The Cuckoo's Calling
discussion
**spoiler alert** So can we actually talk about the book? Specifically, the ending.
FriscoKid wrote: "strike made it clear that he knew john had chosen a knife so that he could frame strike's stalker, who had said he would slit him open, if he needed to.I suppose that's true, though it's a tad co..."
Strike asks Robin to casually mention this to him during the funeral.
Strike asks Robin to casually mention this to him during the funeral.Ah, thanks, I remember that now.
FriscoKid wrote: "And to the posters who said that Strike knew Bristow wouldn't come to his office at the end armed with a gun because in England no one has access to guns, that's preposterous."First of all, that's not what I wrote. I said using a gun to kill is far less likely in a setting in Great Britain than in the US. If you don't understand the distinction, I'm not sure your comment even deserves a response.
Great Britain remains a country where gun violence is miniscule compared to the US, and where (just for example) the majority of the police force is armed with nothing more than a truncheon. Knife crime is far more common than gun violence.
It is a different culture. I've lived in the country. If you think a gun is a likely plot development in a British whodunit, you obviously haven't. (For that matter, count up the number of times guns are used in Christie, Sayers, James… not all that much.)
For that matter, the notion of Bristow carrying a knife in today's London would have been pretty unlikely if it weren't for the fact that Strike set it up earlier. People with better "connections" than Bristow have spent a night in a cell waiting to see the magistrate in the morning for carrying nothing more than a pocketknife. (Google "Rodney Knowles Knife UK" if you don't believe me.) I normally carry a Swiss Army knife in my rucksack just for the odd day-to-day emergency, but when I worked in the UK I was strongly advised by my employer not to, with specific reference to several cases like the Rodney Knowles one.
And, not to put too fine a point on it, Bristow wasn't all that well connected.
The UK is not the US, and if you insist on reading the book as if it were, you are the one who will come to preposterous conclusions.
Carla wrote: "Can we discuss those words/poem that strike remembers at the end??? I did not understood that."I typed you out a whole huge reply and goodreads logged me out. GAH!
In summery, the poem is "Ulysses" by Alfred Tennyson. Rowling is using intertextuality (using other author's words or themes to prove and give validity to her own). This passage refers to the need for adventure once you have had a taste of it, fame for the great adventures, and the inability to settle to normal life. All of these themes are found in Strike and Rowling uses this passage to point to those themes right at the end of the novel. If someone wants me to retype out my thoughts and explain my vague meanings, I will but only if you want me to since it really was a novel.
There's a bit of discussion on this in a thread called "Fame and the Pseudonym"
I really liked this book, but the ending bothered me. I had, during the course of the book, considered Bristow as the murderer, but eliminated him because I couldn't understand why he would hire a detective to investigate a death that was already considered a suicide with no evidence to the contrary(especially as far as the police were concerned). Maybe it was because he suspected that the runner was Lula's blood brother and wanted to find him, or maybe not. It still seems like a stretch to me, even after reading many other readers' observations.What bothered me most about the ending is stylistic, however. One minute I'm reading a narrative in the same vein as the rest of the book, and the next minute we have Strike delivering the denouement as a fully solved speech, much like the ending of a Thin Man movie. It just seems jarringly different from the rest of the book.
Here's a question I have: Did John Bristow already know that Bryony had said that she saw the will and that it specified that John was the heir (as Cormoran said Bryony believed, at the end)? If you remember, Bryony was dyslexic and when she saw the will thought it said John instead of Jonah. And who was the witness on the will? Wasn't it Rochelle? Did she tell John that it had Jonah's name on it? Or did she not? If John thought his own name was on the will, one possible reason that he needed to hire Cormoran would be that if Lula died without a will, it would have to go through court to settle the estate. I'm only assuming this is true in English law, mind you. That would take a long time, and John needed money immediately, so he wanted to find the will that he believed had his name on it. He hadn't been able to do so, so he thought maybe Strike could. That would explain why he hired Strike.
