Day 447: The Cuckoo's Calling

Well I finally finished this book off. The first novel in Rowling's Cormoran Strike detective series, 'The Cuckoo's Calling' features the titular Cormoran and his plucky new secretary Robin as they track down a potentially non-existent killer. The case, however, is only about half of the intrigue the story holds, with the other half being Cormoran's past, his relationships, and his inner life, all of which is steadily drip fed to the reader as the story goes on. It ticks off plenty of crime novel boxes, with a bunch of character building tacked on that I didn't realize I was getting with this bargain. I ended up liking it pretty well, but it was a slog there for a while.

The reason I was on the fence about this one is that it just took me so damn long to find any interest in the story. For about fifty percent of the book the stakes are almost nonexistent. The case Cormoran is investigating at the behest of his client, John Bristow, is into the death of Lula Landry, a wildly popular super model who appears to have committed suicide by jumping from her apartment window. Bristow, written off as a grieving brother who can't let go, is forced to contract Cormoran because everyone else is satisfied with the ruling as a suicide. At first, Cormoran seems to only follow down Bristow's leads out of a soldierly sense of duty and thoroughness (and a big paycheck), but it becomes evident later that he really believes there's a killer to be found. There are plenty of clues spread throughout the first half of the book that are easy to overlook, probably because they all seem really inconsequential. Most of the interest I found in the first half had to do with getting to know Cormoran and Robin, as well as some of the plentiful side characters. The only problem was that I thought I was going into a pure detective novel that turned out to be primarily a character driven story at first, hence my slow growing interest.

I was most impressed with Rowling's ability to create those many side characters I mentioned and fit them into a much larger scheme. Most of them were very believable, the kind of characters that stick out and become real due to their grounded uniqueness and raw intrigue rather than their longevity. Especially interesting were the characters that showed up later in the book since Cormoran had ample time to hear all about them from multiple perspectives beforehand. Comparing and contrasting the actual character to the reputations they'd built up was a really fun exercise and something I'd like to try in my own writing. It was cool to see how accurate (or inaccurate) certain characters were in their assessments of other people. Since Rowling was able to have Cormoran interview so many characters, she got to use the power of unreliable narration without any of the drawbacks. It struck me as a powerful writing technique in more ways than one, and is the main reason I'd come back to read more. I'm sure other detective novels have nailed this as well.

A few of the side characters did end up a little overbaked in my opinion, especially those that Rowling felt necessary to alter her prose to type in their accents. I've never enjoyed deciphering dialogue wri'in like 'is, and there are moments where a wordy character will go on for pages and pages speaking in a dialect. I appreciate the attempt, but just use some slang and I'll get the point. All the other characters had clear, unique voices to begin with so I don't see why she felt the need to go even further. I found myself glazing over during these segments, and not missing out on much either. I have to admit it's probably a good problem to have though. Too much characterization is better than too little. The heavily accented dialogue is just a darling that a more forward editor might have been able to kill if Rowling weren't a billionaire author.

The second half of the book was definitely the best. It kept growing and growing, gathering momentum steadily until at some point I got so embroiled in the plot that I knew I'd just have to finish the book. The payoff at the end is very thorough, and I was impressed with just how much Rowling was able to loop back into the case that I hadn't even thought twice about, including much of Cormoran's past. I didn't see the end coming at all which is always a plus, and I was overall happy with the book. Just ... if you could pick up the pace a little in the next one ... that'd be much appreciated.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley