The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1)

#1028
Title: The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1)
Author: Robert Galbraith [J. K. Rowling]
Publisher: Mulholland
Year: 2013
455 pages

Harry Potter's appeal made more sense to me when I realized that the core of the novels was the detective/mystery genre, so I assumed Rowling would give us something in this arena at some point. Here, a noirish/hard-boiled detective and a pretty good mostly-closed room mystery. As was the case in the later Potter books, Rowling's conclusion is more complex than necessary and relies on more luck and circumstance than I prefer, but it's better than many in its genre and adds societal elements such as class, assumptions based on presumed identity and status, and critiques of paparazzi techniques that recollect those around the time of Princess Diana's death as well as the more recent hacking scandals.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8)

#1018
Title: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith 
Publisher: Pantheon
Year: 2007
213 pages

Better, with some actual character depth and psychology, but still reasonably superficial and with mysteries that seem almost beside the point. 

Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #7)

#1015
Title: Blue Shoes and Happiness (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #7)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Year: 2006/2007
256 pages
 
Though this preceded Fifty Shades of Grey, the talking shoes were too much like the horrible inner goddess of the latter, which is not Smith's fault, but does suggest that he failed to make this little fancy work. I found this somewhat better than the last installment but still rather lackluster. Okay as a read-and-forget novel, but nothing compelling.

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #6)

#1014
Title: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #6)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Pantheon
Year: 2004/2005
233 pages

Not quite twee, but cloying, with tedious dialogue. The first incident is never resolved, and is never really investigated, even observationally. [What size and brand were the pants? Worn or new? Clean or dirty? That's a lot of information to ignore, and "Oh, they weren't Charlie's" is a limp resolution.  The author does address my earlier criticism that character-related issues disappear, but still only references a character's depression, for example, without this mattering at all to the story.

I'm still enjoying the descriptions of Botswana and Lisette Lecat's narration, but the series is growing stale.

A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta

#1000
Title: A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta
Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Year: 2009/2010
288 pages

An uneven novel from Theroux, ranging from 2 to 5 stars. Low stars for repetition, unconvincing character development with abrupt changes, and obvious plot with a limp conclusion; high stars for parallelism (albeit sometimes heavy handed), rich description, and overall idea. A good edit would have tightened this up considerably. Good enough for a plane trip, not good enough to recommend.