The Cuckoo's Calling

Despite a few missteps, this was a solid opening book in the CB Strike series. I really enjoyed the set up, as a truly down in the dumps private detective hires a new temps secretary, who proves her worth several times over. Cormoran Strike is a fun character, with both good and bad habits. Robin is a clever character, as she has always wanted to be a private eye(!) and is a fun discovery as she works out her issues as well

The actual mystery of a big time model "committing suicide" wasn't all that interesting and there was far too much exposition. And Galbraith (Rowling) got away with too much hidden information, because it isn't a first person book. Strike would "know" things but wouldn't let the reader in on the secret. And his habit of looking at women as objects was a little overdone.

But like I said, the set up was great. And I'm looking forward to seeing how Robin and Strike work out their relationship. Robin is a great character, with lots of potential. Probably a 3.5 star book, but worth the round up.

Last year, the internet content aggregation machine spat out an interesting article about emotion words in foreign languages that have no parallel in English. Words like "duende", Spanish for the property of a work of art that powerfully moves a person. (The least obnoxious of these is from the OED.)

Also last year, I recommended [a:Connie Willis|14032|Connie Willis|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1199238234p2/14032.jpg]'s [b:To Say Nothing of the Dog|77773|To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2)|Connie Willis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1436397341s/77773.jpg|696] to a friend. When she read it, she loved it: ranted and raved about how good it was via IM, e-mail, facebook messages, Goodreads, a phone conversation(!). She stayed up until some ungodly hour reading it 2-3 nights in a row, basically a textbook home run. And I felt really, really good about that. Pleased to have shared this book that I loved, and allowed one of my friends to love it too.

I bring these two facts together to express a complaint: there's no word in any language for the positive feeling you get from somebody loving one of your cultural recommendations. And it is with this in mind that I give you the new word I've been trying out for it: "Maslania". Because of Orphan Black -- everybody I've ever recommended it to has either watched it and loved it, or already watched it and had been thinking of recommending it to me.

At this point, you're asking what the point of all this incoherent jibbering is. I read [b:The Cuckoo's Calling|16160797|The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)|Robert Galbraith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358716559s/16160797.jpg|22002305] on a Hawaiian vacation. I spent the entire day at the pool. I was with three people:

1. My beloved wife
2. Our server Sarah, who brought us...let's call it "several" Mai Tais
3. Cormoran Strike

And it was a pretty good day, I tell you what.

The real thing about it that sticks with me is that Rowling is just so damned good at writing about people caring about other people. Everything else she does -- character creation, setting, plot -- is done with professional, practiced skill. But she brings down the hammer when it comes to showing friends being friends.

"[W]hat did she see in Evan Duffield? I’ll tell you,” he said, without pausing for an answer. “It’s that wounded-poet crap, that soul-pain shit, that too-much-of-a-tortured-genius-to-wash bollocks. Brush your teeth, you little bastard. You’re not fucking Byron.”

This is one of my favorite detective books. I have never read any of J.K. Rowling's books (yeah, I know, I know) since I really don't like Young Adult stuff. However, I was so blown away by her writing style (she's really good) that I am dying for more.

I hope that she continues the Cormoran Strike series, as I'd love to see what else he can get into. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that she will, since it was sort of her way to write without a spotlight. Hopefully, she had another book on the way when this one was outed as hers.

I was entertained by the poor reviews of this book which were written by people who just don't like the author. Some people just resent those who are successful. Having read this, I can see why Rowling is a success. She's a fantastic author. I will give her other books a chance now.