pay her back for the extraordinary amount of help she's been to him. It seems inevitable from almost the beginning that thus will develop into at least an unrequited love on his part, as long as Galbraith moves the relationship along in future books as deftly as she does here, I don't see it becoming the cliche it so really could.

The case that Strike is hired to investigate has plenty of twists and turns, more than enough to keep those who don't care for the rest of the book entertained. I was pretty sure who the Big Bad was early on, and I was right. But I wasn't in the same time zone as the motive. I was about 50/50 on some of the more minor mysteries, which is nice – for a first time mystery author, I'd have expected to be right about 70% of the time or so. But when I was wrong – I was very wrong. I should add that Galbraith didn't cheat – everything we needed to know in order to identify the villains of the piece is right out there for us to see, just wish I'd done a better job of it.

A solid set-up for a series, decently interesting characters, and a mystery solid enough to prove that this newbie author (at least in this genre) has some chops. A distinct pleasure. I'll be waiting for more Cormoran Strike – no matter what author's name is attached.
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A longer version appears at: http://wp.me/p3z9AH-1gh

Very good! I really enjoyed this book. I thought the pacing was great for a mystery, and I really enjoyed the characters and storyline. I would like to think that knowing it was JK Rowling didn't affect how I feel about the book (maybe giving a little leeway on things) but there's no way to know for sure. Regardless, I really enjoyed it.

This book has sat on my shelves for years and I finally decided to give it a go while in the mood for a literary mystery. Unsurprisingly, the reading experience was overshadowed by my anger towards the author and her transphobic views...and also it was slow as hell. In theory I should love this series, but, no. I may pick up a used copy of the second book and see if it picks up but my expectations are low.

I might file this one under guilty pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and the way it unfolds. The narrator read brilliantly bringing the protagonist to life, especially. The book might be twenty pages shorter if all the f-bombs were removed. And another 30 shorter if half the smoking was removed. I get that people smoke and talk like that in reality, but it's like having one's tomatoes salted for the first time. It stands out because I'm not used to it being there.

The lives of the rich and famous don't interest me much, and if anything, this book reenforces that stance. For me, this is all about the mystery and the work of solving it. I like this one well enough that I would read the next in the series.

Executive Summary: Decent story and characters, but the pacing was just too slow for me for the first three quarters of the book.Audio book: Robert Glenister does an excellent job including a few accents to really bring the story to life.Full ReviewI became interested in this book (like many I suspect) when it was revealed that [a:Robert Galbraith 383606 Robert Galbraith https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1409176860p2/383606.jpg] was really [a:J.K. Rowling 1077326 J.K. Rowling https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1415945171p2/1077326.jpg]. [b:The Casual Vacancy 13497818 The Casual Vacancy J.K. Rowling https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358266832s/13497818.jpg 19926990] didn't really appeal to me, but this book did.I don't read a lot of detective stories, but my favorite series is the Dresden Files, and I enjoy the early books where Harry is working a case. Unfortunately for this book, it also means that I'm accustomed to a faster paced, snarkier and more action packed book.I could have done without the last two and still been happy I think, but the pacing of this book made it drag a bit for me. The story and the characters are both well written though. I particularly enjoyed Robin. Her relationship with Cormoran reminded me a bit of Lucy Liu's portrayal of Watson on Elementary.That said, it's not a bad book. I think if the book had been cut down a bit more, and the pacing sped up a bit I would have enjoyed it better. Ms. Rowling is likely to never be able to come close to her success with Harry Potter, but I'm glad to see that hasn't stopped her from writing. She certainly doesn't need the money, but writers need to write.There is certainly enough here for me to be interested in checking out the next book in the series the next time I'm in the mood for a change of pace.

Pretty much middle of the road read.

I had expected some mildly challenging literary content but this wasn't it. The main character, Cormoran Strike is well drawn, but it sort of reads like the name came first and the whole character was built up around that.

Frustratingly the book opens with a back and forth between Strike and, what I thought and hoped would be the relatable character and even the protagonist, Robin - and this lead me to believe the book would be told from both their points of view, but quickly after a few chapters Robin's character is very much tossed aside as very much inconsequential to the story... so why even bother?

It read like I was watching a program on TV, and not one that I'd put too much effort into watching. I had hoped for something more interesting or perhaps more challenging.

I'd imagine this might be useful as a beach read. Maybe.