I loved the book, by the way. It was really a book about human relationships, and how fame, fortune and riches can skew people and corrupt them and their relationships just as much as poverty. I thought her portrait of the world of high fashion was devastating. Her discussion particularly of the paparazzi was probably drawn from her own life.
Throughout the book, Robin is attracted by the fame and fortune, while Strike knows all too well the downside of that life and wants no part of it.
Colleen wrote: "I thought it was because John wasn't sure Lula wasn't telling him the truth when she said he was already disinherited. The only reason he killed her was for the money. So if a will were to turn ..."When his mom died all of Lula's belongings would have gone to John -- her only known brother -- not her uncle. Otherwise, I agree that John worried he hadn't gotten away with it and was trying to muddy the waters or frame the surprise half-brother if he ever needed.
Delaney wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "I loved the book but I thought the ending was weak. If you're the murderer, why go to a private detective to solve the case? Wasn't everything going totally in his favor, with virtu..."As I thought back, I figured it was devious for John to hire Strike. I sure thought he was genuinely grieving. Turns out nothing genuine about John. I liked that twist.
Aisling wrote: "Jackie asked why John left the mobile in his mother's safe - I think the reason was that had he disposed of it the network would still pick up a signal from it, even if the phone was powered off. ..."I found Robin to be a believable sidekick and enjoyed their non-relationship relationship.
As for something really different, to have the lead character be an amputee was very good. and then to use the leg as a weapon later...ohmy. I had to laugh.
I am looking forward to this as a series.
I keep thinking about the uncle Tony. He knew that John had killed his brother years before and that he killed Lula. He made a trip to visit his dying sister, which apparently was completely out of character and that made John uptight, possibly realizing that Tony was probably going to tell his sister about John and what he knew. The implication was that John would get the money "when his mother died".I think that was the reason that John hired a detective to find the missing brother and to implicate him, so that his mother would not find out what he did. He wanted attention from his parents, which he never did get.
I listened to the audio of this novel and really enjoyed it, although this was partly due to the excellent narration by Robert Glenister. The twist is implausible but I felt that the interesting characters made up for this deficiency. I would gladly read a follow-up, presumably JK Rowling intends to write one, as I'm keen to see how Robin's career develops.
The reason he went to the detective i think was a) to find Rochelle and b) the will. He wanted to tie all loose ends, but went about it the wrong way. Rochelle was blackmailing him too.
Sidra wrote: "The reason he went to the detective i think was a) to find Rochelle and b) the will. He wanted to tie all loose ends, but went about it the wrong way. Rochelle was blackmailing him too." But didn't John pay all the expenses for Rochelle (Her flat for example, and her designer clothes(?) ) ?So if he hires Cormoran to find Rochelle, then that wouldn't make sense since he was the one paying everything for her. And I think John knew where the will really was, I mean he was actually so alarmed that he heard from Cormoran that he went to her mother's closet. But well, feel free to correct me of course if I had said something wrong. Haha.
Sidra wrote: "The reason he went to the detective i think was a) to find Rochelle and b) the will. He wanted to tie all loose ends, but went about it the wrong way. Rochelle was blackmailing him too." And plus, if he hires Cormoran "just" to find Rochelle, then why puzzle Cormoran by pretending that he didn't remember Rochelle's name?
He was trying to frame the biological brother and get the inheritance. He thought Strike would put the clues together and come up with the wrong conclusion. He didn't count on Strike figuring him out.
Zoe wrote: "I would gladly read a follow-up, presumably JK Rowling intends to write one, as I'm keen to see how Robin's career develops."Couldn't you see Matt giving her an issue over her decision to stick with the job until Strike's next investigation proves that his company has been doing white collar crime?
