The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling

Thank you to Boomer for writing a Guest Post on The Cuckoo's Calling since I was unable to get through it!

Here's what he has to say:

Set in modern day London, The Cuckoo's Calling is an almost protoypical murder-mystery novel about a down-on-his-luck private eye named Cormoran Strike.  The book details Strike's investigation into the murder/suicide of a fashion model named Lula Landry.  Over the course of the investigation we're introduced to numerous characters, each of their twisted stories and secrets and how or why they may be involved in Landry's death.

For those who don't know, The Cuckoo's Calling is written by Robert Galbraith, which is actually a pseudonym for the famous author, J.K. Rowling!  Like Rowling's other books, The Cuckoo's Calling is rich with descriptive detail about modern day London.  She also does a fantastic job building up to a suspenseful and exciting climax of the story!  Unfortunately, like the first half of Deathly Hallows, she does hit a rut in the middle third of the book where it seems like it's just dragging on and on.

The book tends to follow the prototypical storylines with murder mysteries.  It reads a little bit like an extended game of Clue; here are all the suspects, and for each one, here are their alibis, their motives, their involvement with Landry, their dirty secrets, etc.  For those interested in solving the mystery on their own based on the clues, it's a rather interesting puzzle.  However for those more interested in just enjoying, it's rather a bit dull going through all the details.

Ultimately I'd call it a decent read, but it could have done with a bit more editing.