After reading some of the hype around this book I knew this was going to be my next read. I absolutely loved the Harry Potter series and intend to reread the entire series back to back someday, and had even picked up Rowling's next book, The Casual Vacancy but hadn't bothered reading it as I read reviews of the book before starting on it. The Cuckoo's Calling however seemed to be getting rave reviews with one Amazon reviewer even suspecting (before Rowling's big announce) that the book was so well written that the author's name was probably a pseudonym used by a famous author. The book also falls under the crime fiction genre which I also do quite occasionally enjoy, so this one seemed to be a safe bet all around
The story is about a private detective, Cormoran Strike, who has been hired by the brother of a dead supermodel, convinced his sister did not commit suicide as largely suspected, but had instead been killed. Rowling's writing is fantastic and the way she spins the story is nothing less than beautiful. Her words are a joy to read as are her descriptions. I found myself being fascinated by the way she spins sentences and highlighted a few as an example-
"The dead could only speak through the mouths of those left behind, and through the signs they left scattered behind them."
or
"Suicides, in his experience, were perfectly capable of feigning an interest in a future they had no intention of inhabiting."
Perhaps those who love to read literature will appreciate the writing style and I personally think this has to be the most poetically worded piece of crime fiction I've ever read.
But then comes the plot and the story. I feel like the novel would make a great movie- the kind that moves very slowly with a bunch of strange, suspicious characters appearing in it, all coming together and making sense in the last 10 minutes when the shocking truth is revealed. Although, reading it is sadly not nearly as much fun. The novel builds a fantastic story but I sort of guessed, simply because of the "you'll never guess who the end" rule, what the end was. The characters did come to life through the story, but a fast paced thrilled this is not... it moves very, very slowly. I often find my mind drifting and forgetting which character was being referred to, and mind you I finished the book in 3 days. It's not that the characters were confusing but I just kept getting restless waiting for something to happen and for a quicker pace to kick in. I didn't come away thinking the ending made too much sense either, but I won't get into that for fear of giving away the story. If you do however read the book, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the end and whether it was satisfactory to you. I felt overall that the book was quite an average one- not unreadable, but definitely not an "unputdownable" one like Inferno, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or even Six Suspects if you're into Indian fiction.
Overall, I guess I'd give it a 3 out of 5. Read it for the hype and language but don't expect too much going in and then you may just be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I'd had my expectations sky high so was slightly disappointed.
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