Cormoran Strike Novels

What's the title?

The Cormoran Strike Novels

(The Cuckoo’s Calling; The Silkworm; Career of Evil)

Who wrote it?

Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)

When was it written?

2013; 2014; 2015

What star rating would I give it?

2.5/5

Would I recommend it?

No, which is stinky. Because there is one aspect of these books I adore – namely the two main characters. But there are several other aspects of these novels – namely how monstrously dark these books can get – that makes it impossible for me to shove these books in people’s hands.

What's it about? (non-spoilers)

Cormoran Strike is a grumpy giant of a former military man, working desperately to keep his detective agency afloat. Robin Ellacot arrives as his newly affianced temp with secret investigative aspirations of her own. The two stumble into a case involving the high-profile death of a supermodel. From there Cormoran and Robin strike up the beginnings of a beautiful friendship that will take them through the grimiest and most dangerous parts of old London Town.

What did you think? (spoilers)

In 2013, a few months after the publication of The Cuckoo’s Calling, it was revealed the book was not written by an ex-military Englishman Robert Galbraith, but by JK Rowling, the author of the wildly popular Harry Potter series. Rowling expressed her dismay at the discovery of her nom de plume and consequently ended up taking those responsible for the discovery to court. I don’t blame her. The pressure of writing anything after Harry Potter must have been massive, a pressure that was surely compounded after the lukewarm reaction to her first post-Potter book, The Casual Vacancy. When I heard about Rowling’s outing as the author of the Cormoran Strike books, my initial reaction was one of sympathy.

The point, however, is that it was precisely because of this revelation that I had heard about the Galbraith books at all. There is no question that if Rowling had never been revealed as the author of the Cormoran Strike novels I’d never have heard of them, much less picked them up. If by some miracle I had picked them up, I doubt that I would have finished them all. That all may be beside the point, but I feel it worth noting.

I was not a Potterhead. I did not read the books as a child, though I was firmly planted within the age of the Potter Generation. It wasn’t until after I graduated college that I read them at all. I quite enjoyed them. I certainly see how they become so popular, but they didn’t blow my mind they same way they did for many of my peers. For one thing, I wasn’t all that enamored with the world. Sure, Rowling did a masterful job at world-building, but Hogwarts and the wizarding world is not a world I would want to journey to. (Three words – randomly moving staircases.)

While I was dazzled by the foreshadowing and intricacies of plot Rowling was able to pull together, the story didn’t exactly grip me. Granted, I had been spoiled long ago because Potter is EVERYWHERE. Nonetheless, Harry’s story is a pretty boilerplate chosen-one, good-versus-evil fantasy narrative – a good one, to be sure, but not exactly groundbreaking. The aspects of Harry Potter that kept me hooked were the straightforward yet descriptive prose and the rich development of and interpersonal dynamics between Rowling’s characters.

Emiline, I hear you saying, I thought this was a discussion on the Cormoran books, why are you spending this much time on Harry Potter? Because, impatient imaginary reader, my feelings about the Harry Potter series almost identically mirror my feelings about their Cormoran counterparts. The Cormoran books are set in real-world London, but Rowling’s adeptness at world-building is still on display. The different neighborhoods of London, each individual pub Cormoran visits, the culture and accents of various parts of England are all given tender and detailed attention by Rowling. It’s impressive, and I feel like I’m IN London while reading Cormoran and Robin’s adventures. However, I am not as much of a London fanatic as other white women my age so this aspect of the novels isn’t what keeps me picking up these books.

Once again, Rowling keeps me on tenterhooks with her prose and her characters. Rowling’s prose remains evocative but not flowery, concise but still imaginative. It suits me. As much as I appreciate the prose, the thing I love best about the Cormoran novelss, the thing that keeps me coming back, is the characters. Cormoran is a giant and a curmudgeon and a giant curmudgeon. He’s gruff and brilliant and pugilistic with some very tender vulnerabilities. He is also an amputee, something that in no way defines him, but undeniably plays a part in his everyday life. There need to be more disabled characters represented in fiction, and I’m happy to see a disabled protagonist. Then there is Robin, the clever and brave British Barbie doll. Her kindness and compassion work as such a great complements to Cormoran’s surly demeanor. They are a great team. All of Rowling’s characters are complex and fully fleshed out. Cormoran’s ex, Robin’s fiancé, Cormoran’s sister, Robin’s mother, the cops and the journalists and the informants that pop up throughout the story – they’re all just so wonderfully realized. I love spending time with these characters. I just hate where these characters spend their time.

