The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) – review

'It makes one truly wonder, when your life is lived in front of the press, just how much do they really know?'

For many days, even months, after the unthinkable happened, nobody at all, especially those who considered themselves "somebody", could bring themselves to stop talking about it.

"Suicide" was the law enforcement's official verdict. A decision that was, perhaps, a bit biased, but almost nothing else suggested to the contrary. The papers clawed at every little freezing and deadly detail they could find, like a child in winter for the first time.

Except, this was different.

Broken, she lay on the blanket of ice, the harsh eternal resting place where she drew her last breath. The girl who named herself Lula Landry – the girl who redefined what she did, something hundreds before have only tried. And this? – this is the story of how she left the world we know.

After the suicide verdict hits an already broken family, John Bristow, Lula's adopted brother, hires ex-war veteran, Cormoran Strike, to investigate the death of the woman who was considered the most beautiful in the world. Strike, with his keen eye for detail, walks down a path that has been sold to the sharks for even a minute in front of the camera, only this time, taking every dark alleyway on the path as well. Exploring the life of the girl with the regal face, going deeper and deeper, Strike, along with his adventure-yearning secretary Robin, learn that nothing is ever as it seems!

An on and off again boyfriend with a drug addiction, a crazy foster-mother, a missing and questionable rapper with a soft side, a producer neighbour and his wife, a doorman, a fame starved (real) mother, the best clubs, the friends everybody wants and 10 million pounds on the line.

Galbraith's (Rowling's) descriptions of the grey London streets, detailed musings of a disturbed young model's life and death and prose make the tale completely life-like! It makes one truly wonder, when your life is lived in front of the press, just how much do they really know?

