The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Fairly standard crime fare with common tropes. Damaged and struggling detective with high moral code. Trusty sidekick. Unlikely case. Potentially difficult copper.
Cormoran Strike is a likeable character, my favourite was Robin though. I was positively surprised.
Ultimately though this was too sedate for my taste and halfway into the story I started to get a bit cored. Too many lengthy, uneventful interviews. Not a lot of suspense. The unlikely reveal at the end, where the good guy lays it all out for the reader and the bad guy snaps and is caught. I read a version of this many times before. Bordering on armchair mystery in the style of Agatha Christie.
The highlight for me was the audiobook narration. Oddly though, he made Strike sound a bit like Michael Caine. Accents are not this narrators strength, but his narration was still very good.
So, 3 “this-is-okayish“ stars, with some boring stretches. A pretty generic crime story, made a bit more interesting by Strike‘s backstory. I doubt I will get the next book of this series anytime soon. However, I might look up the audiobook narrator.
Cathy's Reading Bonanza 