“The dead could only speak through the mouths of those left behind, and through the signs they left scattered behind them.”
Other people his age had houses and washing machines, cars and television sets, furniture and gardens and mountain bikes and lawnmowers: he had four boxes of crap, and a set of matchless memories.”
By Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)“How easy it was to capitalize on a person’s own bent for self-destruction; how simple to nudge them into non-being, then to stand back and shrug and agree that it had been the inevitable result of a chaotic, catastrophic life.”
For those who have seen and enjoyed the television show Veronica Mars, this book may be of some interest. It features a cranky and perennially out of luck private investigator, Cormoran Strike, currently bankrupt and living in his office on a camp bed who by some twist of incidence lands an attractive temporary secretary, Robin, precisely on the day where he receives his first client after a long while: the brother of renowned model Lula Landry, whose death the brother is convinced is not a suicide, but a murder.
As far as a mystery novel goes, this fits the essential criteria. A suicide/murder, shady characters, a charming but socially awkward investigator and his charming sidekick, and the beautiful and elusive woman whose death brings them all together. While Galbraith's prose at times can be overwrought with description that seem more like a linguistic exercise, the abundant detail at times contributed to a feeling of breadth--a well constructed sandwich with nuggets of layers. Even if the layers were made of flimsy plot elements and were oftentimes very predictable, to the point of irony. It wouldn't have surprised me if halfway through the novel, the fourth wall was broken.
It seems J.K. Rowling's preoccupation with social class which had already played an essential role in both her Harry Potter series as well as The Casual Vacancy makes a return here, with an added dash of racial biases and the politics of relationships (as one character notes, “Couples tended to be of roughly equivalent personal attractiveness, though of course factors such as money often seemed to secure a partner of significantly better looks than oneself.”) The budding relationship between Strike and Robin felt as though it occupied a little more time than it should have, making me wonder if perhaps the novelist cloaked the mystery in a romance to make it a more appealing pill to swallow. I also felt that the descriptions of people and the unfolding of events was very unevenly machinated--as though Galbraith decided on the ending, and then randomly came up with ways to make it happen.
I would only recommend this book for some light reading if you enjoy tepid mysteries and the writing of J.K. Rowling holds some sentimental value for you.
42/100
I read the book without knowing it was written by j k Rowling. It is a hard boiled detective novel and very well written. I could not figure it out till the end and what a surprise it was.
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