JohnReads wrote: "Sidra wrote: "The reason he went to the detective i think was a) to find Rochelle and b) the will. He wanted to tie all loose ends, but went about it the wrong way. Rochelle was blackmailing him to..."Oh correction *But John paid
Rebecca wrote: "I loved the book but I thought the ending was weak. If you're the murderer, why go to a private detective to solve the case? Wasn't everything going totally in his favor, with virtually everybody a..."I think that he might wanted to impress his mother, Lady Yvette.He wanted to show her that he loves Lula as she loves her! He maybe looked for Strike CV, so he saw that theres nothing special except fact that Strike is a war hero. If someone would tell him that he hired the worst detective in London cause Strike slept in his office, didnt work on many cases, John would tell them:"Come, on! It's Rokeby's son and war hero!". By hiring detective, who would think that John is the murderer??- NO ONE! So we can say that he was still afraid of suspicions because of the farewell letter, and with "useless" DETECTIVE, he thought that this story will be finished in his benefit. So, I think that John hired "worst" detective, even if he thought that Strike is useless, he was telling that Strike is son of famous rock star- so he was pretending that Strike is one of the best detectives in London who won't find anything! And his mother will start loving him because he wanted to find the truth of Lula's death! Anyway, I think that John is really smart because he chose Strike! Id like to JK tell us what she wanted to say with the ending: Why John hired detective? My opinion is that he wanted his mom start loving him as she loved his brother and sister, and also he was afraid of Lula's letter: Person from testament existed and he knew that and he just wanted make it clear that she killed herself by hiring "useless" detective! :)
I regard Rowling as a very good writer, she has amazing imagination,the ability to combine fun with suspence and the mind to create memorable characters. But this book? Honestly? I couldn't make it easy,i pushed my self to read it only because i wanted to see where it could go, but the end was so common.. her "villain" wasn't exaxtly a villain but something as a caricature, at least for me, and Strike wasn't the typical detective at all... she has a beautiful writing style undoubtedly but i have her for something better than this. I didn't find myself drawn to this story. I won't give a try if there will be more books with cormoran.
The ending was terrible and made no sense. There was no reason for him to hire a detective at all. It was ruled suicide and no one knew who the person running from the scene was. I felt like the whole story/mystery was a let down once the killer was revealed. Prior to that point, I was enjoying the book. Good, but certainly not great.
I'm a little late to the discussion, but did anyone wonder why Lulu's biological brother, Jonah, ran after witnessing his sister falling to her death? It just seemed very strange. Here he is a soldier and he is running away from his sister's accident, a sister who may have still been alive and in need of medical attention for all he knows. Then afterwards he quietly goes back to Afghanistan and takes no interest in her death. This was a loose end that made no sense to me.The last chapter tried to explain it, but it was unconvincing.
He was afraid of being blamed for it, right?
Kressel wrote: "He was afraid of being blamed for it, right?"Considering that Jonah never entered the building, how could he blamed for Lulu's fall? I just didn't see any justifiable reason for a soldier to run from an injured person, especially a sister. If Strike had given him a really hard time about his cowardice, that would have been a better ending. But Strike totally ignored it.
Lee wrote: "Kressel wrote: "He was afraid of being blamed for it, right?"Considering that Jonah never entered the building, how could he blamed for Lulu's fall? I just didn't see any justifiable reason for a..."
He's a person of color not from that neighborhood; the police were thinking car thieves when they viewed the video footage. He was not in uniform so he didn't respond as a soldier.
Rebecca wrote: "I loved the book but I thought the ending was weak. If you're the murderer, why go to a private detective to solve the case? Wasn't everything going totally in his favor, with virtually everybody a..."Hey Rebecca,
It's actually pretty common for the killer to hire the detective. It plays in their narcissism. The police weren't able to stop him, and he was guessing Strike wouldn't be able to. It's the ultimate "I win" for him. (If it had worked out.) He was also pissed off Lula left everything to a brother that she hadn't met until recently, while he was there all along. So, by framing, or luring Strike to believe it was the bio-brother - it's a huge win-win for John. However, things did not go to plan. I like that we didn't know all the evidence, or what Strike was thinking. It made it seem kind of like a Scooby Doo show. (I never guessed the culprit correctly because I didn't have all the clues and insight they did.)
Terry wrote: "Just finished "The Cuckoo's Calling" -I don't care what anyone says, J K Rowling is a good writer! I came to love her her two main characters and thought the ending was great."I totally agree , Terry. Great read. JK does it again!
