Galbraith, Robert aka J.K. Rowling -- A Review

In July of 2013 Robert Galbraith, author of The Cuckoo's Calling, was outed as J. K. Rowling. And, according to Britain's The Guardian, after Galbraith's real name became known the book shot to
No. 1 in hardback fiction, charting above Dan Brown's Inferno and Second Honeymoon by James Patterson.

I must confess, I would probably never have read Galbraith's Cuckoo without knowing that Galbraith was Rowling. But I do love murder mysteries and her Harry Potter books. 

My daughter turned eleven the year she discovered Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in her school library. That was two years after its U.S. release. Harry was eleven in the first book. She and Harry grew up together after that.

Each new Potter book necessitated a Harry Potter party for her and her friends and a post-midnight run to Barnes and Nobel to snag her pre-ordered copy as soon as it was released. I was also required to reread the previous Potter books to be ready for the next. Consequently, I've read the first in the series seven times, the second six times, the third five times, etc.

I can't say why I waited so long to read her Galbraith series. And truly, I only planned to read The Cuckoo's Calling, the first Cormoran Strike novel. Like most writers, I had a slew of books that I wanted to read and I intended Cuckoo to be just sort of a sample. However, within two weeks I'd read all three.

Cuckoo begins with a poem, Christina Rossetti's "A Dirge."

      Why were you born when the snow was falling?

      You should have come to the cuckoo's calling,

      Or when grapes are green in the cluster,

      Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster

      For their far off flying

      From summer dying.

The second stanza in its lament of untimely death, reflects the first stanza's description of untimely life.

A nice poem will always catch my attention, but I'm just not analytical enough to connect it to the story. And then each of the five parts of the book and the epilogue begin with a quote in Latin. I had fun trying to resurrect my high school Latin to figure them out myself. Even so, I'm glad to say she translates them for us. 

In the Prologue we get the requisite body, a wealthy, young, beautiful female. A woman who had done no harm and had a promising future.

Three months later another young woman, Robin Ellacott, not quite so beautiful nor at all wealthy arrives at Cormoran Strike's office as a temp.

Private Detective Strike's office is shabby to say the most. Private Detective Strike is shabby to say the least. ..."his height, his general hairiness, coupled with a gently expanding belly, suggested a grizzly bear. One of his eyes was puffy and bruised, the skin just below the eyebrow cut. Congealing blood sat in raised white-edged nail tracks on his left cheek and the right side of his thick neck ...." The injuries, parting gift from his long-time, toxic girlfriend.

Brad Pitt, he ain't, but he develops into an attractive character by virtue of his virtues. He's a Boy Scout -- at least the Trustworthy, Honest, Loyal, and Brave part.

Set in a crossroads of the fashion, film, and popular music worlds, Strike and Robin (his Watson) solve the mystery of the young woman's death.

Even better is the mystery of Strikes' back story and Robin's future story, which Galbraith/Rowling sprinkles in tasty bits through this book and the second and then the third.

In The Silkworm, the second in the series, the missing man is a complete scoundrel, arrogant and disreputable.  Ah, but Strike has promised a worried wife that he will find out what has become of her mean and hurtful husband.

The milieu here is the publishing industry with its writers, editors, and publishers.

Galbraith/Rowling starts each chapter in The Silkworm with a quote from writers of Shakespeare's time -- not Shakespeare, but from his time. Again quotes unnecessary as far as I am concerned, but the continuing development of Strike's character and his relationship with Robin compensate admirably.

Career of Evil, the third Cormoran Strike novel starts out with what I think my writing teacher would consider a good first line. "He had not managed to scrub off all her blood."

This one is more of a thriller. I had a feeling of dread throughout. Robin, whom I had come to like was too much in danger. Strike thought so, too.

The quotes at the beginnings in Career are from Blue Oyster Cult, the rock and roll band favored by his late mother -- known as a super groupie. Again we are treated to tantalizing tidbits as the suspects are from Strike's own background -- his stepfather, a wannabe rocker; two criminals from his days in the Special Investigative Branch of the British military; and a civilian gangster.

In Career of Evil, something completely unexpected happens for me. I developed a preference for who would, in the end, be the baddie. I won't say whom I wanted to be the perp, nor if that was who it, in fact, was.

Nor will I tell you what the last line of the novel is, but I think it's as perfect a last line as the first is a perfect first line.