The Cuckoo's Calling

I admit, I picked up The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling), because the BBC was turning it into a tv series. I love detective shows, and detective books, and I had never heard of the Cormoran Strike books, so more fun for me.

First the good stuff. Rowling knows how to tell a story. There were few points where I wanted to wanted to put the book down, and fewer still where I was incredulous of the characters' action... at least until the end. The best part was that Cormoran (horrible name, btw, it doesn't roll of the tongue at all), and Robin weren't set up as potential lovers. I hope it stays that way in future books.

Ok, so for the not so great stuff, there was a lot of repetition. The constant going back to characters and running around (sometimes literally), the "oh, I know someone's holding something back, and blackmailing the killer," trope were just too overwrought. The "twist" felt forced, and the "omg" moment when Strike knew who did it, but didn't share it with Robin also felt forced. Why not? And because it was a visual clue that wasn't shared with the reader, it felt cheap. I'll give the next book a try to see if it evens out a bit. Before I gave it a 7/10 stars, but the further I get away from it, it might be  6 or a 6.5/10 depending on how much weight I'm putting on readability over substance.