"The Cuckoo’s Calling reminds me why I fell in love with crime fiction in the first place" - VAL MCDERMID

Now a major BBC drama: The Strike series

When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case.

Strike is a war veteran – wounded both physically and psychologically – and his life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model’s complex world, the darker things get – and the closer he gets to terrible danger . . .

A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London – from the hushed streets of Mayfair to the backstreet pubs of the East End to the bustle of Soho – The Cuckoo’s Calling is a remarkable book. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

‘One of the most unique and compelling detectives I’ve come across in years‘ - Mark Billingham

‘The work of a master storyteller’ - Daily Telegraph

‘Unputdownable. . . Irresistible’ - Sunday Times

‘Will keep you up all night’ - Observer

‘A thoroughly enjoyable classic’ - Peter James, Sunday Express

‘Teems with sly humour, witty asides and intelligence … A pleasure to read’ - Times

"One of the most unique and compelling detectives I've come across in years" - Mark Billingham

"Rowling's descriptions of contemporary London are excellent" - Mail on Sunday

"Rowling switches genres seamlessly ... A gritty, absorbing tale" - Ellen Shapiro, People

"The most engaging British detective to emerge so far this year . . . An astonishingly mature debut from Galbraith, it marks the start of a fine crime career" - Daily Mail online

"Everytime I put this book down, I looked forward to reading more. Galbraith writes at a gentle pace, the pages rich with description and with characters that leap out of them. I loved it. He is a major new talent" - Peter James

"Cleverly plotted ... Rowling serves up a sushi platter of red herring, sprinkling clues along the way, before Strike draws a confession out of the killer in a climax straight out of Agatha Christie" - Entertainment Weekly

"It's terrific ... A brilliant achievement, mordantly funny and monumentally absorbing ... A masterful novel, the kind of big, noisy, busy, beautiful book in which it is so easy and so pleasurable to become enmeshed" - Chicago Tribune

"The most engaging British detective to emerge so far this year . . . An astonishingly mature debut from Galbraith, it marks the start of a fine crime career" - Daily Mail online