I'm just way too picky when it comes to detective mystery/crime books.

Nicely written, but overall cliche and not very interesting as a detective. Why then I couldn't put this book down?

So firstly before we begin I think that we can remove the belief, 12 months after the books publication, that people don't know that Robert Galbraith is in fact a pseudonym for perhaps the worlds most financially successful author J K Rowling. After some rather shaky reviews about her other foray into adult fiction, The Casual Vacancy, I wonder why anyone would be surprised that she decided to cloak herself in secrecy for the release of this book. She need not have been worried however.

The Cuckoo's Calling is a wonderful book, it is a thing of great beauty. It evokes those old fashioned Agatha Christie novels where the story is centralised around wonderful detective work based not on science and DNA but on observation of people, their relationships and secrets. Cormoran Strike, Rowling's central character is enigmatic and engaging whilst remaining mysterious. He may be described as being of physical ilk to manage himself in a difficult situation but we get the sense he'd never need to as he too darned clever.

This book has a very simple premise, which is that 3 months prior a supermodel fell to her death from her home balcony. The death was labelled suicide and her brother wishes the case investigated, refusing to believe the police. What follows was a wonderful series of long luxurious chapters where Strike introduces us to the key players in Lula Landry's life prior to her ‘suicide'. There is no great action, no blood and ogre and nobody dying every second chapter. Instead we get lots of beautiful dialogue between Strike and the people he meets as they recall their memories of the days leading up to Lula's death.

Through these memories the story builds, we learn of inconsistencies, family troubles, hidden agendas and secrets. We never meet many of the characters more than once but they are discussed by other characters as part of their recollections and they literally leap off the page. We don't need to spend chapters building their back stories to intrigue us, Rowling weaves her characters so well that the snippets of information we gather and the connections she makes between all her cast make it perhaps the most engaging book I've read all year.

I was literally hard presses to put this book down, I just wanted to keep reading more and more. I was literally raving about it the whole time I was reading, I just couldn't help bursting over with intrigue and anticipation at finding out who, if anyone, had in fact killed Lula Landry.

Rowling has done a wonderful thing, she's shown that she is not a one trick pony. She has demonstrated her ability to produce work under a different genre and for it to be critically acclaimed. I truly applaud her for that, I also applaud that even when her pseudonym was so trust crushingly exposed in the press she has continued to use it for the second novel in this series. She could have simply cast it aside and said “well now I know you liked it I don't have to pretend”. I am gut bustingly excited about the release of The Silkworm, the second Cormoran Strike, this month. I cannot wait to dive into another adventure with her detective and for another mystery to unfold.

I know there are fans who say she will never ever write anything as good as Potter, or she should have kept writing stories about the boy wizard - I however feel that Harry's journey was always a finite one and Rowling has moved on. I am just overjoyed she's doing so in a way that continues to engage, challenge, stimulate and reward me as a reader.

Con gran pesar de mi parte, debo ponerle 2.5, porque como dice la puntuación, “it was ok” pero no lo suficiente como para gustarme.Le tenía grandes expectativas a este libro. Esperaba que me gustase lo suficiente como para tener a un nuevo detective al cual admirar; y en cierto modo, Cormoran no me desagrada del todo. Lo que no me gustó fue lo largo que se hace la historia. Parece forzada y un poco estirada.Leo mucho misterio y suspenso así que supongo que me te acostumbrado a cierto ritmo en la historia; y con este libro me sentí estancada en muchas partes, por lo que terminó aburriéndome conforme avanzaba.El final ha sido de lo más predecible. Era bastante lógico deducir quién era el asesino; pero le doy crédito a la autora por haber tenido algunas sorpresas reveladoras.En conclusión, estoy bastante decepcionada y supongo que influye el hecho de que le tenía grande expectativas a este libro.No estoy muy segura de querer continuar leyendo más libros de esta serie, aunque creo pero tendré que pensarlo bien antes de comprar [bc:The Silkworm 18214414 The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike, #2) Robert Galbraith https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1392577290s/18214414.jpg 25639104] porque me parece que tiene mejor pinta que éste.

some stuff were predictable, to be honest. but all in all it was good.

This has been on my TBR since 2013, so I am very late to the party! When I first started this I found it incredibly slow and packed with seemingly unnecessary details. But I had faith in Ms. Rowling and she didn't disappoint. It all comes together in the end, with a healthy side of red herrings. I'll definitely stick with the series.