Review: The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (audio)

Title: The Cuckoo’s Calling   

Author: Robert Galbraith    

Series: Cormoran Strike, #1    

Narrator: Robert Glenister  

Published: May 2013, Hachette Audio

Length: 16 hours  

Source: Library 

A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel’s suicide.
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,
and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime
girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks
through his door with an amazing 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.

My thoughts: In typical fashion, I once again am behind the times in finding out about this series. Of course, by the time I did hear about it, I already knew that Robert Galbraith was really the pen name that JK Rowling adopted for her new adult series, but that wasn’t what drew me to this book. It was the storyline itself. I love a good mystery/crime book and had been hearing really good things about this book.

I felt that all the characters in the book were quite well developed and strong. Cormoran Strike is a unique character is his own right. He’s rough around the edges at times, but as you get to know time and as the story progresses, you end up caring for him and even liking him. Robin, the temporary assistant that’s assigned to his office, is like a breath of fresh air for him. She’s capable, intelligent and even enjoys helping him out. I loved their interactions throughout the book and can’t wait to see how their working relationship pans out as the series progresses.

The first case we see Strike working on involves a famous supermodel who fell to her death from her balcony window. Her adopted brother insists this was not a suicide, as the police have determined it to be, and offers Strike a substantial fee to take the case. With Strike investigating, we not only meet a whole cast of characters, all pretty well-flushed out, but we start to really get to know Strike through flash-backs of his past. 

I never guessed who the murderer was, though I did have plenty of incorrect guesses as the book progressed. Each time Strike came up with something new, I thought I had it figured out, only to be proven wrong. The intrigue was there, though, and kept me glued to the book, hoping that I would finally figure it out!

I really did enjoy this first installment and am looking forward to the next one. I’ve decided to do this series on audio instead of print. Hopefully I can get all the books in audio format!

Audio Thoughts: This is the first time I’ve listened to Robert Glenister narrate a book and I loved listening to him. He did a great job with all the voices, including the female ones. Even though this was a long audio book (16 hours!), I was fortunate to listen to huge chunks at one time. I thought the production was well-done and couldn’t wait to get back to it. I just hope that they use the same narrator for the whole series!

Books in this series: 

1. The Cuckoo’s Calling
2. The Silkworm