I wonder if you have seen J.K. Rowling's The Call of the Cuckoo? Next, I will tell you my thoughts on The Call of the Cuckoo for your reference, hoping to help you.
The Call of the Cuckoo is another masterpiece of J.K. Rowling after the Harry Potter series. It's special. She didn't use her real name, but an alias-Robert Galbraith. I think maybe she wants to get rid of Harry's aura and let readers know her from another angle. It's just that this book is very innovative. The suspense setting, the characterization and the detailed description all show the author's intention and solid foundation, but if it is compared with Harry Potter, I personally think it has not surpassed her previous peak and can only be considered mediocre.
The author begins to describe that Robin was proposed by her boyfriend when she applied for an assistant in the detective office opened by Stryker. For her, it's just a temporary job, just a transition before finding a more stable and higher-paying job. Stryker is a detective, but he has no business. For a long time, he had only one regular customer. He was financially strapped, broke up with his girlfriend, was homeless, and had a leg before joining the army. Bristol found Stryker and was willing to pay double the price to investigate the hidden reasons behind his sister and supermodel Landry's suicide. He firmly believes that his sister will never commit suicide even if she is under great pressure and has taken antidepressants because of mental problems. He thinks her sister was murdered and hopes that Stryker can help her to investigate the case further. This case happened three months ago. Because of Landry's celebrity effect, it was also a sensation. In order to make a living, Stryker had to accept the "suicide case" that the police had already identified and began to investigate.
At first, Stryker himself didn't believe there was anything else in Landry's case. He just wants to strengthen the judgment of "suicide" after the new investigation and let the employer give up. He began to visit all the people who had contact with the deceased to understand Landry's behavior on the day of the incident and before. Some people who assisted in the investigation thought that her suicide was expected, while others were convinced that she had no reason to step out of this step. With the deepening of the investigation, he gradually approached the truth. 1. Because he is closest to the residence of the deceased, and he has the keys to every household in the building, or his uncle Tony, who is not very close to Landry as people say, may be killed next time because of some interests? Or her neighbor, Mr. Besgitti? Because he has always coveted her beauty, and the deceased has always refused to participate in the film he invested in, so he can't make a big profit from it! Or maybe it was the driver of the deceased-Jones who always wanted to be famous but always played only a few small roles? There are also the drug-addicted boyfriend of the deceased and her girlfriends who are seemingly jealous of her ... each of them looks like a suspect, but they all have specious alibis, but this does not affect Stryker's judgment. From people's memories and descriptions of the events at that time, he is getting closer and closer to the truth, and he is slowly beginning to believe that this is not just a simple suicide case, but more like a deliberate murder. When the truth was finally revealed, surprisingly, the murderer turned out to be the deceased's brother Bristol, who had spent a large sum of money asking Stryker to re-investigate the case.
It turned out that he turned to his sister for turnover because of economic problems, and she refused. Later, she learned that her sister had been looking for her biological parents, because Bristol, Landry and their brother Charlie, who died unexpectedly when they were young, were all adopted by their families. Their father died, and their mother is now dying. If Landry is killed, Bristol will naturally become her heir, but Bristol knows that Landry left a will. I want to leave all my property to her half-brother, not myself. Although the police have determined that Landry committed suicide, he will lose everything if his will is leaked that day, so he came up with a lose-lose method-framing Landry's brother as a murderer and letting him enjoy the inheritance right openly. Even if he found the will later, it was impossible to give it to a murderer, so he found Stryker and thought. I didn't know Stryker was poor, but he was one of the best detectives. His objectivity and persistence will eventually bring the criminals to justice. Finally, it was found that Bristol pushed his brother Charlie off a cliff more than 20 years ago. Only then did everyone know that Charlie didn't die in an accident.
