The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So, I finally got around to reading RG aka JKR and I'm kinda surprised it took me quite this long to do it.

I simply thought I wouldn't quite appreciate a mystery from a great fantasy writer, especially since there is no supernatural or such oddities in the text.

That isn't to say I don't know the mystery field, however, and I figured it was well past time to see if there's any fuss here.

So, first impressions: It's pretty formula, but it's well-done formula. We've got all the Noir going on that you could wish for, with a heavy reliance on slow-burn character building. I like that. It's solid and never made me lose interest.

And while that IS a good thing, it honestly never goes beyond that. I like Strike and I like Robin even more. But a dark-past PI with some problems isn't anything new. And neither is a seriously competent bombshell working for said PI. It has the strength of comfort going for it.

So, while I couldn't find anything seriously outstanding about the plot -- hell, even the plot seems to be rather cliche -- it was also satisfying the way an infrequent fast food burger is satisfying. You get that craving for that specific feel, the payoff that says all your initial assumptions about the entire genre is always right, every time, because they ARE standardized and will be the same no matter what city you travel to...

Yeah. Not bad, even solid all the way down, but also not original.

Even so, it's early days and it's not like I dislike it, so onward I go!

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