Cuckoo's Calling discussion *with spoilers*

[aurora]

Since I don't have a 7-hr meeting today and I know a number of us have read this I thought I'd start a discussion. Let's hope I remember enough to talk about it...


Here are some questions from
www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/9361-cuckoos-calling-galbraithrowling?start=3

1. What do you think of Cormoran Strike What are his secrets...and what drives him in the dogged pursuit of the Truth?

2. What makes Lulu Landry's apparent suicide suspicious? Lulu's character is gradually revealed and the story progresses. What kind of person was she?

3. How does the author portray the culture—and the characters—of worlds of fashion world and the very rich?

4. Using a hard-bitten investigator assisted by an young, ambitious "Girl Friday" is a classic detective-story trope. What do you think of Robin Ellacott? What does her character bring to the story?

5. Good mystery writing leads readers astray with red-herrings. Who were you first suspicious of?

6. Does the fact that the book was penned by J.K. Rowling affect you view of it? "In speculating as to why J.K. Rowling might have written The Cuckoo's Calling under a pseudonym, the New York Times wrote, "Ms. Rowling may well have felt that the reaction, both critical and commercial [to Casual Vacancy, her first effort after Harry Potter], was distorted by her fame." Why do you think she felt compelled to use a pseudonym? If you've read her Harry Potter books, do you detect any similarities, either in style or structure?

7. Were you surprised by the ending? Or did you see it coming? Why...or why not?

8. It appears that Strike may be part of an ongoing series. Will you be reading more of his escapades?

[aurora]

Tagging snshne322.

[snshne322]

Sorry if there's any misspellings in the characters, I listened to it.



1. What do you think of Cormoran Strike What are his secrets...and what drives him in the dogged pursuit of the Truth?

I'm not sure that I know what his secrets are, but I feel like he's always had to live his truth being the child of his parents. Having a famous absent father and a misunderstood and drug addled mother, I think he always had to power through it to be heard or seen as an independent person.

2. What makes Lulu Landry's apparent suicide suspicious? Lulu's character is gradually revealed and the story progresses. What kind of person was she?

TBH, I'm still not sure that I thought her death was that suspicious beyond that she was rich and people stood to benefit from that.  Tansy's testimony held some weight, but she was not very reliable either.  (side note: I wish we found out what happened with her divorce at the end of the book)  As far as Lulu's character, I think she was spoiled.  However, her friends spoke about her and they seemed to care for her quite a bit.  Maybe their lifestyle and the judgement/accolades they receive bonded them? 

3. How does the author portray the culture—and the characters—of worlds of fashion world and the very rich? 

I really thought it was portrayed in a positive light.  They were a bit snobbish, but they seem to have a genuine family.  Guy and Lulu adored each other and it seems like they created a family that they both didn't have.

4. Using a hard-bitten investigator assisted by an young, ambitious "Girl Friday" is a classic detective-story trope. What do you think of Robin Ellacott? What does her character bring to the story? 

I adore Robin.  She's fresh, enthusiastic, funny, clever...  She cares for Cormoran and the fact that he has personal struggles, but not as a fixer.  She wants to help him help himself, not fix him personally.  I think that's what she wants from Matthew, but she's not getting.

5. Good mystery writing leads readers astray with red-herrings. Who were you first suspicious of? 

Every time Cormoran met with someone I thought they were suspicious.  I suppose that's the point.  I was especially suspicious of Rochelle.  I could practically feel the envy radiating off of her.  She seemed like the type of person who would mold herself into whatever friend a person needed in order to get something out of it.  I thought Tony might be involved and I thought he was responsible for Charlie's death originally.  I still can't quite wrap my brain around why he allowed John to be in his life knowing what he did.  I know they were tied by family and business, but still.

6. Does the fact that the book was penned by J.K. Rowling affect you view of it? "In speculating as to why J.K. Rowling might have written The Cuckoo's Calling under a pseudonym, the New York Times wrote, "Ms. Rowling may well have felt that the reaction, both critical and commercial [to Casual Vacancy, her first effort after Harry Potter], was distorted by her fame." Why do you think she felt compelled to use a pseudonym? If you've read her Harry Potter books, do you detect any similarities, either in style or structure? 

I'm not sure I can really answer to the similarities in the books, but I absolutely understand why she used a pseudonym.  Casual Vacancy, as you all know, was the killing curse (har har) to JKR for me.  It wasn't HP and I didn't enjoy it so I wrote her off.  I'm pleased to know that there's more out there for her and I wouldn't have picked it up if it had her name on it.

7. Were you surprised by the ending? Or did you see it coming? Why...or why not? 

I did not see it coming.  I'm still not sure why he'd need a PD when he already got away with it.  I suppose that's part of his psychosis?

8. It appears that Strike may be part of an ongoing series. Will you be reading more of his escapades?

 Absolutely!

[aurora]

Apr 29, 2016 11:03:50 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

...

