The Cuckoo's Calling
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4.0 • 526 Ratings
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
Published under a pseudonym, J. K. Rowling's brilliant debut mystery introduces Detective Cormoran Strike as he investigates a supermodel's suicide in "one of the best books of the year" (USA Today).
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, creditors are calling, and after a breakup with his longtime girlfriend, he's living in his office.
Then John Bristow walks through his door with a shocking 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.
Fast-paced and sharply drawn, this dazzling detective novel inspired Strike, the BBC crime drama series that has captivated millions of viewers worldwide.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The debut from Robert Galbraith—quickly revealed to be the pen name of Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling—is a can’t-wait-to-binge-it whodunit. When downtrodden London private investigator Cormoran Strike is hired to look into a supermodel’s mysterious suicide, he’s quickly pulled into a dark murder mystery set in the glamorous world of the rich and beautiful. Wounded Afghanistan War veteran Strike is a hard-boiled detective in the classic style, but his bubbly, scene-stealing secretary, Robin, brings a more modern sensibility to the story. Actor Robert Glenister (Spooks) captures the voices of both characters, while nailing Galbraith/Rowling’s sly humor and unexpected twists.
Customer Reviews
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Superb story by Robert Galbraith (Rowling) and performance by Robert Glenister!
Great read
Kept you constantly wanting to keep listening! Very smart plot.
Misogyny & Racism—also boring
This book is really trying way too hard —to be gritty, to be a critique of society, to be interesting. It reads as forced and is boring.
Trying to capture the essence of a crime novel, author focused on the wrong parts—the patriarchal and racist lens of the narrator and protagonist, rather than on the depth of the mystery or drama. Author describes women in infantilizing or overly sexual ways (referring to them as girls or describing a sweater—a sweater—as “seductively tight”). Every person in the book is understood to be the default race: caucasian, without race being named; characters of color are referred to by their race repeatedly. The rapper character is a caricature/stereotype. Prime suspects in a murder are two Black men seen fleeing on video, their Blackness being restated several times in the same description.
None of these details are there to highlight the issues or race/sexism in society; rather they exist on the page as evidence of author’s values.
Don’t recommend.