Career of Evil

I've always been a real supporter of J.K. Rowling's foray into the world of crime writing through the Robert Galbraith series of books. After all, publishing of The Casual Vacancy wasn't a huge success under her own name purely because people couldn't separate the author from her most famous character, Harry Potter.

Book 3 in the series, Career of Evil was one that got out of the starting gate very quickly. Within a few pages we've had our first introduction to the murderer and his plans and have had him deliver an amputated leg to Robin, the partner and Secretary of our hero Cormoran Strike.

From there we are led into a story where someone is trying to destroy Cormoran Strike by targeting his reputation and plotting to abduct and hurt his partner Robin. Strike and Robin are unaware of his precise plans but simply know he is attacking young women, stealing body parts from his victims and is following Robin. There are several suspects from Strike's past, some from cases he investigated from his Special Branch of the army career and one who is connected to his mother's suspicious death.

It was at this point I felt the story could have used a little clarity. Strike and Robin spend much of the book tracking down these 3 individuals, recounting their back stories with Strike and following up on where they were when certain crimes took place. Unfortunately their back stories were at times quite similar and sometimes I had to stop and remind myself of which one linked to which tale we'd had recounted. Just as we seemed to be gaining clarity on one we would be off on another's trail and you had to be alert to keep track of each story and possible Villain we were tailing now.

In this book we spend a lot more time with Robin, learning more about her life before she met Strike, her desires to become a detective and her relationship with her fiance Matthew. Rowling takes time to really round out the character giving us a real modern day Watson to Strikes at sometimes bumbling Holmes.

It is a book that goes through some high points, I found the interviews conducted to establish back stories and information about their suspects to be the high points of the book. The dialogue in these chapters is inspired, it was at these points I truly wanted to keep reading and perhaps contributes to my dissapointment when we'd leave that behind and go chasing down another lead, leaving the suspense and real character based detective work behind. There are also some great characters in this story who added much to the story and who I'd love to see in future books, Shanker is a stand out for me. This shady thug from Strike's early life comes bursting to life in this book and leaves you rooting for him, he is clearly a thug with a heart of gold and was a high point for me.

Low points were that the book kept building towards a storyline that didn't actually materialise. Instead we got a few pages of it potentially happening then nothing. All that tension as a reader was left a little unfulfilled. Also our dynamic duo ended this case pretty fractured and with their own agendas. They didn't catch their guy together but instead kind of caught him separately and didn't share that success, which was a shame.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than book 2, The Silkworm. This was based on the chapters that were dedicated to Strike and Robin really outlining and defining who their potential suspects were and the lives they had already affected. For me this was a real return to the brilliance of The Cuckoos Calling.

Strike remains one of my favourite series characters and I always look forward to reading the next installment and this time is no different. I'll be excited to see his next adventure and how his relationship with Robin continues to grow, very much in the way I wait patiently to see what modern day Holmes and Watson will do next.

Hrm, this was good, another really quick read (blasted through all 500 pages while on my vacation in Norway). But, having just finished “The Silkworm”, I would rate this slightly lower, maybe 3.5 stars. Whereas the last book focused mostly on the case, this one focused mostly on Robin and Strike, their back stories and their relationship. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not. While I liked learning more about them, I thought it came at the expense of the interestingness of the case. Plus, the writing felt really forced. The characters kept alluding to their supposed feelings for each other as asides, which didn't fit in with the rest of the storyline, it felt abrupt like it was shoved in there after the fact.

Also, I felt the “case” (if you can call it that) was less interesting in this novel. We didn't get to meet any of the suspects in person until halfway through the book or more, which really weakened the impact. Also, because of the nature of the case and the plot, all three of the suspects were similar in build and personality, which made it hard to keep them apart in my mind.

The novel ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger, excited to see where the next one heads! It's been a while since I've read two books of a series back to back, it felt good!