Look, I get it. These are mystery novels. A certain amount of unpleasantness is to be expected. Foul language. Seedy underbellies. Sex workers and drug dealers. Cold blooded murder. I’m aware and prepared for encountering such hallmarks in the “whodunit” genre. But with each successive book the crimes and the criminals that commit them get more gruesome and deranged.

In The Cuckoo’s Calling, the victim is pushed out of a window to her death. That’s not exactly sunshine and rainbows but not nightmare-inducing either. Then in The Silkworm, the audience is treated to a ritualistic murder where the victim is trussed up and gutted like a pig before being doused in acid. This scene is not only described in gruesome detail but harkened back to over and over again throughout the narrative. As bad as that murder may be, it still doesn’t touch the depravity of Career of Evil where the audience is provided with multiple chapters from the perspective of the criminal, a Jack the Ripper-type serial rapist and murderer who gets off taking the mutilated body parts he takes from his victims as trophies.

While reading Career of Evil, I’d be following along, happily spending time with Robin and Cormoran and then BAM! A guy cuts off a woman’s ears and carries them in his coat pocket back to his refrigerator where he can gloat over them.

Now, one of the cool things about reading is you can place yourself as much or as little as you want into the narrative. With a movie, for instance, you can neither escape nor transcend the images flashing in front of you. But with a book, you can hold the narrative at arm’s length or you can embrace it tightly to your chest. But either way, you’re still touching the story, and there are stories I just don’t want to touch at all. Being anywhere near the inside of the mind of a deranged serial killer makes me want to give my brain a shower using steel wool as a loofah.

What’s incomprehensible to me is how most of the reviews I saw for Career of Evil focused primarily on the changing dynamic between Robin and Cormoran. Some were thrilled by the growing romantic tension between the main two, others were annoyed by it, depending on the reviewer’s personal stance on that particular ship. (For what it’s worth, I like Robin and Cormoran’s unique dynamic. If Rowling decides to turn it into something romantic, I would feel it was a well-earned. If she decides to maintain the relationship between them as platonic, I think that would be an interesting and compelling choice. Honestly, I’d be fine either way, though my money is on her getting them together at some point.) But the fact that nobody really mentioned how grisly and squalid this book gets – I just don’t understand. Now, I don’t read a ton in the mystery genre. Maybe most mystery books depict things I couldn’t imagine in my most horrifying nightmares. Regardless if the Cormoran novels are living up to their genre or not, it doesn’t change the fact that I personally cannot handle that amount of squid ink content.

Also, the solving of the Cormoran mysteries I find annoying. Cormoran and Robin tend to solve the mysteries based on clues that Rowling doesn’t present to the audience. For example, maybe halfway through the book, a witness will show Cormoran a photo. Then at the end of the novel when Cormoran is all “Elementary, my dear Watson” –ing, he’ll mention that he saw daffodils in the photo and, since there are no daffodils in Hampshire, that invalidated the suspect’s alibi. Now, I may not know that daffodils aren’t native to Hampshire, but if you don’t even tell me that there are daffodils in the photo then Cormoran is working with more information than I am. That’s cheating. When reading a mystery, I believe I am entitled to the same clues as the lead detective is. I may or may not solve the mystery before the protagonist, but, without the same clues, it’s not a fair fight. Again, I’m no expert in the mystery genre. Maybe this clue-withholding is par for the course. But even if it is, it’s still cheating and I’m still annoyed.

Career of Evil ended with a great cliffhanger about the relationship of Robin and Cormoran and the future of their partnership. The fourth book in the series, Lethal White, is supposed to come out this year. Part of me is desperate to pick it up, to spend more time with these characters that I’ve genuinely come to care for. But given the last two plots in the series, I don’t know that I can. If Rowling reverts her mysteries to a broadcast network standard and less of this late-night cable bunk, maybe I’ll be able to dip back in. Maybe.

Images: Based on the Book; GIPHY

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