Book Review – Page 28 – M J Mallon YA Author and Poet

My Kyrosmagica Review of The Cuckoo’s Calling

Goodreads Synopsis:

A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel’s suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you’ve never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you’ve never seen them under an investigation like this

My review:

A huge Harry Potter fan I was not disappointed by J.K Rowling’s well written crime debut, penned under the name of Robert Galbraith. Though I must confess that I was quite perturbed by the slow pace of the novel in the opening chapters. Nevertheless this didn’t put me off. I read on and I am so glad that I did. The novel picks up pace as Strike’s shattered confidence grows. I wonder if this is an intentional device? J K Rowling’s amazing gift of story telling is evident in her engaging plot, colourful characters and eye for detail. They are striking!

The main character, Cormoran Strike, an ex soldier, wounded in combat, has been invalided out of the army. Missing the camaraderie of the armed forces he appears to be a little lost. He sets up as a private detective. The pace of the novel is slow in the initial chapters mirroring his struggle to make ends meet. He has few paying customers, and is beset by financial difficulties, and death threats. An unhappy love affair has resulted in him sleeping in his own office. A new temporary secretary, Robin Ellacott, appears just when he feels he can least afford her. Initially Robin comes across as this empty headed girl obsessed with her recent engagement to her accountant fiancé. But Robin’s character doesn’t disappoint. Her kind nature, obvious excitement and involvement in the case, all endear the reader to her.

Strike is investigating the mysterious circumstance surrounding the death of the famous supermodel Lulu Landry. It is not clear whether she fell from the plush balcony of her London home or if she was pushed. Lula Landry’s adopted brother approaches Strike asking him to take on the case. He seems certain that his sister did not jump. To begin with Strike is reluctant to take on the case as the police have clearly stated a suicide verdict. As Strike sets out to investigate, we can’t help but be impressed by his attention to detail and his ability to extract information. The pace of the novel quickens as does our excitement reading it, right up to the stunning conclusion. J.K. Rowling’s wonderful array of characters are portrayed with humour, depth, and believability.

My rating:

4 Stars.

DISCLAIMER: “As of 13th September 2017 we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”

My opinions are my own and any reviews on this site have not been swayed or altered in any way by monetary compensation, or by the offer of a free book in exchange for a review.

Buying Links:

UK Kindle: http://amzn.to/2hqfcJ5

UK Paperback: http://amzn.to/2y31KSE

Have you read The Cuckoo’s Calling? Do you leave a comment in the box below I’d love to hear from you.

Bye for now,

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

Photo courtesy of Google Images.

My Kyrosmagica Review of Vicious by Victoria Schwab

Goodreads Synopsis:

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

My review:

A fast paced gripping read. The chapters are short, and punchy throughout so you will not get bored. The characterisation in the novel is brilliant. It is not a flowery read. It certainly made me wince in parts, and don’t expect much in the way of descriptive prose of settings, etc. It left me with a sense of disappointment when the novel ended but I think this is just the very nature of the novel, however it would end would leave you with an empty feeling, a bit like a rollercoaster halting, you’ve taken the ride of a lifetime but now it ends. I have had several thoughts about the ending. I had doubts about it at first, but I came to the conclusion that it would be a brilliant ending cinematically, (the ending is very visual, and graphic), I can just see this becoming a film, it has so much potential. I would really recommend reading this if you like a fast paced exciting read with excellent characters throughout.

My rating:

4 stars

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/20419289-m-mallon

Photo courtesy of Google Images.

Have you read Vicious? Do leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you.

Bye for now,

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

My Kyrosmagica review of A tale for The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Goodreads Synopsis:

This is Ruth Ozeki’s third novel, shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize 2013.

In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her great-grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in a ways she can scarcely imagine.

Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

Full of Ozeki’s signature humour and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.

My review:

I think this is a remarkable novel, well deserved to be shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize 2013. It is the first time that I have awarded a book five stars. For me it ticked all of the boxes, it is beautifully written. The character of Nao comes alive through the reading of her diary, drawing you into her world, where the brutality of some of the things she has to endure is counterbalanced by the spiritual guidance and love she receives from Old Jiko, her great grandmother. You can’t help but share in Ruth’s determination to find out what has happened to Nao and her family. The novel left me with a heightened sense of the here and now, as each person’s individual destiny can be altered, in a single moment, that’s all it takes to destroy lives. Equally the same moment in time may have no consequences if influenced by a different set of circumstances. It also left me feeling a bit sad and strangely optimistic at the same time too. If you like to think deeply, this is definitely the novel for you. I expect that I will return to this novel in the future and re-read it again, because one reading just doesn’t seem to do it justice.

My rating:

5 Stars

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/20419289-m-mallon

Have you read A tale for The Time Being? Do leave a comment I’d love to hear from you.

Bye for now,

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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