Review: The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Galbraith

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book on Netgalley from the publisher in return for an honest review*

The Cuckoo's Calling Robert Galbraith CoverAfter 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.

After several years with the Royal Military Police, Robert Galbraith was attached to the SIB (Special Investigative Branch), the plain-clothes branch of the RMP. He left the military in 2003 and has been working since then in the civilian security industry. The idea for Cormoran Strike grew directly out of his own experiences and those of his military friends who returned to the civilian world. ‘Robert Galbraith’ is a pseudonym.

Update July 14th 2013: News says that J.K. Rowling is the author behind The Cuckoo's Calling
Independent.co.uk
Wikipedia

When I started reading this book I noticed that Robert Galbraith is one of those authors who love long comma separated detailed sentences. I always have a problem picking up a nice reading speed with books like that and it often ends up with me not getting in my reading rhythm and giving up. But the story was developing very nice and I had to continue reading despite the fact that I really had to get into the story every time I picked up my book.
I love Robin. It was so easy to connect to her. Getting a temporary job as a secretary for a private detective, I would totally react the same way. Cormoran is my perfect detective, big, hairy and a bit rude but showing that he has feelings and emotions. It was nice that although both Robin and Cormoran where checking each other out they did not get forced into some romantic situation.
The puzzle they had to solve developed in a great way. There are a lot of different characters involved in this suicide/murder mystery they need to solve and all have their own secrets to hide. There was a nice tension surrounding most of them making all of them suspects. Some of the quests Cormoran solved where not that clear for the puzzler though. Indications that he found something where not always clear making it hard in some situation to put the puzzle together. The end was a surprise which I liked a lot.
Though I did enjoy the story a lot the writing style was a bit to disturbing so I will give this book only three stars.

The Cuckoo's Calling
Author: Robert Galbraith
Publisher: Mulholland Books
ISBN-10: 0316206865
ISBN-13: 9780316206860
Pages: 464 (Hardcover edition)
Format: eBook
Mulholland books: Hardcover

3 star review
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14 July, 2013 delete

I just read an article saying that Robert is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/13/jk-rowling-pseudonym-robert-galbraith_n_3592769.html

Have you read her Harry Potter series? If yes, could you 'recognize' her writing?

Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews

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Ciska
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14 July, 2013 delete

I actually re-read Harry Potter in February of this year and read The Cuckoo's Calling in March and there was nothing that set of alarm bells. The writing style of this book is the main reason I gave this book 3 stars.
I never read the Casual Vacancy though and am curious if people who read that book and The Cuckoo's Calling recognize it.

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