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Book Review: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Those who have read Harry Potter series would have wanted to read everything ever written by J K Rowling. That’s true to a long extent as no one likes to leave a writer like JKR unexplored. To keep the pace with the expectations of her fans and especially readers, she took a pseudo name to move away from the children’s fiction to try something serious like ‘The Casual Vacancy’ and now with a detective series featuring Cormoran Strike. The Cuckoo’s Calling is the first book in the series. She has written this book with a pen name of Robert Galbraith. This book isn’t a magical like HP series, but looking it from a crime suspense thriller then, yes, it is a book beyond expected standards.


The profundity with which she unfolds the details and move from one character to another is indeed laudable. That’s the genius of British authors, and readers fall in love. Another amazing  thing about her  story telling is that she totally keeps the readers under suspense so much that imagine up-to the midpoint there seems  no reference of who is she referring as Cuckoo and what's it's or his/her calling.

Coming to the story: it is a murder mystery. To the world Lula Landry has fallen off her balcony to her death. It is either an accident or a suicide. Well, her adoptive stepbrother John Bristow thinks otherwise. To prove that she was murdered, he hires the investigator Cormoran Strike. Since this is the first book in the series hence Cormoran’s background and past life’s sweeps has been put in with great details and humorously. Cormoran had a tough life so far, he was struggling for money, and some part of his one leg was lost in the war in Afghanistan.

Firstly, he was not convinced that Lula was murdered, especially after reading her coverage in the newspapers. But as he was broke since he had no other option but to take that case. After initial investigation he realizes that she was murdered for money. To solve the case he hires Robin, a young lady, on a temporary basis. But as they both delve deep into the case and the circumstances that confirm the murder of Lula, they realize that the murderer was none other than John Bristow.

Someone has to take the blame, so that he can inherit the money benefits associated with Lula. Since this is the first book in the series, thus character development is at its own pace through constant flashbacks. The special point of the book is that the client who orders the investigation becomes the victim of circumstances. This is not so often with the crime thrillers.
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