54. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith

J. K. Rowling writing a Robert Galbraith
Cormoran Strike #1
audio read by Robert Glenister
13 unabridged cds  (16:00)
2013 Mulholland Books/Hachette Audio
455 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery (Private Investigator)
TPPL
Finished Sat. 12/14/2013
Goodreads rating: 3.85 (8,321 reviews)
My rating: 4
Setting: 2010 London, England
1st sentence/s:  "The buzz in the street was like the humming of flies.  Photographers stood behind barriers patrolled by police, their long-snouted cameras poised, their breath rising like steam.  Snow fell steadily onto hats and shoulders, gloved fingers wiped lenses clear."

My reaction:  Cormoran Strike is quite an interesting character.  Illegitimate son of a famous rocker and long-dead groupie mother; very, very large; a prosthetic instead of a foot and lower leg; quite self-conscious; and very, very smart, he runs a detective agency that hasn't much business. The mystery itself is interesting with a smooth somewhat-of-a-surprise ending, and the relationship that unfolds between Cormoran and his temp, Robin, is really nicely done.  The story was a little longer than it had to be, with repetition of facts in a number of places that could have been lessened.  I enjoyed listening to it, the reader's British accent which added reality to the setting and situation.  I'll happily read another about this interesting character if and when it appears.

Goodreads:  A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.
     Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.
     You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.