The ending of the story is unexpected, and the author's thinking is really worthy of recognition. I think, as a detective novel, if readers don't guess a thing or two from their previous narrative, they have succeeded. Although it is not as classic as Harry Potter, it is still a wonderful mystery novel. Shattered glass, the suspect, wrote thoroughly in the book, and described his master's body and mind in detail. After reading this book, another feeling is also regret, regret for Charlie, regret for Landry, and of course, regret for my family. If Bristol killed Landry for money, he killed Charlie out of jealousy. He is jealous that his parents value his brother more than him. Later, after his brother Charlie left, his little sister Landry was taken to his home. Once again, everyone's attention turned to his sister, and he remained indifferent. He finally did something wrong again, which reminded me of a similar scene in the book "Solitude", because parents' attention was focused on his sister Lydia. All his brother's efforts were drowned and ignored, and his parents didn't care about him. Once two brothers and sisters were playing by the lake, his brother actually pushed his sister down the lake. Fortunately, his brother tried his best to save him later, but as far as the incident itself is concerned, how sad it is! Family education and environment do have an inseparable influence on children's growth. Furthermore, behind any glamour, there may be sadness or pressure that others cannot understand. Landry is recognized as a beauty and a lucky son. Although she grew up in an adopted family in the eyes of the world, her family conditions are superior. Even if she doesn't work hard as a model, she will have enough food and clothing, but people don't know the psychological pressure she is under. If she wants to be famous before others, she will suffer before others. She's under too much pressure to release. The possessiveness of the adoptive mother, the regret of the death of the eldest brother, and the second brother may also be a murder suspect. When she finally found her half-brother and wanted to talk to someone, something happened to her, so many times she didn't have to blindly envy others' light, and more importantly, she had her own opinions and ambitions. And Bristol, if you do more wrong, you will die. He got into the trap he designed and finally got what he deserved. Although we don't do anything drastic like killing people like him, it's wrong to be petty and greedy for petty gains. You know, no matter what happens, good and evil will be rewarded, not for small evils. Self-discipline and seriousness are far more than ambition and opportunism.
The Call of the Cuckoo is a mystery novel by JK Rowling-although the author's name on the cover is Robert Galbraith, it is only the pseudonym of JK Rowling. Historically, many writers wrote different types of works under different pseudonyms. For example, the famous agatha christie once published Roses and Taxus, Mother's Daughter and other works in the name of Mary West mccourt.
Although the most direct reason for reading this mystery novel is that the author is JK Rowling (I really love her Harry Potter series), I don't think her pseudonym is a cover-up, because the name "JK Rowling" itself is a pseudonym. For the author, a strange masculine name may help her to break away from children's literature and the magical world and write in another identity. As for me, a big fan of Harry Potter, I really hope that the name "JK Rowling" is only related to the magical world where Harry Potter lives, just like if the name "JK Rowling" is printed in other books, it will be a betrayal for me. Therefore, the name Robert Galbraith is like a good shield. She can leave the magical world to write mystery novels, and I can love both sides-perfect!
The name "trick"
Although the back cover of the book has pointed out that the protagonist of this book is Komoran Stryker, the text of the book is cut from a woman named Robin. When I first read the name "Robin", I smiled, which was very interesting to Rowling-she took the name seriously. Many characters in Harry Potter have names that refer to something. For example, Hermione's name comes from Hermes, the messenger of the gods on Mount Olympus in Greece; Snape's name is only one letter short of the English word snake, which is the symbol of Slytherin College. Dumbledore's name Albus means white in Latin because he is a white wizard against the dark Lord (Gandalf: Benedict); Another example is neville longbottom. In English, Neville means Neverville, and Long Bottom means forever bottom, which is in line with his image in the novel. Others, such as Ron, Professor McGonagall, Lu Bang, Voldemort, etc., all have meanings, and interested friends can read more online.
Go back to the book. Robin is not a common female name, but Rowling uses it here, which obviously means something. My first reaction was that she would be an effective assistant-just like Batman and his Robin. In fact, the same is true. For the down-and-out Shrek, Robin is really a veritable "Robin".
Rashomon in life
The film Rashomon is a household name. Even those who haven't read the original work must have heard the word Rashomon and understood its meaning. From the psychological point of view, these three words mean that different people have different worlds in their eyes. Different people may feel the same thing completely differently. The most intuitive example is a book entitled "Getting Closer" published by Irvin Yalom. This book consists of written records of Aaron and Ginny's consultations from their respective perspectives. When reading, we can find that although both sides attended the consultation, their concerns, feelings and views on the effective components in the consultation are completely different. Just like the "Rashomon" in the clinic. Sometimes, you even have a little doubt: did these two people really go through the same consultation?
