The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Cuckoo’s Calling is a pretty good murder mystery. I’d say it scores an 8 on the Agatha Christie Scale. (Where Nemesis = 10 and At Bertram’s Hotel = 1.)
Reading this, I would say, proves conclusively that Harry Potter was not a fluke. Rowling should be as respected as her sales indicate.
I do have a problem with the ‘omniscient third person’ point of view. I don’t actually believe such a thing exists. But in any case, if you’re attempting it, you have to be a bit more careful than we see in The Cuckoo’s Calling. You see, anglophone readers assume that every sentence in the narrator’s voice has been filtered through the consciousness of one particular character. Authors let us know which character that is by narrating something only they could know.
If you switch back and forth between viewpoints, you have to be careful about any subjective information you narrate during the switch, because your readers won’t know which character’s subjectivity that information belongs to. There are a few trip-ups in this regard in The Cuckoo’s Calling, and it can be confusing.
Authors who want to write from multiple viewpoints should learn from Zadie Smith. She does a wonderful job of this.
The Cuckoo’s Calling has awesome potential as a series. She’s setting up lots and lots of relationships and complexity that she can draw on in later books. It’s going to be incredible, a couple of books from now, when Strike’s ex gets in trouble with the law. With multiple novels-worth of development already invested into their relationship, it’ll be gripping.
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