Book info

• Title Career of Evil
• Author Robert Galbraith
• Year 2015
• Genres Mystery, Crime

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman's severed leg. Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible - and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality. With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them...

Thoughts

I don’t quite know how I haven’t reviewed this book already, because I have certainly listened to it at least once, maybe even twice by now. In anticipation of the next book in the series coming out, I had a quick run through all the previous Strike audiobooks, fantastically read by Robert Glenister, and so here we are, book three being reviewed at last.

It’s certainly a step change from the previous two. This time, we see inside the head of the villain and it’s not pretty viewing. There are some pretty disturbing scenes, if we’re being honest.

But what everyone is here for, I assume, is the burgeoning relationship between Strike and Robin, and to unwind the mystery. Let’s talk about the latter first: it’s interesting that we have three leads to go on and for a change, they are completely separate. Rather than everyone who knew a model, or anyone who worked with a writer, these are three very separate people. That’s interesting and different.

And the Robin/Strike situation. It doesn’t end perhaps how we might have wanted it to but boy does it take some twists and turns along the way. With the nature of the three potential suspects, we learn a lot about Strike’s past. With the revelations in that drunken pub moment, we learn a lot about Robin’s past. And it’s fascinating for the two of them to deal with the repercussions of all this becoming public knowledge.

I was surprised with how overt some of the references to their feelings for each other were, but they aren’t acted upon in any way really… and thus we are nicely set up for book four.

Rating: 5 / 5