Leonora Quine wants private detective Cormoran Strike to find her husband, writer Owen Quine. He’s been missing for two weeks which, as it turns out, is not unusual for him. She’s sure he’s at a writer’s retreat. But Own turns up dead–murdered in a grisly, bizarre fashion. At the same time, his book is published–a grisly, bizarre book that infuriates Owen’s editors, publishers, lovers, and fellow writers with its gruesome, barely fictionalized depictions of them. Everyone’s a suspect, and they’re all also pretty unpleasant people. But are […]
2 for 1: Harry Potter and the Cuckoo’s Calling and Harry Potter and the Silkworm
The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm are the first two entries in a new detective series featuring Cormoran Strike and written by much-beloved J.K. Rowling (her pseudonym should hopefully not be a spoiler, as it has been well-publicized and Rowling has been interviewed as Galbraith by now). Strike is a veteran and an amputee, struggling to turn a profit as a private detective in The Cuckoo’s Calling when he is approached to investigate the death of a famous model Lula Landry. Strike is accompanied by […]
The Adventures of Strike and Robin, Vol. II: The Publishing Industry
Ugh, this is going to be one of those reviews where I just flounder for things to say because a) I waited too long to write it, and b) I can’t really sum up my feelings into precise words. The short of it: I really, really, really liked this book. I still don’t quite LOVE it, but I’m allllmost there. A couple more books should do the trick. (In fact, I did like it better than The Cuckoo’s Calling, although at certain points it was much […]
Yup, another review of The Cuckoo’s Calling
If I counted correctly, I’m the sixth Cannonballer to pick up The Cuckoo’s Calling, so you’re probably already familiar with the summary: injured war veteran and private detective Cormoran Strike, down on his luck and down to his last pence; his new girl Friday, Robin, newly engaged and enthralled with the prospect of working with a real live detective; a celebrity suicice–OR IS IT?–and a bunch of usual suspects, all with a conceivable motive and a suspicious air about them. None of the individual characters were […]
Models, Vets, Trust Funds and Mysterious Deaths
Unless you’re blissfully out of touch with literary news, which is unlikely considering this blog is for readers, you’re well aware that The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith is actually written by JK Rowling. It’s why most of us have even heard of it, but from what I understand it was getting good reviews even before she was outed as the ‘man behind the curtain,’ so to speak. Since I knew who really wrote it when I picked it up, I admit I am incapable […]
I am Debbie Downer or: I reread of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and now I have SOME SADS
This review is crossposted from Ashley‘s funtastic Harry Potter Medicinal Reread. Thanks to Ashley for assigning me these final chapters of Order of the Phoenix, some of my favorite chapters of the whole series. Original review here. The battle is over. The war is just beginning. Harry Potter has survived, but only to be thrown into grief once again. I love so much about what JK Rowling gets right about children (and, you know, people in general), but one of the things I love […]