Bloated, boring, but also elegantly-written, The Cuckoo's Calling is a book that I have very mixed feelings about. The set up of the book was fairly decent, right from the first page it was clear that J. K. Rowling put some effort into the details of the environment and presenting them in an elegant manner. However, the book quickly nosedives into a series of boring interviews that more often that not serves little purpose to the story. I'll admit that some of the details from the interviews are important for the climax of the story, I just wished that they were shorter and relying less on fluff. Speaking of the climax, it's probably the best segment of this book. The way that the main character solves the mystery using subtle details from the earlier interviews is just so engaging and perfect for reincorporation. I just wished that the rest of the novel maintained that same level of engagement. I also feel like the sheer length of near 500 page for this book was not fully justified, it would've been much better if the book was cut down to around 300 page and more to the point. Instead, it meanders with the stuff about the main character and his assistant's personal lives. Those take up quite a bit of the novel and were unfortunately not very appealing to me. Their chemistry was not developed enough in such a way for me to care about them. In the end, this book is a cookie-cutter, fluffy, whodunit murder-mystery that relies heavily on its sophisticated writing style in an attempt to mask its bloated story.

2.5/5

P.S. Also J.K. Rowling comparing the shape of an old lady's mouth to that of a cat's anus might just be the most abhorrent writing I've ever read.