This is a modern noir detective story about a young model who falls from her balcony window. Her adoptive brother hires private detective Cormoran Strike to investigate the circumstances around her death, which he believes to have been more than the suicide the police resolved it as. Cormoran is a former military investigator who lost part of a leg in Afghanistan, and is generally down on his luck. He takes the case which leads him to interview people from the very top and bottom of society as he starts to piece the real events of the night together.

It's not hard to believe this was written by the same author as Harry Potter as the writing is clear and entertaining, and there's a strong recurring theme of death and mortality. It also deals with clashes of social classes and cultures, including old money, newly minted celebrities, the homeless and plenty in between.

While I found it engaging enough to read through to the end, I'm not sure I'm sold on reading more. Cormoran's character feels like it's most been built out of gimmicks, and while he's a nice change from the hard boiled, abusive, alcoholic cliché, I didn't feel like there was much more to him than his service, disability and parentage. In many ways his underpaid and overskilled secretary was a more interesting character, which doesn't really bode well.

I'll probably watch the inevitable tv serialization or movies though.