The Cuckoo's Calling

The Cuckoo's Calling ( Cormoran Strike #1)
 By Robert Galbraith ( Pseudonym) J. K. Rowling

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16160797-the-cuckoo-s-calling?from_search=true



Book Review: ***1/2  ( SPOILERS AHEAD)

It was a good mystery....did like how it started but it was very very slow to pick up …you really need to have patience to want to know about the story as the build-up is slow.. ...the gist of the story is that a model (Lula Landry) falls off her second floor balcony flat and after some investigation the police declare it as suicide. Her brother is not convinced with this verdict and hence after three months he hires the protagonist (Cormoran Strike) to investigate further in the matter. The whole investigation wraps up in 2-3 weeks.  We will start with the good points first. I liked how the story and entire unfolding of characters happened…we get a good glimpse of how being in a spotlight is…how the glamour industry works and how insecure the people up there are…although we don’t really get a complete understanding of any other secondary characters but I liked how the investigator and his secretary (Robin) developed a rapport and how he utilised some of her enthusiasm for solving the case but how their friendship remained just that being friends…without further complications…

The negatives: I don’t like a mystery wherein it’s not exactly completely explained as to how he drew his inferences…(SPOILERS AHEAD) like how did he know just from the water on the stairs that it must be from the flower pot…or how did he absolutely and so surely infer that one of the witness was on the balcony when the crime happened…there was a lot of surmising that happened…and it wasn’t properly explained as to how he came to those inference which left me a bit dissatisfied when the book ended…plus what was the reason for the brother to hire him after all these days? And why hire in the first place…

Now about the author…unlike other reviews I didn’t want to focus too much just on the author…which I found is the case with many other reviewers here…yes it is J K Rowling who wrote it but let’s approach the book without any pretence and any hype and give it a fair chance..well it wasn’t mind blowing like the harry potter books…but considering its her first foray in to mystery the story was good just that she should work a bit better in explaining how she has concluded certain things in the end instead of leaving us hanging and finding our own explanations.
Feel free to give you comments on my review.

The Girl with the Dragon tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1) by Steig Larsson
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2429135.The_Girl_with_the_Dragon_Tattoo


Book Review *****

I loved this book and the sole reason or maybe the most prominent reason for that was the strong feminist character. I myself am a total pro-feminist and just loved the total kick ass attitude of the girl. 
The story starts of with Blomkvist's trouble with the financial world and a the hefty fine he has to pay. To reduce the impact of bad publicity on the magazine he is working for he takes a self imposed vacation during which he is given an assignment to find a murdered girl ( 36 years back). The girl was murdered ( body not found) on an island in a period when no one came in or out. So what unfolds is a locked room mystery.  He hires an investigative firm for delving in the mystery where he meets the female protagonist Lisbeth Salandar. And so the story goes.
The story is not for people with aversion to violence, rapes or in general child brutality, sex scenes and blunt language.
But one thing I learnt from the book was that Sweden doesn't seem to be a safe place for girls or at least the rapes and female brutality seems to be just shrugged off there.I was bit disturbed to learn the sort of brutality described in the book and the extent of violence in the book. But just the bouncing back and never say die attitude of the girl made me keep coming back to it. The journalist Blomkvist seems to be a decent character and in fact all the main characters in the novel have been finely etched out which leads to a smooth flow of the story without any inconsistencies or out of character acting.
The mystery was well thought out and the additional characters later on in the book added to the story. There were a few things which made me squirm a bit particularly Blomkvist's relationship with colleague Erika and her husband. Plus Blomkvist has been shown as this perfect guy over whom girls fall over and who cant or doesn't make any wrong decisions.

Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts about what you felt about the book 

Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8442457-gone-girl?from_search=true


Book Review **** (No Spoilers ahead)

I started on Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn when I had absolutely no idea about the author or even her writing style, read it in July of 2012 . Just read the excerpt and thought to give it a go.  From the start of the book, it was quite gripping although not as gripping as say a Micheal Crichton novel ( e.g. Prey which starts of amazingly fast) but also not as slow as a rambling by Jerome K. Jerome which you wanna enjoy on a lazy summer day. Be prepared for some foul language use.
The book goes back and forth between the perspectives of Nick Dunne and his missing wife, Amy Elliot Dunne.  Amy’s perspective is from a diary of the past, and the picture she paints is one of an unhappy marriage.  From Nick’s perspective, we hear about his current thoughts following the disappearance of his wife and subsequent police investigation. 
 The story has its good points and bad. I will start with the good ones which far outweigh the bad points.
Good Points: Very interesting plot, you are left guessing as to what is happening till 70% of the book, good writing style- not too descriptive nor very sketchy. The author is good in giving us two point of views of the two main protagonists in the book allowing us to make a judgement on their actions or behaviour.
Now to the bad side: the entire book is a dark dark thriller, and at the end of it I actually felt depressed and lost a bit of faith from human relationships.  So if you are one of those who read and keep mulling over the book for the next few days, let me tell you to keep some happy people around you and don't take it on a vacation, you would not only ruin your mood but also the people with you would start complaining.
The end is again something which I personally didn't agree with. I guess in reality things like that happen but it just went on to become something so twisted and dark and convoluted that you just want the whole thing to stop.
All in all I won't read it again as I am not fan of books that make me sad or depressed but the author had accomplished what she had set out to do; that is make a good mystery thriller which keeps people guessing till the end.

Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts about what you felt about the book and also suggest any new books whose reviews you would be interested in reading. If I have read the book I would try my best to post reviews of the book, even if its as new as published last month.