Book #40: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

I heard about this book along with everyone else in the world, after it was revealed that Robert Galbraith is actually a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling and that she'd somehow secretly written and published a crime/mystery novel! I wasn't really planning on reading it specifically, but my friend Ruth picked it up at the library and offered to let me borrow it before she returned it. I started it last night and then plowed through it--I basically did nothing else other than reading and keeping Dane alive today. (We went on three walks so that I could just push him in the stroller and read the book balanced on the top of the stroller, haha!) It was definitely a page-turner.

The main character is Cormoran Strike, a down-and-out private detective who gets a stroke of luck when asked to investigate the supposed suicide of a famous model. The storyline is basically what you'd expect from there--the investigation carries on and you find out what really happened a little at a time from interview to interview, and then Strike does his big reveal to the killer at the end. But that's not to say that it was formulaic or boring in any way--I just am not sure how else to describe a mystery without giving up too much information. Galbraith (or, okay, Rowling) does a really cool job of giving you just a little information at a time and making it all coordinate and collaborate. I also thought it was a nice touch having the main subject of the investigation be a famous celebrity, because it added the extra intrigue factor of the tabloids and celebrity excess and such. I did kind of suspect who the killer was partway through the book, but I think that's just because I've read a good number of mysteries lately, and at least one of them had this same set-up with who the killer actually was. I also liked how Strike's past and his life was revealed to you gradually as you read the book as well--you didn't find out everything all at once. (That really reminded me of Broken Harbor, actually, which I also really liked.) All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am really glad I took the chance to read it. It's always refreshing to get back into a book you can't put down.