From the Bookshelf of Nothing But Reading Challenges…

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)

Robert Galbraith

Start date: October 2, 2013

Finish date: October 31, 2013

Discussion: Books of the Month

Why we're reading this: To get to the discussion CLICK HERE.
It's a Mod takeover for Adult Anything Goes.…more
[close] To get to the discussion CLICK HERE.
It's a Mod takeover for Adult Anything Goes.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 163 topics — 23,363 comments total

Books of the Month

* The Names by Florence Knapp - Sep 25 Adult / Non-Fiction BOM (starts 16 Sep)
By Moderators of… , Challenger-in-Chief · 11 posts · 69 views

last updated Sep 05, 2025 04:38PM

* The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - Sep 25 Theme BOM - South and South East Asia (Starts 5 September)
By Moderators of… , Challenger-in-Chief · 31 posts · 66 views

last updated 19 hours, 3 min ago

showing 10 of 194 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Feb 10, 2014 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, _own-ebook, busy-as-a-bee-books-group, read-in-2014

What a pleasant surprise this one was for me! I was a little nervous about this one living up to the hype since the discovery that it was written by JK Rowling. But, it's a very solid detective/mystery novel. Really interesting main character and I loved the smaller characters as well. The story was fairly well plotted and paced! Although not a perfect book, this one was quite good and I look forward to the next in the series! ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2013 Marla rated it really liked it

Shelves: made-me-laugh, award-winner, mystery, audiobook, zz-2016, series, adult, mixed-reviews

I liked this mystery, but it had mixed reviews so I listened to it. I'm glad that I did because it was convoluted and really slow at points, but I really enjoyed the characters, but the mystery was meh.

Slow and facts are reiterated over and over, but I like Cormoran Strike and his temp assistant, Robin. I really enjoyed listening to the narrator and it made the slower bits more palatable. I don't think I would be so understanding if I read this book. J.K. Rowling does a much better job with Harr I liked this mystery, but it had mixed reviews so I listened to it. I'm glad that I did because it was convoluted and really slow at points, but I really enjoyed the characters, but the mystery was meh.

Slow and facts are reiterated over and over, but I like Cormoran Strike and his temp assistant, Robin. I really enjoyed listening to the narrator and it made the slower bits more palatable. I don't think I would be so understanding if I read this book. J.K. Rowling does a much better job with Harry and the gang, but I will probably listen to the next book, because Cormoran is so cool. Had an old crime noir feel to the character and story.

Likes:
* U.K. culture
* Cormoran's accent
* Cormoran's pride and sense of duty
* Dead supermodel Lula Landry
* Robin Ellacott, Cormoran's spunky, resourceful new temporary secretary
(view spoiler)

Dislikes:
* Rude, snobby rich people
* Assumed suicide
(view spoiler)

With-reservations:
language, suicide, drugs, divorce, adultery, violence, murder, casual sex ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2014 Joyce rated it really liked it

Shelves: mysteries

So much more enjoyable than "The Casual Vacancy," it was delightful to find that J.K. Rowling has a talent for writing mysteries. Cormoran Strike is an intriguing private detective with a rock star father and just one leg. His temporary assistant Robin proves very enterprising and charming. All in all a most satisfying tale and I look forward to more installments. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 19, 2019 Angie rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-books, mystery, great-reading-challenge, 2019-books, bookclub, first-in-series

After all these years, I finally read The Cuckoo's Calling for my Mystery & Mayhem book club. I quite enjoyed the mystery and the in-depth back stories of some of the characters (I would expect no less from Rowling.) I think the consensus of the book club was that it was pretty good, though some cliched or generic mystery tropes bothered some folks. I was more bothered hearing Rowling swear :)
I definitely want to continue the series - at this point there are 4 books, so I will be curious if Row ...more

Like · see review

Feb 20, 2014 Karen rated it really liked it

I would not have found out about this unless I had heard JK Rowling wrote it. But, I loved this book. Loved the characters, the mystery is great, and will read the next one in the series without hesitation.

Like · see review

Jul 06, 2014 Avigail rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-book, 2014

For me it is a 4.5 stars and not a four star book.

Very good, well written and descriptive, complex plot. Sometimes the pace was a bit slow, but still thoroughly entertaining and a great start to a new detective series with great characters. I look forward to many more Cormoran Strike adventures, he was somewhat like a procedural, and I enjoy walking through the clues with the detective and gathering the evidence. The characters are engaging and I was pleased to have the story line remain a myste ...more

Like · see review

Oct 20, 2014 Krissy rated it it was ok

Shelves: cover-color-gray-silver, pgs-400-499, read-before-2015, audiobook, book2film

This book was extremely long and slow. Nothing exciting happened. It was just 500 pages of a bunch of characters being questioned one after the other and then the main character slowly putting clues together. So that means long scenes of inner thoughts going over everything that was said during the questioning of the other characters. Because I was listening to the audiobook version then I found myself nodding off quite a bit when the story got really tedious. I would not recommend this book. I ...more

Like · see review

Mar 09, 2016 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016

I really enjoyed this book. I'd been wanting to read it for awhile and a recent recommendation from a friend finally pushed me to check this one out from the library. It took me a bit longer to read this than I'd anticipated but that was due more to my schedule than the book itself. I'm looking forward to reading more in this series. I love a good mystery and this one did not disappoint! ...more

Like · see review