Retro Review: The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith – one year on, is it possible to be objective about Robert Galbraith’s first crime novel?

There’s an awful lot in the press at the moment about Robert Galbraith’s (J K Rowling’s) new novel The Silkworm.  The author’s secret came out last year propelling The Cuckoo’s calling from a lowly place in the bookselling list to number one in a matter of days.  I don’t know whether you got caught up in the fever at the time and bought the book.  I waited for a while before buying it and have to confess that it lingered for ages on my e reader, simply because my reading pile was so big.  I finally got round to it last month and have been toying with whether to post a review or not.  In the end I did – here it is!

The novel starts with the apparent suicide of Lula Landry, a beautiful but troubled young model who apparently jumped from the balcony of her upper floor flat.  Enter the central characters of the novel - Cormoran Strike (one legged war hero and private detective, whose business is failing and has just split up with his girlfriend) and Robin Elacott (deliriously happy 25 year old whose boyfriend Matthew, the man of her dreams, proposed to her under the Eros statue and is temping until a proper job turns up). Elacott starts to work for Strike who is engaged to investigate the suicide by Landry’s distraught brother, convinced that his sister’s would never have taken her own life.  A financially challenged Strike agrees to take the case.  He feels that Landry’s death looks like a pretty clear suicide, but his professionalism takes over and through patient and diligent investigation finds…well, you’ll have to read that for yourself.  No plot spoilers here, even a year later!

What did I think and were my views objective?  Well, I haven’t read much by Rowling, so felt fortunate that I wasn’t comparing the Galbraith novel to anything else.  However, there always seemed to be something lurking at the back of my mind about the literary pedigree of the writer, which did make it feel more difficult to judge objectively.  In the end, I asked myself what I enjoyed.  I liked the crime related plot and the character’s motivations.  No weirdo psycho serial killers, just good solid reasons for the crime.  Strike and Elacott both come across as credible characters and have an interesting relationship that you can see will last for far longer than just one novel and could develop in so many ways.  The London setting, the celebrity scene, described superbly by one reviewer as the vulgar rich, and associated characters were realistic and believable.  Strike’s unconventional parentage makes an interesting back story as does his military career and disability which isn’t over egged.  What did I dislike or really grated?  Nothing.

So, my final verdict – a good solid crime novel that delivers on its own merits.  It’s not trying to be clever, it’s simply telling an entertaining crime story and doing it well.  That might sound like I’m damning with faint praise and doing down J K Rowling – I’m not.  It’s not a bad book just because I’m not gushing about it.  I’ll share with you the litmus tests I use when I’m finding it hard to be objective about a novel, as I have with this one  – Would I re read the book?  Would I buy it for someone else?  Would I buy the next one?  The answer to all three is a clear yes (I’m £15 poorer having bought an audio version for Mrs Romacrimeblogger who listens to books in the car and have just ordered The Silkworm).

For me, Galbraith has written a good first crime novel, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

Romancrimeblogger