The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Galbraith

Let me first clarify, for those of you who have been living under a rock the past few years, that Robert Galbraith is the alias of  the very famous, very rich and (for me, at least) very talented JK Rowling, who wanted to try her hand at mystery writing without the pressure of her very well known career. Her pseudonym lasted as a secret what journalists lasted in adding two and two, and now even the book cover admits that she is the person behind the name. I won't deny her name is what made me buy the book in the first place, and I was very afraid that I would be disappointed because I love HP so much (and also mystery novels). Luckily, I wasn't. That's why I'm here to recommend it. 

The Cuckoo's Calling is a detective story, plain and simple. It has a tough detective as its main character, who is going through some love and financial trouble, and it has the pretty secretary who doesn't very well know how she ended up there in the first place (no sexual tension so far, but you can see it coming). The book is very "macho", very masculine, most of it told from the point of view of the detective, Cormoran Strike. He's asked to investigate a suicide by the brother of the victim, a beautiful model in the hight of her career who had no reason to kill herself, apart from some mental problems. Strike will dig deep and discover that, true enough, Lula Landry didn't jump from her balcony: she was pushed. 

The book is well written, engaging, with a lot of clues and red herrings, in the classic style of detective hard-boil novels. It's probably not a novel that would have had as much publicity as it has had if someone other than Rowling had written it, but it's still a good story, entertaining. I think the best compliment that can be given is that it didn't remind me of Harry Potter at all, not in the style and, of course, not in any metaliterary comments. The second adventure of Cormoran Strike is sitting at my coffee table right now; I will be happy to read it on the beach with a fresh drink in my hand and an empty schedule ahead of me. Perfect summer reading, I tell you.