Will it be inappropriate to term “The Cuckoo's Calling” as J.K. Rowling's debut, albeit this being her second novel apart from the “Harry Potter” series? In a sense, it won't. This is the first crime fiction that she has written; that too under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. When the novel was published on 18th April, 2013 using Galbraith's persona, not many people bought a copy. But those who did had vaguely speculated at Rowling being involved in this.
The story starts after the death of supermodel Lula Landry, a black girl adopted by a Caucasian family, who had fallen off a building in London. The only witness to her death was her downstairs neighbour, Tansy Bestigui, whose testimony was deemed unusable, since she was under the influence of drugs at the time of Lula's death. Lula's adoptive, wealthy brother, John Bristow, approaches private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the death as a possible murder, although the police had dismissed it as a suicide. Strike, an ex-war veteran who had lost a leg in the Afghan War, pairs up with his temporary secretary Robin Ellacott to solve the case. Employing his persuasiveness, Strike makes his way through the worlds of models and producers and superstars and musicians, leaving no leaf unturned. He looks into every loose end in the case, questions everybody involved, reads between the lines, and finally closes the case.
But the murderer is not who we are led to believe it is in the buildup, and therefore, the element of surprise is there for the readers. Strike had in fact connected all the dots and revealed much more about the lives of those involved, than just the murderer. His professionalism and cunning was seen at every step, although he was essentially homeless, living in his office following a break-up.
Back to Rowling. After the failure of her previous novel, “The Casual Vacancy”, it is understandable why she had chosen to publish this novel using a pen-name. She expressed, “Being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience… It has been wonderful to publish without hype and expectation and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.” But “The Cuckoo's Calling” was much more successful, not only in terms of popularity, but also due to the tempting story line. When the identity of the author was revealed in mid-July this year, sales of the novel sky-rocketed, bringing the book from 4709th to 1st best-selling novel on Amazon.
J.K. Rowling has also stated that she intends to continue working on the Cormoran Strike series using Galbraith's name. The second installment of the series has already been penned, and will be published next year.
Being a long-term fan of “Harry Potter”, I had been disappointed by “The Casual Vacancy”. But that wasn't the case for “The Cuckoo's Calling”. It was different, something we hadn't expected off Rowling. This novel was a breath of fresh air for her fans. I urge everybody to try the book; you can find a copy being hawked at any traffic signal these days.