Absolutely loved this (audio) book, no matter who wrote it. Am so looking forward to more Cormoran Strike! It is not often that a detective type story fools me so badly! I was so sure of my choice that I wrote it down half way through the book. Close, very close, but no cigar. Well done! (again, I have to say that the reader was bloody good, too.)
Nora wrote: "As for something really different, to have the lead character be an amputee was very good. and then to use the leg as a weapon later...ohmy. I had to laugh."That was genius. Maybe it was the way the reader read it, but I spewed my tea out my nose at that one. Backed it up to be sure I got it all! Strike reminds me a bit of Donald Lam. (Robin does NOT remind me of Bertha Cool.)
Keshena wrote: "Sandyboy wrote: "i think my main issue with the book was Strike and Robin were so well drawn the book seemed to exist to introduce them more than it did to intrigue. Some of the peripheral characte..."Yep. I thought his meeting with Guy Some was one of the best-written parts of the book. I wish he comes back but knowing JKR, I doubt he will.
I have a little good news. I checked out her web site under Robert Galbraith and it says the second book is finished and will be coming out according to the publisher's marketing strategy. Well the website didn't say that about marketing strategy but it did say a second book is done. Also Galbraith/Rowling plans to continue with the series. YAY!
I just want to add that rereading the posts on this discussion makes me want to read the book again. It's fun to see what grabs different readers.
Aishwarya wrote: "I loved it. I generally don't guess while reading crime novels because then you don't feel any excitement or shock at the revelation. And this one was just awesome. Cormoran's mind was so deep, it ..."Aishwarya wrote: "I loved it. I generally don't guess while reading crime novels because then you don't feel any excitement or shock at the revelation. And this one was just awesome. Cormoran's mind was so deep, it ..."
Thanks all. I thought I had missed something but based on postings no one could make much sense of the ending. I'd asked a few other readers and they all scratched their heads. A passing comment that the killer was a bit nuts is not enough. I was enjoying it all until the insulting, lazy climax. Would it have taken that much effort to give the book a reasonable ending? Waste of time. Will not be revisiting Cormorand.
I personally loved the book. Ok, the ending wasn't the greatest, but was certainly unexpected. I liked the narrative all the way through and I can't wait to read the next. Preordered.
Megan wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "I loved the book but I thought the ending was weak. If you're the murderer, why go to a private detective to solve the case? Wasn't everything going totally in his favor, with virtu..."Really? The killer hires the detective without good reason. Maybe in some other bad fiction it happens.
I don't think there wasn't a 'good' reason, but maybe as (hopefully) non-killers, it's difficult to associate with a killer. The way I'm trying to get round my head around it is, if I had killed three people, no matter how good and full proof I believe the murders to be, I would become paranoid and guilty. He was trying to frame her half brother as well insuring he would never lose Lula's inheritance. It's a difficult ending, and it might not be plausible or realistic to us but for me, It didn't take anything away from a great novel.
Luke wrote: "I don't think there wasn't a 'good' reason, but maybe as (hopefully) non-killers, it's difficult to associate with a killer. The way I'm trying to get round my head around it is, if I had killed th..."It ruined the novel for me quite honestly. I thought it was a cop out (excuse the pun).
Understandable, try not to let it ruin the previous 400 or so pages of great narrative. I can't wait for the next book, preordered, and hoping its flawless!
Enjoy. I'm reading The Black Minutes at the moments which I highly recomment. Just finished The Goldfinch, and was thoroughly disappointed with the last 200 pages. Maybe its just a bad year for me and bird titles.
I was convinced that Tony had killed Charlie. I thought Tony was the murderer all the way up until the end. Then I realized what was happening and it made sense. The ending didn't bother me at all. I didn't see it coming, but it lined up and I felt it made sense. I'd read book #2.
Gin wrote: "Why don't you think she will bring Strike back? I am looking forward to the next book, but don't see any news of it."The sequel will be released in June:
by
Robert Galbraith
The new Strike book is coming in June I believe. The Silkworm?
