Thursday, May 15, 2014

REVIEW: THE CUCKOO’S CALLING BY ROBERT GALBRAITH



To begin with, I am not a Harry Potter fan. Still, seeing the name of JK Rowling related with “The Cuckoo’s Calling” I decided to give it a try. The newspaper claimed that she could garner good number of sales even after writing under the pen name ‘Robert Galbraith’ (however, some of the websites I visited later rejected the claim).
TCC is a murder mystery. Lula Landry is a super model and supposedly the most beautiful woman in the world. She is (allegedly) pushed to death in the dark of a winter night from the heights of a Mayfair flat. The Scotland Yard investigates the case and claims that to be a suicide. Her brother was not happy with it. He assigns a detective to re-investigate the case.
The detective, Cormoran Strike, is a retired military policeman. He was jobless and sinking deeply into the whirlpool of debts. And then, rightly, the case lands at his doorstep. The case, being related with a celebrity, can change his fate forever. He, along with his temporary assistant, Robin, embarks on the journey to find the murderer.  
He has to reveal the conspirators. For the sake of him and his client.
Ms. Rowling could hook the reader with a death at the first chapter. From then it was a normal investigation.
The dark areas of glitzy glamorous world is revealed to us through the characters. But it is nothing new, as we have seen those same images many a time before. Ms. Rowling (Mr. Gabraith) is also not free of clichés of detective novels as seen throughout the investigation.
There are paragraphs of description which may turn you off (it definitely did in case of me) and reduce the pace. Many of those seemed to be unnecessary. Those could do nothing, but made the book thicker.
The female character, Robin, in the novel seemed to be inserted.  However, she surprises with her proactive moves, whenever the protagonist assigns her job. At the same time, we may think whether his job well or not. As most of the time it was she, who takes the story forward.
Yet his supremacy is sealed at the end when he finds the villain with the cues he observed with his experienced eyes and intelligent assumptions.
Pros: JK Rowling, beautiful and apt cover design, murder mystery, well developed characters, atmospheric London city.  
Cons: Too much descriptions, so many loose ends those were yet to be explained (some explanations were not satisfactory) and lack of pace. The book unintentionally throws a question at the credibility of Scotland yard. As they, even after having the most advanced technology, fails to find out a suspect. And the simplicity by which they closes a death under doubtful circumstances as suicide, giving a blind eye to circumstantial evidences.
Rating: 3.5/5

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