Adventures In Detection
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I’d like to say that I became a fan of author Robert Galbraith before it became public knowledge that the author’s real name was J.K. Rowling, but that would be a lie. Shortly after that knowledge hit the interwebs, I gave her first detective story a try. It’s not my normal fiction fare, but I figured I couldn’t go wrong with J.K. Rowling. I say that because I’m pretending The Casual Vacancy never happened. I only got 26 pages into that book—which I bought in hardback—before I quit in disgust and gave it to someone else.
But the first Galbraith book The Cuckoo’s Calling is tightly plotted, beautifully paced, and full of fantastic characters. The two main characters are detective Cormoran Strike and his new PA Robin Ellacot. Beware, there will minor spoilers ahead.
Strike is a former Army investigator who had to leave the service when he was parted from one of his legs by an IED. He has started up a struggling private detective agency, and is living in a tiny room above it after the breakup of a long-term, volatile relationship. Robin is working for a temp agency, who assigns her to Strike’s office on a short-term contract. She is delighted to be working for a detective, having harbored a secret yearning to do such work herself since she was young.
The Cuckoo’s Calling begins with Strike’s breakup coinciding with Robin’s arrival on the stairway outside Strike’s office. Shortly after, Strike is approached by a man he knew as a child, who asks him to look into the suicide of his model sister, Lula Landry, who died after a fall from a balcony a few months earlier. I don’t want to say much more about the plot, because the pacing of the revelations is a great part of the book’s charm. I will say that it ends with Robin becoming Strike’s PA on a regular basis.
The audio books for this series are read by character actor Robert Glenister, who does a fantastic job. His gravely voice is beautifully suited to the somewhat gritty text, and he manages all the regional accents delightfully. To me, he is the voice of Cormoran Strike. I bought the audio books for the first three novels in the series, and I’ve listened to them multiple times. After the first three books, I just started borrowing them from the library…cheaper than buying. There is also a TV series of the books, but since I haven’t seen any of it, I can’t comment on it.
The second book The Silkworm is also tightly plotted and character driven. I confess, I struggled a bit with this one. The story and writing are both excellent. But as Strike is asked to find a missing author, he (and the reader) have reason to read some of the author’s material and it is…icky. When obtaining my degree in English, I was required to read many things for their “literary merit,” even if I’d rather not have read them. Lots of things that I would consider gross are meant to be viewed with academic objectivity as symbolic of….whatever. That’s fine, but I don’t actually want to read with academic objectivity…I want to read for pleasure. But in the case of this novel, none of the missing author’s icky oeuvre is shared pruriently—it all pertains to the plot. And Rowling makes it work. I’d call this one another win.
The third book Career Of Evil chronicles Strike’s pursuit of a serial killer, who is likely someone from Strike’s past. Robin has had some investigator training and is no longer just a PA but instead is actively helping with investigations. The book ends as Strike arrives at Robin’s wedding to her long-time fiancé Matthew Cunliffe.
The fourth book Lethal White is one of my favorites. As with most of the books, there are multiple plot-lines running, some of which coalesce and some of which do not. Robin gets to go undercover in a Minister’s office on Parliament Street, which she very much enjoys. Her domestic struggles aside (her marriage is falling apart), she relishes being Strike’s actual business partner, no longer just an employee. I’ve read (and listened to) this book several times. It’s just excellent.
The next book Troubled Blood is an odd book. On the surface, the plot and characters are excellent. And I know I’ve read it twice, but honestly, I can’t remember what it’s about. It just doesn’t stick with me for some reason. If you are interested in a précis of the plot, you can read what Wikipedia has to say about it.
The sixth book The Ink Black Heart very much falls prey to what my bibliophile friend Bea would consider a common flaw in well-established authors. Her theory is that the more successful an author is, the less influence an editor has when it comes to trimming down their prose. This results in longer books that aren’t as tightly plotted as they should be. This is apparent in Rowling’s Harry Potter series also. This book is much longer than it needs to be, and much of the writing is taken up with recounting chat room conversations. That aside, the actual underlying plot is excellent, and the story showcases some fascinating characters. So I liked the book but I’m also aware that it could have been better than it is.
The seventh book The Running Grave involves Robin going undercover to rescue someone from a cult, while Strike works their case from the outside. While the story is good, I found it taxing to read about cult life. The brainwashing, the way the acolytes are forced to live and perform service was all quite ugly. Having said that, the story holds together, and the characterizations are excellent, as always. I just did not enjoy this book. At all. Your mileage may vary.
The latest book in the series is possibly my favorite: The Hallmarked Man. After struggling with several of the previous books, it was a relief and a delight to be able to sail through this book quickly and with joy. It’s just wonderful. It’s as gritty as the rest, but it has a certain something that has been missing for a few books. I’m hard-pressed to quantify it, but I just flew through this novel; the story and the characters drew me along in a way that has been somewhat lacking in previous books. I highly recommend this novel, but a reader can’t properly appreciate it without going through the previous seven books first. Except possibly the fifth book, which I still can’t remember.
In the Wikipedia article for The Hallmarked Man, it is stated that Rowling intends to end the series after the tenth book is published. I’m looking forward to seeing where these characters go. If well-written detective stories are your thing, you should definitely give this series a try.
