Cuckoo's Calling has no magic and its a very Adult book but it does seem to remind me of Philosopher's stone and Chamber of Secrets.. CoS more than PS. To begin with they are both essentially whodunits. Strike is trying to find the murderer, just like Harry & friends are trying to find thee heir of slytherin. And that's not all:
Compairing the suspects
1) the obvious ones
Who did we suspect right from the start when the chamber opened … yes Draco Malfoy.
Evan Duffield can be compared to him easily.. Both shallow, vain and spoiled rotten. And they are major attention seekers, in reality wimps rather than villains.
Freddie Bestigui is another one. It is implied he is a rapist, abuser and a villian in general. Like Draco he is rich, inherited his money from daddy. But like Draco he is eventually acquitted.
2) Tony Landry and Percy …
Percy acted very ooc during the second book. He shut himself in his room all summer. In the school he looks shifty and guilty. He is seen near the slytherin common room (when Harry and Ron are going to interrogate Draco disguised as Crabbe and Goyle) Then he all but shoves Ginny when she is trying to tell Harry something important.
We don't suspect him still .. Coz he is Ron's brother (can't be heir of slytherin can he?)
Tony Landry is different. He is said to be a racist, hated lula before she started making money. He wasn't in Oxford attending conference when he said that's where he was… he wasn't in the hotel either. In short he had means, motive , and opportunity to kill her & many people till the very end thought it was him.
How is like Percy, you ask. Simple he wasn't the murderer he only appeared guilty because he was sleeping with Ursala May, wife of his partner Cyprain May just like Percy who was getting worked up because of Penelope Clearwater, his girlfriend who he was snogging when spotted by Ginny.
Note: Both Percy and Tony fought with their family and Tony was thrown out for telling the truth while Percy left on his own believing lies.
3) John Britrow, Ginny and Tom Riddle.
We never suspected Riddle, who would suspect a 50 year old memory of a Halfblood boy who seemed so much like our beloved Harry. Similarly we still have difficulty understanding why John will hire a detective when he himself was the killer.
The clues are barely there and will be visible only when you re read the book. Like for instance the photos deleted from Lula's laptop, the Guy Somé's hoodie, Rochelle, his reaction to the newspaper report of a black man killed in action in Afghanistan etc. … the are minuscule just like the once framing Ginny. Hagrid tells Ron he saw Ginny arround the same time his cocks started dying & Ginny's look of horror when she sees the diary with Harry. His eyes as green as fresh picked toads played conveniently then and it made us think that was Ginny's reaction to the Valentine. Maybe she sent it idk Jo never clarified who did … maybe it was Draco who did … to embarrass Harry.
It also invokes philosopher's stone:
The book introduces us to Robin and Cormoron Strike and they are well very written unlike what we usually see in this genre.
Then there are suble stuff that other's noticed and are worth mentioning. Check them out in the link bellow
Harry Potter clues in Cuckoo's Calling
