The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

In this first novel of the Cormoran Strike series, Galbraith tells us the story of a war veteran turned private investigator, Cormoran Strike, and his plucky secretary, Robin Ellacott, as they attempt to figure out what exactly happened to a famous model on the night of her death. Was it a suicide or was there foul play?  Strike is dead broke, just got kicked out of his home by his ex-fiancee, and is sleeping in his office. His war injury is a constant source of pain for him and he's smoking too much and not eating well.  Robin is just using this position as a temporary position until she gets a "real job" and her fiance Matthew is not necessarily in agreement that working for a private investigator is a good idea.

Wait...did I say this was a Robert Galbraith novel?  That is the pseudonym for JK Rowling. You know her?  The writer behind the Harry Potter novels that sold millions and millions of copies worldwide.  Rowling chose to release this mystery series under a pseudonym for reasons only known to her and her agent, but the secret was revealed almost immediately.

I have had this book on my shelf for a long time, but I kept putting it off because I'd read a lot of negative reviews of it. But I finally told myself that I enjoyed The Casual Vacancy despite all the criticisms of that book, so maybe I would enjoy this one.

And enjoy it I did. It's incredibly formulaic, but the mystery was solid and I enjoyed Strike and Robin as characters. I wanted to hang out with these people, even as imperfect as they were.  It turns out, in an unsurprising twist, that Rowling writes in a style that I can get onboard with.  I'm going to get the next book in the series as soon as I can.

Things I had to look up:
Dana Gibson - An illustrator for The New Yorker who famously created the image of the Gibson girl.

Iconic Gibson girl

Acro clip - I can't actually find this, but I'm assuming from context it's a brand of paper clip?  It's not capitalized in the text, though, so I don't really know. Any British readers? What's an acro clip?
Emmeline Pankhurst - I don't know how it slipped past me, but I'd never heard of this British suffragette who was a leader in the British's women's fight for the vote.

Pankhurst

Scouse -  An accent and dialect of English found primarily in the Metropolitan county of Merseyside, and closely associated with the city of Liverpool.  
Johari window - A technique that helps people better understand their relationship with themselves and others. Used a lot in self-help groups.
Kairos moment - From a Greek word, this denotes an opportune moment.
Pierrot - A stock character of pantomime.
Rizla papers - A brand of rolling papers and other related paraphernalia in which tobacco or marijuana is rolled to make homemade cigarettes.
bonheur du jour - A type of lady's writing desk.
piquancy - A pleasantly sharp and attractive flavor.
pellucid -  Translucently clear.