The Cuckoo's Calling (Strike #1)

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Author: Robert Galbraith
Read in: December 2018


I was surprised when I learnt that JK Rowling didn’t stop writing with Harry Potter, but went on to write books like The Casual Vacancy. Then imagine my even greater surprise when I read a crime fiction by an unbelievably talented writer who turns out to be Rowling herself! 

For a die-hard fan of Harry Potter (a shoutout to those who felt like their world ended along with the last page of Deathly Hallows), it was an awesome experience reading a mind-blowing book of a genre I never associated Rowling with. I am eternally grateful to a classmate of mine who recommended The Cuckoo’s Calling to me just because she knew somebody liked it. I vividly remember pulling out this long-forgotten book in the last row of a corner shelf and looking at the cover dubiously. The rest, as they say, is history. With the dedications and credits done, let’s get to the heart of the matter.


The first thing anybody feels when they set eyes on Cormoran Strike is intimidation. After all, what else does a man inspire when he’s a hulk limping along the streets of London with a prosthetic leg? Behind this moody face though, lies a mind attuned to observe and scrutinise everything around him. A former officer with the Special Intelligence Branch, Strike got discharged when a bomb in Afghanistan took his leg and his colleague’s head along with it. Ending up in London without a dime, he tries to make a living running a ramshackle private-eye agency from a cramped up office-cum-home. 


Parallel to his story of a hand-to-mouth existence runs the extraordinary tale of Robin Ellacott. Recently engaged and getting used to London, Yorkshire-born Robin hopes to have a new beginning while leaving her past behind. When Robin turns up as Strike's new temporary assistant, she quickly proves herself to be more capable than just filing reports. Soon she becomes his best bet at saving his firm and solving the latest case- the suicide of Lula Landry, a famous model who had no reason to take her life. 


As the first book of the Strike series, I could not get much insight into Strike's and Robin's backstories. That, however, provides material for the other books that followed. Strike was terrific from the start, but Robin gets more interesting in consecutive books. Since I have not read many stories set in London, Strike's character is how I imagine a Londoner- irritated with the weather, loves football, drinks and smokes to a most alarming level and is a part of the multi-cultural throng that resides in London. Reading books like these made me realise that movies can only provide a limited experience of a particular place or country, while you can wander about in an undiscovered world within the pages of a book. 


JK Rowling's immersive writing is what drew me to her works, again and again, craving for more. Her attempt to dabble in crime fiction has yielded another series with the potential to become as phenomenal as Harry Potter. What I loved the most was that the story incorporated so many elements of Britain, from its regional cuisines to geography to the different dialects and colloquialisms. Just like The Citadel, it was not a static book; the dynamic story took you all over the place in search of truth.


I'm rather like those people star-crossed with Korean drama and music. Or Star Wars or Game of Thrones or Camp Half-Blood. I hope I'm not the only one bewitched by Robert Galbraith's books!


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