The Cuckoo's Calling

Robert Galbraith--apparently a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling--has written a private eye story with a somewhat curmudgeonly protagonist, Cormoran Strike. Cormoran is the illegitimate son of a famous rock star, for all the good it's done him. His mother died of a drug overdose and Cormoran isn't entirely sure it was accidental as ruled at the inquest. That might fuel his willingness to take on re-investigating the apparent suicide of mixed race beauty and super-model, Lula Landry, known as Cuckoo by one of her closest friends. Lula's brother, John Bristow (Lula was adopted into a wealthy family as a baby), hires Strike, ostensibly because he believes Lula was murdered. Strike is a veteran of the Afghan wars where he lost a leg. And now he has had a royal bust-up with on-again, off-again girlfriend, Charlotte, and is living on a camp cot in his rather dismal office. When a temporary receptionist shows up on Monday morning, Strike tries to send her away, but Robin has always secretly harbored a wish to be a PI and she won't leave, even though her fiancé is not happy about this assignment.
Strike sets out to interview anyone who knew Lula, which is often harder than it should be as people are hard to find or reluctant to talk. When one of Lula's stranger companions, a down and out young woman Lula once met in drug rehab, is found drowned in the Thames, Strike is more convinced than ever that Lula was murdered and now he has a good idea who the killer is. But convincing the police to take action before another murder occurs, especially after they have already ruled this a suicide, is an uphill battle, and Strike finally resorts to making himself the bait in a deadly game of cat and mouse. This is a sometimes slow moving book, and if you are expecting something like Harry Potter, you will surely be disappointed. But the characters are complex and competently drawn. The writing is visual and authentic and will certainly satisfy lovers of the genre who come with no preconceptions.

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Quite unlike me to read two non-fiction books in a row, but this book by Scott Anderson received excellent reviews, including in the NYT Sunday Book Review. It is a fascinating story about four players in the Middle Eastern theatre of WWI, although mostly focused on T.E. Lawrence. The others were: the American  William Yale (yes THAT Yale family) who was manipulating events to get oil concessions for Standard Oil; Aaron Aaronsohn, a Jewish agronomist, who occasionally worked for the Turkish government, but whose driving goal was a homeland for the Jews--to which end he set up a Jewish spy ring informing the British; and Kurt Prüfer, German spymaster. Lawrence is a particularly complex character and yet seemingly the only one of the four who had any significant degree of understanding of and empathy for the native peoples of the region. The countries involved in this war, and those who made the big decisions, are shown as largely either clueless, incompetent, egomaniacal, racist, classist, self-serving or all of the above. Working for British intelligence services in Cairo, Lawrence repeatedly tried to guide war efforts to maximize on resources on the ground, and minimize losses. He was continually ignored. Gallipoli is one astounding example of total and continuing military incompetence that cost nearly half a million lives. Finally Lawrence began ignoring orders more blatantly, revealing secret information to his Arab allies about the Entente's multiple acts of deceit. He worked with the Arab approach to fighting to eventually become one of the most devastating destructive forces against the Ottoman Empire and the Central Powers in that part of the world. By many of the higher ups in the British military and government, however, Lawrence was never seen as more than an insubordinate meddler. 

I actually had to return the book or face a fine but will recheck it to finish the last few chapters I missed. Whether or not you are a history buff, this book is worth reading to increase one's understanding of how the rest of the world (Europe, England, Russia, the U.S.) has been, for the last 100 years, mucking around with the Middle East . No wonder they distrust, dislike, and even hate us; we have never acted in their interest, only for our own. I consider it a gross oversight on Anderson's part not to have had any discussion of Gertrude Bell, who was also a major player in the Middle East around this time, and had dealings with Lawrence.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

David Quammen is a fine science writer and, in this book, has done absolutely heroic feats of research in order to discuss zoonotic diseases and the possibility of the next big outbreak or pandemic. Opportunity is the key. Many viruses and bacteria have evolved to live in their animal hosts without harm or mortal danger, but when humans push into the environments where these hosts live, they become opportunistic new hosts and the consequences are often not so benign.
Quammen provides both historical and current facts about many of the major outbreaks we have seen and heard so much about in the media (SARS, bird flu, etc). He interviews experts and often accompanies them into essentially "hot zones" where outbreaks are current or have recently occurred. For six years he traveled from Australia to China, to India, to Bangladesh, to many parts of Africa--all to talk to the people in the field trying to find out where these potential killers live and how they are passed to humans. In only one instance does this book, in my opinion, falter. He tells a possible but totally fictionalized tale about one fisherman to speculate on how the AIDS virus moved from remote African villages to more populous towns. What is most astounding in this section on HIV/AIDS is the current theory that the virus spread to pandemic levels because of well-intentioned, but unsanitary innoculation campaigns in the early to mid-1900's. Really a fascinating book and worth the read.