'The Cuckoo's Calling': J K Rowling is Criminally good!

For a creative person, being typecast in a role must be incredibly frustrating. To be forever seen as James Bond, when you secretly yearn to play Shakespeare is a common enough issue among actors, but perhaps this is a  frustration also shared by authors?

Enter, the pseudonym.

The brilliant J.K Rowling has employed this sneaky tactic several times, in an effort I suspect, for her work to be judged on its merits and to find new audiences of readers not yet entranced by Mr H. Potter (though I admit I am very suspicious of anyone who has not fallen under the Potter spell).

In this case J K Rowling writes under the pen name Robert Galbraith.
The bottom line is this, whoever she pretends to be, man or woman, Rowling is an wordsmith of extraordinary talent and flexibility.

'The Cuckoo's Calling' bears little or no resemblance to her more famous series, rooted as it is in a gritty reality rather than magical fantasy.

The story revolves around Cormoran Strike, a man who seems to be failing both in his Business (as a Private Investigator) and in life itself.

Strike, a disabled war veteran, appears at first glance to be devoid of hope and (dare I say it) talent. Seen for the first time through the eyes of the delightfully capable agency 'temp' Robin Ellacott, Strike looms large, disheveled and even slightly sinister after an accidental breast grope in the small rooms of his offices.

From this inauspicious start however, Rowling quickly and with consummate ease reveals to the reader a protagonist capable of tracking down even the most shrewd of killers, and along the way slowly healing his own broken life.

I loved loved loved this book and quickly moved onto the 'Cormoron Strike' sequel 'The Silkworm', without, I might add, any of the character 'fatigue' that can sometimes be felt when reading books from the same series consecutively.

If you have not already done so, I highly recommend getting on the 'Strike' band wagon, it is a ride worth the ticket price.

Both books in the 'Cormoran Strike' series are available for purchase from Amazon.com via the following link:

'The Cuckoo's Calling' By Robert Galbraith

All purchase made from this page will support 'Little Miss Kindle'

(One last question, has a pen name failed when everyone knows the identity of the real author?... just saying.)