The Cuckoo’s Calling –Session 1

ACTIVITY ONE: BOOK COVERS

In pairs go over the different covers of The Cuckoo’s Calling and discuss what they
tell us about the story.

ACTIVITY TWO: BLURB

This is the blurb of the book, which
also explains the title.
 Read it with your partner and
note down the factual
information we learn about the
book.
 Does any information surprise
you?
 Does the story appeal to you after
reading the blurb?
 How do you predict the story will
unfold?
The only surprise in Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling is the author
https://www.npr.org/2013/07/18/202732292/the-only-surprise-in-rowlings-cuckoos-calling-is-the-author

LEAD-IN
What do you understand by the following?
Mayhem Parva – archetype - Hagrid - Gal Friday - deus ex machina - Lisbeth Salander

LISTENING
Listen to this NPR segment upon the publication of The Cuckoo’s Calling and answer the questions.

1. What was Robert Galbraith’s alleged former profession?

2. How many copies did he sell in the UK?

3. How did The Sunday Times find out about the real authorship of the book?

4. What does ‘$1,000’ refer to?

5. What category does the book fall into?

6. Who is in plain sight throughout most of the action in The Cuckoo’s Calling?

7. Who is Robin Ellacott?

8. What is she sporting on one of her fingers?

9. What is the most intriguing unsolved mystery in The Cuckoo's Calling, in the reviewer’s opinion?

The buzz in the street was like the humming of flies. Photographers stood massed behind barriers
patrolled by police, their long-snouted cameras poised, their breath rising like steam. Snow fell
steadily on to hats and shoulders; gloved fingers wiped lenses clear. From time to time there came
outbreaks of desultory clicking, as the watchers filled the waiting time by snapping the white
canvas tent in the middle of the road, the entrance to the tall red-brick apartment block behind it,
and the balcony on the top from which the body had fallen.

Behind the tightly packed paparazzi stood white vans with enormous satellite dishes on the roofs,
and journalists talking, some in foreign languages, while soundmen in headphones hovered.
Between recordings, the reporters stamped their feet and warmed their hands on hot beakers of
coffee from the teeming café a few streets away. To fill the time, the wooly-hatted cameramen
filmed the backs of the photographers, the balcony, the tent concealing the body, then
repositioned themselves for wide shots that encompassed the chaos that had exploded inside the
sedate and snowy Mayfair Street, with its lines of glossy black doors framed by white stone
porticos and flanked by topiary shrubs. The entrance to number 18 was bounded with tape. Police
officials, some of them white-clothed forensic experts, could be glimpsed in the hallway beyond.