In real life, it is difficult for us to have a chance to know everyone's thoughts on one thing-even if you ask, others will not tell you their thoughts. But in the novel, we approach everyone in the incident from Stryker's perspective, and we "watch" them and "listen" them. What's more, information that may be ignored by our eyes at ordinary times enters our field of vision through words, which shows us how a detective thinks, observes and asks questions-it's hard not to be surprised by the author's talent when reading.
The story told in the novel is not complicated: a supermodel fell to her death in the middle of the night, and the police ruled that she committed suicide. However, three months later, the brother of the deceased found the down-and-out detective Stryker and asked him to find out the murderer of his sister. The story is simple, but around what happened on the night of the death of the deceased, more than a dozen related people gave almost completely different descriptions. Not only that, everyone's information is true or false because of their own selfishness or desire. How to separate the really useful information from these complicated information is not only the key to solving the case, but also the charm of Stryker as a detective and the charm of the novel.
"Ugly" is real.
Around the deceased, Rowling wrote many characters, such as her family, boyfriend, model friend, fashion designer, best friend, neighbor, driver, apartment security guard, police officer and so on. Through these people, we know what kind of person the deceased Lula was and what kind of personality he had. Similarly, through Stryker's conversation with them, we also "see" what kind of people they are. It can be said that except for some unimportant characters, almost all the protagonists have problems, and there are some twisted, crazy and extreme things in their personalities.
Let's start with the late Lula. She is beautiful, as beautiful as an angel who fell into the world, and she is an extremely rich supermodel. From the mouth of the former apartment security guard, we know that she is kind and cheerful, will smile at the security guard and care about his nephew in Afghanistan (this is also a clue, although it is not pointed out directly at the end of the book, but it makes sense to think about it carefully); But with the increase of understanding, we found that she was depressed, irritable, completely self-centered, self-destructive (as many people in this book have), and on and off with her drug-addicted boyfriend. All this is related to her early abandonment by her biological mother and the strong control of her adoptive mother.
Another person who gives up on himself is Stryker's ex-girlfriend. The ex-girlfriend did not appear directly in the book. Readers "see" this beautiful beauty through Stryker's memories. She is also beautiful and wild, and she captured Stryker's heart in a flash, which is still fresh in her memory even after breaking up. But at the same time, she is lying, jealous, irritable, impulsive and reckless, just like a spoiled rich girl. With the development of the plot, we can find that Stryker's mother is the same: the same great beauty, the same temper, the same impulse, the same madness, and finally died of poison X on a dirty mattress. This is Stryker's "compulsive repetition"-he just can't completely give up this woman who has brought him endless quarrels and injuries.
Another person who impressed me deeply was the designer Guy Summer. The man's initial appearance was disgusting-according to media reports, he claimed that the clothes the deceased was wearing when he fell from the building were designed by him, so he made his clothes sell well. Not only that, he also posted photos taken by the deceased before his death as publicity. These actions can't help giving people the impression that he is a mercenary scumbag. After "meeting" him, he was grumpy, rude, cocky, and kept shouting, like a powder keg that could explode at any time, and kept claiming that he really loved Lula-this was really hypocritical. Even when he refused to let Stryker call Lula a corpse, I didn't feel anything special. It was not until the conversation with Stryker ended that he burst into tears and saw him "leaning his head against the wall and shaking uncontrollably" that I suddenly understood that he really loved her as he said, even more than he expressed. He called her "cuckoo", took the most beautiful photos of her, and designed clothes and bags for her alone-all his performances were hiding this. When Stryker said goodbye to him, although his previous momentum was all back, my heart no longer felt that he hated him, but I felt some sympathy for him.
