Harry Potter’s Pen Name

Before you start to think this is actually about Harry Potter, it’s not. It’s about J.K Rowling’s other series that she wrote under the Pseudonymn, Robert Galbraith; The Cormoran Strike series.

I have always loved a good detective or mystery series. My two favorite series as a kid were the Boxcar Children and the Mandie series. For a while, I’d been hanging out in YA fiction for so long, I had forgotten my love of all things mysteries until I read the first Cormoran Strike novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling. I love the main character. He’s rough around the edges but with the intelligence of a Sherlock Holmes like character. He is perfectly balanced by his assistance, Robin who, though her fiancé isn’t super stoked for her to work for the private investigator, she does anyway. 

The first book is well worth the time. Rowling spins the tale well and leave you guessing until the end, weaving the pieces effortlessly together. 

That being said, Silkworm, the second installment of this series was not as good as the first. Honestly, I think the only reason is because of just the oddity of the subject she broaches. An author is found dead in a death that imiates the way his latest unpublished novel kills off its hero and now it’s up to Strike to figure out who did it.  A large cast of characters, which Rowling handles well, Strike has been suspects to weed through before finding the actual killer.

Again, the writing is so good. Rowling is consistent. As a friend told me, you have to read this one because it moves Robin and Strike’s characters along but overall, not my favorite. The book that she has her dead author write is full of gross stuff that just feels very twisted and makes you go, “Say What?”  If you can get passed that part of the story, other than that, it is a good book and a good mystery. I don’t think I fully knew who did it until the very end either. 

There are two more books in this series so far and I’m excited to read another. In the realm of Rowling, The Casual Vacancy, her first adult, non HP book she wrote, the story was not great but the writing was good. The Cormoran Strike books are just good and worth your time. A solid 4 starts for the sake that it’s Rowling, it’s written well and her characters are good. 1 star off on the fact that some of the parts give me the ebby-freebies.