The Cuckoo's Calling

By: Robert Galbraith

Narrated by: Robert Glenister

Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2013 Robert Galbraith (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Having never ready anything from the author... *Spoilers*

To be fair, I think I am going to have to listen all the way through again. On the good side, I think the writing and narration are worthy of a second go around. On the bad side, it needs a second go around; I kept falling asleep.

The subject matter was interesting enough, although the characters were a little cliché, i.e. the tortured but very capable private detective, with a cool nickname (Strike), whose personal life is in chaotic turmoil and the innocent but smart and efficient assistant who's always on the verge of leaving the "temp" position; no novelties there. Even the main character, a beautiful budding celebrity, who may or may have not commit suicide, and is/was surrounded by an entourage, all of whom had motive or at least agendas in their friendship with the exotic deceased is a familiar plot line, right? (longest sentence ever). So, why even bother to listen again? Despite their recognition, the characters were so interestingly developed, it is entertaining to hear about them again. I also liked the potential for workplace flirtation that is, hopefully, further explored in subsequent books in the series.

So, if I can fight though Mr. Sandman, I will have more material to comment on! Wish me No Doz and happy listening.

Could have been good, sadly it wasn't

When an established Superstar writer converts from writing for youth to writing for adults, they have a lot of options at their disposal that they did not have before. Sadly, Rowling chose the option of crude language instead of creatively showing her version of what it's like to be in the world of fashion and jet-setting. It didn't need to happen, she has more talent than that. Hence, I cannot recommend this book. Bad language doesn't usually faze me, but I got tired of gratuitous cursing, genitalia references, and various other ridiculous shortcuts.

Hopefully her next book, if there is one, will be more mature and I'm not talking about subject matter but presented using real language not simply crude shortcuts to ineffectively set a mood or character.

Brilliant

Exceptional mystery novel. Intricate plot, vivid descriptions of places, attentive to class markers and rituals. Great fun.

Don't read this if you don't know Robert Galbraith

This book is excellent in every sense that a crime story should be, and there are some lines that you will find yourself stopping to write down. I mean it, I can be walking in the middle of nowhere and rewind a sentence over and over just to write it down and enjoy it a few more times. So I got the next few books in the series and am reading The Silkworm and the same thing happens, and I am thinking "Who is this author?" because I have never heard of him and he is the greatest wordsmith master language sensei I have ever read! Finally, after numerous mental notes to do so, I get to my computer and type in "best Robert Galbraith lines" hoping to recapture a few that I had not written down and also to learn more about the author. Up comes J.K.Rowling, and I am thinking, I don't want her I want Robert Galbraith, anyway, all my kids read Harry Potter and I sat through some of the movies, they were ok, but not anything that made me want to read the books. It took a few seconds for my dense mind to see that J.K. Rowling is Robert Galbraith, she uses it as a pseudonym! I could not believe it and am awfully glad I did not know prior to reading the first two books. I probably would not have read them otherwise. I don't know how she did it, but these are in the top five crime books I have read, and I love crime novels.

jerky momentum

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

maybe it is a literary device that i am not familiar with, but the tempo of the book keeps changing from interesting to boring. Hard to focus on listening during the long drawn out parts.

A Unexpected Jewel

I wonder, sometimes, what people expect out of books. The negative ones were, IMHO, way off base. But, then there have been novels I couldn't get past the first chapter. This isn't one of those. The main character, Strike can at times be a real boring, pathetic individual. What really brings out the best in him is his secretary Robyn. I was pleasantly surprised with book and had to get through at least an hour before it got interesting enough to keep going. The end wasn't what I expected. Give this a try and remember Robert Galbraith wrote the book not JK Rowling!

Great Crime Drama

Loved the narration and story. can't wait to read the next one in the series.

Narration makes this listen

What did you love best about The Cuckoo's Calling?

The narration was the best part of this novel. Worth a listen for the performance alone. Luckily, the story is a good one, too, entertaining and fast paced. I listened to this one in record time and didn't want it to end.

Not Great, but not bad.

Which character – as performed by Robert Glenister – was your favorite?

I enjoyed Cormoran's character - he was the one that was slightly more than 2-dimensional. He had ups and downs, and I felt some tension between him and his ex-girlfriend.

Do you think The Cuckoo's Calling needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Initially I would have said no, but after a few days thought, I think the characters have the potential of filling out in a good sequel.

Any additional comments?

I think what's missing from the book is the development of the story in some way other than pure dialogue. It felt like the entire story takes place at a desk in Cormoran's office. I needed the story to take me somewhere, and it didn't. That being said, Rowling is a very good writer, very nice prose without feeling overly wordy. I did enjoy the metaphors and visual descriptions. Even the storyline is fairly interesting, but the execution is lacking and it just didn't pull me in. I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone without telling them first that there are probably better choices out there.

Very enjoyable

Would you listen to The Cuckoo's Calling again? Why?

I would not listen to it again, but it was very good.

Have you listened to any of Robert Glenister’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I have never heard him before, he was very good. It is nice to have a man read womens parts without going into a fake falscetto voice.