4. Using a hard-bitten investigator assisted by an young, ambitious "Girl Friday" is a classic detective-story trope. What do you think of Robin Ellacott? What does her character bring to the story? 

I adore Robin.  She's fresh, enthusiastic, funny, clever...  She cares for Cormoran and the fact that he has personal struggles, but not as a fixer.  She wants to help him help himself, not fix him personally.  I think that's what she wants from Matthew, but she's not getting.


...

I love Robin, too, and especially enjoyed the Robin-Cormoran dynamic in this book as they were getting to know each other.

Apr 29, 2016 11:03:50 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

...

7. Were you surprised by the ending? Or did you see it coming? Why...or why not? 

I did not see it coming.  I'm still not sure why he'd need a PD when he already got away with it.  I suppose that's part of his psychosis?
...

I'm generally bad at predicting the ends of mystery books but I agree with you that it was so weird that he hired Cormoran when he had already gotten away with it. I guess maybe he thought Cormoran was a really bad detective?

[aurora]

I'm going to keep coming back in here at intervals between meetings.

6. Does the fact that the book was penned by J.K. Rowling affect you view of it? "In speculating as to why J.K. Rowling might have written The Cuckoo's Calling under a pseudonym, the New York Times wrote, "Ms. Rowling may well have felt that the reaction, both critical and commercial [to Casual Vacancy, her first effort after Harry Potter], was distorted by her fame." Why do you think she felt compelled to use a pseudonym? If you've read her Harry Potter books, do you detect any similarities, either in style or structure?

I've said many times that I love Rowling's writing so much that I would read her grocery list. I knew she was Galbraith before I picked up Cuckoo's Calling so I can't ever know if I would have guessed it was her, but there is an elegance about her prose that I don't think many authors have.

As for the pseudonym, I can absolutely see how she wanted to avoid the same scrutiny until the Cormoran Strike books had had a chance to be judged on merit. However, I also can't help but think of the gender bias issue, especially knowing that her publisher advised her to go by "JK" instead of Joanne for the HP series to avoid turning off little boys from the stories. I don't think it's a coincidence that she picked a man's name for the Strike books.

[snshne322]

Apr 29, 2016 13:51:37 GMT -5 aurora said:

Apr 29, 2016 11:03:50 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

...

4. Using a hard-bitten investigator assisted by an young, ambitious "Girl Friday" is a classic detective-story trope. What do you think of Robin Ellacott? What does her character bring to the story? 

I adore Robin.  She's fresh, enthusiastic, funny, clever...  She cares for Cormoran and the fact that he has personal struggles, but not as a fixer.  She wants to help him help himself, not fix him personally.  I think that's what she wants from Matthew, but she's not getting.


...

I love Robin, too, and especially enjoyed the Robin-Cormoran dynamic in this book as they were getting to know each other.

Apr 29, 2016 11:03:50 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

...

7. Were you surprised by the ending? Or did you see it coming? Why...or why not? 

I did not see it coming.  I'm still not sure why he'd need a PD when he already got away with it.  I suppose that's part of his psychosis?
...

I'm generally bad at predicting the ends of mystery books but I agree with you that it was so weird that he hired Cormoran when he had already gotten away with it. I guess maybe he thought Cormoran was a really bad detective?

And what I found interesting too is that Cormoran knew Charlie.  I feel like that would give anyone that added incentive to do good detective work since there is a personal connection.

Everyone had overheard that Lulu was going to give her fortune to her brother.  No one knew her half brother even existed to stake claim.  Maybe it's just narcissism. 

[Nonny]

I just finished this for one of my book clubs.  I really enjoyed it, but I agree with c7, it made zero sense for John to have hired Cormoran in the first place.  It was written off as a suicide, no one knew she had a bio-brother, and I while think the will would have been found eventually, it probably would have been by some rando who bought the purse at auction or something and then written off as a fake. 

Generally speaking, I'm pretty good and figuring out the killer in mystery books, but one thing that JKR did in this, and she also did in Sorcerer's Stone, is she had a character see something and have an "aha!" moment that the reader doesn't get to have until the character reveals it.  In SS, it was Hermione telling the boys how dumb they were about not noticing the 3 headed dog was standing on a trap door, but we as readers didn't get told about the trap door until the next chapter and Hermione was like, "Guys, duh, pay attention."  Cormoran had a LOT of those obscured "aha!" moments, which I feel a bit conflicted about; on one hand it doesn't bother me that I was just along for the journey because that is just how plot was structured, but on the other hand it doesn't feel "fair" because I couldn't really play along.  I'm curious to read the next one to see if it's structure the same way, or if she starts to drop heavier handed hints like she did in the later HP books.

I don't blame her for one second in writing these under a pen name.  I knew it was her, seeing as how it's common knowledge now and they flat out stated it in the "about the author" section at the end, but I doubt I would have picked that up before she was outted.  I did noticed a lot of her same writing tics that she does in HP, but I probably would have attributed those to just being how British authors write.  LOL!

[revjen]

They do. I've listened to both of them.