The Cuckoo’s Calling: What to do with the book

- Make notes of the story and the characters.
- Read between the lines: note down topics, subtopics and episodes in the book that exemplify them.
- Try and learn one new word or expression every other page or so. Compile a list so that you can revise it.
(spaced learning)
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
The literary event of the summer is something that's caught readers and reviewers by surprise - a
debut mystery novel by one of the world's most famous living authors. Book critic Maureen
Corrigan has a review.
MAUREEN CORRIGAN, BYLINE: Call it: "The Mystery of the Missing Book Sales." And I don't think
we'll be needing to bring Sherlock Holmes in to solve this one. In April, a debut mystery entitled
"The Cuckoo's Calling" was published. It appeared to be written by an unknown British writer
named Robert Galbraith, who was identified on the book jacket as a former military cop, now
working in private security.
The novel received some good reviews - Publisher's Weekly, for instance, called it a stellar debut -
but, an unknown author trying to break into an overcrowded genre needs more than approving
clichés to make an impact. In the U.K., a mere 1,500 copies had been sold. By last week, the novel
was deader than a firecracker stand on a rainy Fifth of July.
Then, The Sunday Times of London received an anonymous tip via Twitter that Robert Galbraith
was actually a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling. The Times, in checking out the tip, ran "The Cuckoo's
Calling" through forensic stylometric software and found a strong match with Rowling's Harry
Potter books. As soon as the news of Rowling's ruse broke this past Sunday, sales of "The Cuckoo's
Calling" soared.
The novel has shot to number one in Amazon online sales and an additional 300,000 hardcovers
have been rushed into print. Signed first editions of "The Cuckoo's Calling" are selling for around
$1,000 on eBay; I think my unsigned first edition probably got packed off in one of the shopping
bags full of unwanted review copies I donated to the library a few weeks ago.
So, like hundreds of thousands of antsy J.K. Rowling fans who can't wait for the hardcover, I
downloaded the electronic version on my Kindle. And you know what? The library is welcome to
my review copy and whatever funds it may raise. "The Cuckoo's Calling" falls into that vast
middlin' range of fiction that I mentally shelve in the "I've read worse, but I've read better"
category.
I couldn't even find a memorable quote from this novel. The only really distinctive thing about
"The Cuckoo's Calling" is its title, which comes from a Christina Rossetti poem. Rowling has written
a respectable urban example of what's been called the "Mayhem Parva" school of British detective
fiction: The story takes place in a circumscribed setting, it's full of oddball suspects, and the killer is
affably lurking in plain sight throughout much of the action.
Rowling's private eye hero is named Cormoran Strike: He's an ex-military policeman who lost a leg
in Afghanistan. We meet him in the archetypal dumpy office where he passes his days staring into
the bottom of a bottle and running to fat. Think Hagrid in a trenchcoat.
Strike's fortunes change when he hires a young temp secretary named Robin Ellacott as his Gal
Friday. Also stumbling through the deus ex machina door is a client whose sister, the famous
model Lula Landry, has died after falling from the balcony of her apartment. The client insists it
was murder and hires Strike to find out. Investigations ensue.
Rowling tries to bring a more contemporary edge to this novel by featuring a beautiful biracial
victim and delving into the demimonde of high fashion and hip-hop royalty, but the world here still
feels curiously dated. In fact, the first time we glimpse Robin, the young secretary, she's bedazzled
by getting an engagement ring affixed to her finger by her stodgy fiance.
Throughout much of the story she serves coffee to clients, makes cow eyes at Strike, and tidies up
the office loo. The most intriguing unsolved mystery in "The Cuckoo's Calling" is why, in this post-
Lisbeth Salander age, Rowling would choose to outfit her female lead with such meek and
anachronistic feminine behavior.
Desultory=without enthusiasm; Se’date=quiet; snout=nose; shrub; bush in a yard;
Topiary=a bush or a tree cut into a particular shape for decoration
stellar [extremely good + related to the stars] debut
to break into [to start to have success in your career or an area of activity: It’s always been his ambition to
break into broadcasting.] an overcrowded genre
approving [favourable] clichés [commonplace remark]
By last week, the novel was deader than a firecracker stand on a rainy Fifth of July.
Rowling's ruse [trick] broke [became known] this past Sunday
antsy [anxious, nervous, unable to relax] J.K. Rowling fans
middling range [medium or average; neither very good nor very bad]
a memorable [worth remembering] quote
Mayhem Parva: It is a term coined by Colin Watson in Snobbery with Violence (1971) for a subgenre of the
mystery characterized by semi-isolated settings epitomized by the English country village.
a circumscribed [limited, small] setting
it's full of oddball [strange, unusual] suspects
lurking [(of an unpleasant feeling or quality such as danger) to exist although it is not always noticeable:
Danger lurks around every corner.] in plain sight
private eye [detective] hero
archetypal [very typical of a particular type of person or thing: In his dark suit, he looked like the archetypal
businessman.]
dumpy [ugly, run-down] office.
An archetype is something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of
person or thing, because it has all their most important characteristics. + a constantly recurring symbol or
motif in literature, painting,
Rubeus Hagrid is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. He is
introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone as a half-giant and half-human who is the
gamekeeper and Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts.
Trench coat: a raincoat with a belt
Gal Friday [a girl or woman worker who does several different jobs in an office] Origen: girl Friday (1900-
2000) Based on Man Friday, a character in the book Robinson Crusoe (1719) who does jobs for the main
character, Robinson Crusoe
stumble [1. to trip or fall while walking or running 2. to walk in an awkward, unsteady, or unsure way]
deus ex machina [1. (in ancient Greek and Roman drama) a god introduced into a play to resolve the plot 2.
any unlikely or artificial device serving this purpose]. someone or something that solves a situation that
seemed impossible to solve in a sudden and unlikely way, especially in a book, play, movie, etc.
Investigations ensue [happen as a result of it]
a more contemporary edge [quality] to this novel
delving into [to try to find more information about someone or something] the demimonde [any social
group considered to be not wholly respectable] of high fashion
she's bedazzled [so amazed and impressed by them that you feel confused] by getting an engagement ring
affixed to her finger by her stodgy [boring, serious, and formal + heavy and unhealthy food] fiancé
makes cow eyes [an expression for looking shy yet clearly intending that the person looked at will find the
looker attractive. It is a dismissive remark, used more often by girls/women about another female.] at
Strike
Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. She is the
lead character in Larsson's award-winning Millennium series.
to outfit [provide] her female lead [protagonist] with such meek [submissive] and anachronistic [old-
fashioned] feminine behavior.

lurk
to wait somewhere quietly and secretly, usually because you are going to do something wrong:
lurk in/behind/beneath/around etc She didn’t see the figure lurking behind the bushes.