So is Lula's boyfriend. In my opinion, this person is really not a good person. Even in the first half of the book, he seems to be the biggest suspect in killing Lula. After seeing him, it still makes people feel bad about him. But like the designer, he cried for Lula's death (although the way he cried made me a little unacceptable). He also visited Lula after her mother died-not because her mother was dying-but because he wanted to talk to someone who cared about Lula's death. For these reasons, although I don't like this man, I don't hate him either.
Lula's "best friend" Rochelle is another version of Lula: poor and ugly. The only thing that is the same as Lula is that she has the same life experience (of course, she is not so lucky to be adopted by a rich family) and serious psychological problems. I know Lula because they are in the same medical support group. Lula regarded her as his closest friend and even asked her to be a witness to his will. However, she was ungrateful. All she wants is more money and luxuries. She is greedy and cold-blooded. Although she knows who killed Lula (but she doesn't think the murderer is the real murderer), because Lula didn't leave her a penny in her will, she chose silence and used the fact that she knew the contents of the will to blackmail others (this other person won't play here). However, even such a person, the author expressed his views through Stryker's mouth: hateful and pitiful. As a supermodel girlfriend with a net worth of tens of millions, she can only live in a shelter, and even wander from one shelter to another. Poverty is her greatest pain, but she witnessed that this best friend gave her tens of millions of property to another person through her will. This "glory" witness not only found nothing, but also had to walk back to the shelter. Her resentment can be imagined.
The author has written many people with psychological problems, and her description of these characters is surprisingly accurate, as if she had experienced everyone personally. But describing the "ugly" side of these people is not for criticism, nor for irony and exposure. In fact, the author has never made any moral judgment, and there is always a kind of compassion in her narrative. These sentient beings are always hateful and pitiful.
From luxury to poverty
In order to understand the traces of Lula's activities, Stryker interviewed everyone involved. These people are distributed in different places, engaged in different industries and belong to different classes. Readers have followed Stryker around half of London, met different occasions, met people from different classes and experienced different places. If the Sherlock Holmes series shows the street view of London in the19th century, then this book shows the urban landscape of London in the 2 1 th century.
The author also describes all kinds of life-from the most down-and-out to the most luxurious. Stryker is synonymous with being down and out: he was kicked out of his apartment by his rich ex-girlfriend and had to sleep in his office. He can't afford to hire a formal private book, so he can only use temporary workers. In addition, he has a loan, the creditor is his biological father-this father is a big star and worthless, but he hired a lawyer to collect debts from an illegitimate child. He used to be a war hero, but he lost a leg in the war. This "honor" did not help him except inconvenience. When I proved myself strong, I could only say "I used to be a boxer". He doesn't even want to spend money on a bath. Every time he wants to meet an important person, he is angry and goes to the free bath of the London University Federation with his eyes open (in order to make the security guards dare not stop him). However, even so, he still has strong self-esteem. He tried to hide all this from his temporary secretary Robin. He also refused his sister to let him apply for disabled soldiers' allowance. Even after a fall, he refused to show weakness in front of Robin and insisted on taking off his prosthetic leg after she left. He needs neither sympathy nor pity. He wants dignity. When reading these descriptions, I can't help but wonder if these are Rowling's life and mood. Even though she is worth more than 100 million yuan now, she can still take people to Stryker's small office in an instant when describing the embarrassment of life.
In contrast, it is the author's description of the upper class in London. Obviously, I can't judge whether these things are true or not. But the detailed description of luxury apartments, top model studios and nightclubs where senior people gather in the book is unbelievable. The author of the combination is JK Rowling, which is highly credible.
The Call of the Cuckoo is a great mystery novel, although some people may find it strange for JK Rowling to write mystery novels. But I'm not surprised. Almost every Harry Potter series has a puzzle solving part. Before the final showdown, I guessed the murderer in advance, but fortunately, I didn't guess. It's a pity that my reasoning and analysis ability needs to be improved, but I'm glad that the final reversal is the greatest satisfaction I expect when reading mystery novels. More importantly, this book is a highly completed work. There are some small details in the book. At first glance, I don't agree. When I looked at it again, I felt that it was very consistent with the final truth, and I didn't say it all at the showdown. These details are like some eggs, which are left to the readers to dig for themselves.
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