The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

I feel so fortunate that JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series in my lifetime. I obviously loved the books more than the movies, but I loved the movies too. Steve and I were very fortunate to go to Edinburgh, Scotland (among many other places) in November 2019, and we got to go to the Elephant House Cafe where Rowling wrote a large portion of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

It was evening when we were there, and we sat by a fire and had a coffee. It felt surreal being there knowing that years ago, an author that I greatly admired wrote one of her books there. There wasn't a huge display beyond some newspaper clippings and a framed set of photos of her actually writing there. That is, until you walk into the bathrooms. They are absolutely covered in word graffiti. Names, dates, thanks to JK, and quotes from the books. I'm tall, so I was able to snag a spot near the top, and kept my writing simple: "Always."

JK Rowling AKA Robert Galbraith

I've started and put down both "The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith (pseudonym for Rowling) and her "The Casual Vacancy" on multiple occasions but they never jived with me. It was not long ago, two solid years into my focused reading journey that I decided to give it a go again. I borrowed my copy from Alice (she's more my library than my library has been recently) and started reading.

I rated it 3.5 stars out of five. I liked it. The writing is solid. I connected with Strike and Robin quite a bit; however, the story progressed too slowly for me... and with too many words. The villain was a bit anti-climatic and I didn't feel satisfied when the story ended. Will I read more in the Strike series? According to the library of Alice, I will. I just don't know when I'll get to book two.