{"id":6210,"date":"2019-07-30T09:28:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T08:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6210"},"modified":"2019-07-30T09:29:26","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T08:29:26","slug":"the-cuckoos-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6210","title":{"rendered":"The Cuckoo\u2019s Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em><strong>The Cuckoo\u2019s Calling<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This month\u2019s book was Robert Galbraith\u2019s \u2018The Cuckoo\u2019s Calling\u2019. This is the first of the Strike detective series written under a pseudonym by J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. Rowling\u2019s identity was leaked before the televised series of her third book was launched.<\/p>\n<p>Cormoran Strike is a war veteran whose injuries resulted in the amputation of a leg. After a period of convalescence, Strike opens a London-based private detective agency on borrowed money. Strike\u2019s story opens with his break-up from his glamorous but disturbed girlfriend and we find him camping out in his office. Robin Ellacott is sent by a secretarial agency to work for Strike and her initiative helps him solve the murder of a supermodel who plunged to her death from her balcony. Despite Strike\u2019s financial difficulties, Robin proves her worth and her position is made permanent.<\/p>\n<p>As with the Potter books, Galbraith\u2019s vibrant attention to detail gives readers a vivid description of the characters and their surroundings. One of our group found this irritating and related that much of the first quarter of the book was distended and longwinded, but thereafter found it to be a page-turner. We all thought that the book was an enjoyable light read and that the protagonist proved to be more than the stereotypical hard-drinking private detective that had fallen on hard times. Galbraith painted a tawdry picture of mostly shallow people and we were all surprised by the choice of crude language which punctuated Strike\u2019s thoughts and conversations. However, this was probably influenced by our knowledge of the identity of the author more than our sensitivity. Overall, we gave the book a score of 7.5 and might take the next book in the series as a holiday read.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cuckoo\u2019s Calling This month\u2019s book was Robert Galbraith\u2019s \u2018The Cuckoo\u2019s Calling\u2019. This is the first of the Strike detective series written under a pseudonym by J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. Rowling\u2019s identity was leaked before the televised series of her third book was launched. Cormoran Strike is a war veteran whose injuries resulted in the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[347],"tags":[349],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-1Ca","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9728,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9728","url_meta":{"origin":6210,"position":0},"title":"Happy Memory Books","author":"Alan Williams","date":"30th May 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cTHE PAGE TURNERS BOOKS PROMPTING HAPPY MEMORIES\u201d Due to ongoing Welsh Government restrictions, Page Turners were not able to meet up. Instead, book club members were asked to reflect on a book that has a special place on their book shelf, or Kindle! A piece of music can often bring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Wenvoe Page Turners&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5537,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5537","url_meta":{"origin":6210,"position":1},"title":"THE SECRET PLACE by Tana French","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st January 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 THE SECRET PLACE by Tana French This book is fifth in the Dublin Murder Squad series and although some of the characters can be found in previous novels, it can be read as a stand alone. Following the unsuccessful investigation into the murder of a teenage boy, Chris Harper,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Wenvoe Page Turners&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8061,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8061","url_meta":{"origin":6210,"position":2},"title":"Falling in Love (Death at La Fenice)","author":"Alan Williams","date":"13th August 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Off The Shelf Falling in Love (Death at La Fenice) \u00a0 Falling in Love (Death at La Fenice) was this month\u2019s book written by American author Donna Leon. Leon lived in Venice for many years and has written a series of crime novels set in and around the city,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Off The Shelf&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Off The Shelf","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=347"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5597,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5597","url_meta":{"origin":6210,"position":3},"title":"Seven Good Reads","author":"Alan Williams","date":"3rd March 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 This month, we each reviewed a book of our own choice that we had enjoyed. \u2018The tattooist of Auschwitz\u2019 by Heather Morris. This book is based on the real life of Lale Sokkolov a survivor of Auschwitz, interviewed by Heather Morris. It is the love story of Lale and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Wenvoe Page Turners&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8054,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8054","url_meta":{"origin":6210,"position":4},"title":"The Book Character I Would Most Like to Meet","author":"Alan Williams","date":"12th August 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Page Turners The Book Character Page Turners Would Most Like to Meet A survey for World Book Day asked \u2018leading lights of literary luminaries\u2019 to name the characters who gave them the greatest reading pleasure. The list included Pip (Great Expectations), Elizabeth Bennett (Pride and Prejudice), Sherlock Holmes (Hound of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Wenvoe Page Turners&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1910,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=1910","url_meta":{"origin":6210,"position":5},"title":"November&#8217;s Book Choice","author":"Alan Williams","date":"4th December 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie\u2019s first novel \u201cThe Mysterious Affair at Styles\u201d was published in 1920 and introduced a new literary character in the form of Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective who became the central figure in more than 30 of her novels. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Wenvoe Page Turners&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6210"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6213,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6210\/revisions\/6213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}