The ending makes perfect, complete, utter sense.It took me quite a while to realize just how much sense it made. It's not completely obvious at first glance. But the more I thought about it, the more its logic and reason fell into place.
I suppose it's possible to suppress the logic if you're determined to do so. But that doesn't make the logic go away.-)
I thought that the final explanation was a little fantastic but I'm surprised that people are saying that there's 'no reason' for John to hire Strike.Whether you found it a satisfying conclusion or not, you can't say that Rowling doesn't provide explanations. Strike specifically mentions the reason during his long exposition when he's alone with Bristow.
"But I can see how - to a twisted mind like yours - the best predicament was to fit Jonah up for murder. If he was doing life, it wouldn't matter whether or not the will ever surfaced - or whether he, or anyone else, knew about it - because the money would come to you in any case."
'Fitting up' is maybe not the best term here. Bristow knew about the real brother and (a real stretch, admittedly) must have assumed that he was the black guy who he saw running from the scene at the same time he was running away. He also knew that the police had wanted to investigate who the guy (and himself as the second runner) was because of the televised police requests for information about the runners or for the runners themselves to come forward. So after the police had decided it really was suicide and had dropped that line of enquiry, John was quite keen to get a PI to reopen it - never thinking that it would lead back to him - and hope that said PI would uncover Johan and he'd be charged for the murder.
The weakest thing for me - and somebody mentioned it earlier - is the mobile phone in the safe. There's an offhand comment that he 'didn't dare get rid of it', but I can't see what the justification for that is. And anyway, if he just turned it off and took out the sim card, I think there are a number of things he could have done with it beyond placing it somewhere to provide the one solid piece of physical evidence against himself. The six guesses of a number that Bristow might have changed the safe combination to (how do you change a safe combination, anyway?) with his first guess being the correct one - the date he murdered his adoptive brother - was pretty laughable, as well.
But I liked the book a lot overall. I agree with some critics that JK's writing style can be a bit clunky at times and the solution to the crime was a bit implausible. In the end, though, I found most of the characters to be very engaging and I enjoyed the pace of the story. I was really caught up in the mystery and, once I started reading, I couldn't put it down.
I guessed 'whodunnit' about half way through the book, largely because of the title. Cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests and then the young cuckoos push out the other young birds. The killer really had to be John, having already pushed Charlie and then Lula. This didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book, though, because the how was as much of a mystery as the who.
i was talking about it with a friend and about halfway through, I made the comment about thinking it was John and then dismissed it saying that it was too obvious...
I think I know why Bristow approached Strike. Got it after a lot of thinking.Rochelle was the sole witness to Lula's will, which bequeathed all of the supermodel's wealth on Jonah, her half-brother. Being Bristow's accomplice, Rochelle must have passed on this dope to him and he must have panicked, thinking what if the will, or even the half-brother, sprang up from nowhere. In that case, Bristow would have to part with his newly gained wealth. So, he decides to expose the suicide for what it actually was - a cold-blooded murder - but one committed not by him. Instead, he aims to pin the blame on the half-brother so that he gets zilch from Lula's estate. And because the police has closed the case and deems Bristow to be out of his bearings for calling a 'clear' case of suicide a murder, he feels the best way to do that is to approach a failure of a detective, shower him with all the money he can, and get him to accuse the innocent chap for the crime. That Bristow identified the brother in the footage was brought out by Strike in the revelation ("John, you knew before you ever came to see me that it was Jonah in the footage.")
In the above scenario, one question arrives - why wait for three months to approach Strike? I have one word as a likely answer: Alison. Those three months must have been all the time it took Bristow to court Alison and convince her to give a false alibi for him. He had to ensure that Alison was so much in love with him that she would easily buy this request without a doubt.
As for Rochelle's phone, it's difficult to destroy a phone. Bristow couldn't have even left it in the water where he drowned Rochelle, else everything would have come out. So he decides to keep it in his safe. It was his overconfidence at this stage that got the better of him in the end.
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I agree. The last couple of chapters I could honestly see that that was going to be the outcome.