Combining sharp social critique with a classic whodunit plot and the dark whimsy that made Harry Potter so irresistible, Robert Galbraith (known to friends, and now to everyone else, as J.K. Rowling), has created a wonderfully flawed, bright, and hardworking detective in Cormoran Strike. Having survived a stint in Afghanistan, Strike is about to lose all he cares about when the distraught brother of a late supermodel and tabloid star walks into his floundering agency. Strike and his new, skeptical assistant, Robin, venture into London’s dark underbelly, investigating a murder no one wants to admit actually happened. The Cuckoo’s Calling (Mulholland, $26) will take its place among Britain’s classic detective stories, while Strike sidles up to a bar and shares a drink with Philip Marlowe—and you get to enjoy every minute of it.
