She found it almost accidentally, following a narrow alleyway called Denmark Place out into a short street full of colourful shopfronts: windows full of guitars, keyboards and every kind of musical ephemera.
The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith
Strike’s agency office above the 12 Bar Café is the hub of operations for the agency as it grows. The Lula Landry investigation begins on Robin Ellacott’s first day as a temp with a visit from the supermodel’s adoptive brother, John Bristow. It’s where Strike’s friends, enemies and clients seek him out, the scene of violent attack and long nights of hard work. A bit shabby, but functional, with a tiny dank toilet off the landing it has an outer and inner office. The outer office is where Robin works among the files and clients wait on the uncomfortable fake leather sofa. The inner office is Strike’s domain, and for a while after his split with his fiancée Charlotte, his home.
Denmark Street was built on the grounds of a former leper house named in honour of Prince George of Denmark, husband of the future Queen Anne in the late 1680s. It was in the centre of the rookeries of St Giles, a notorious eighteenth century slum, and moved from residential to commercial us in the Victorian era. In the 20th century the number of publishers of sheet music there meant the street was christened London’s Tin Pan Alley. The street became the home of two of the UK’s most important music magazine – Melody Maker, which was founded in the 1920s and focused on jazz initially, and New Musical Express, which published the first singles chart in 1952. The shopfronts are filled with guitars and amps and the basements with recording studios. The 12 Bar, over which Strike has his offices, was a famous and popular music venue from 1994 till its closure in 2015.
Read the first chapter and find out where to buy the Cuckoo’s Calling.
