Career of Evil

October 26, 2015
More thriller than whodunit, J.K. Rowling's captivating third novel written under her Galbraith pseudonym (after 2014's The Silkworm) further deepens her lead characters, Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Strike, who lost a leg during his military service in Afghanistan, was struggling in his career as a London-based PI until, serendipitously, Robin was assigned to him as a temp. The emotional intelligence she brought with her helped him solve some high-profile cases and turn him into a celebrity. But now their partnership faces two serious threats: Robin's fiancé suspects she wants a romantic relationship with her boss, and a serial killer has targeted her as his next victim. The murderer, who has a deep hatred for Strike, begins a campaign of terror by delivering a parcel to Robin at the office, which she assumes contains supplies for her upcoming wedding. Instead, to her horror, she finds a severed human leg inside. Maintaining a high level of suspense throughout, Rowling transforms Robin into a professional equal of Strike's and sets the stage for further complexities in their relationship in the next book. Agent: Neil Blair, the Blair Partnership (U.K.).

Robert Glenister is the man in this fine performance of Robert Galbraith's (aka J.K. Rowling) most recent detective thriller. Having narrated the first two books in the series, Glenister knows the main characters--Cormoran Strike, Afghan War vet turned PI, and his smart, increasingly talented assistant, Robin Ellacott--to a fare-the-well. In this thoroughly involving story, both Strike and Ellacott are targeted by a killer, who starts the action with a severed leg delivered to Ellacott. The real-life pacing and vocal differences between the rough-hewn, older Strike and the younger Ellacott bring their scenes particularly to life. And Glenister's use of a flattened, even tone for the sections that take place inside the mind of the killer adds chillingly to the tension. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

November 1, 2015
J.K. Rowling continues her investigation of the dark side--this time giving us three gruesomely twisted suspects--in her latest pseudonymous mystery. Robin Ellacott first showed up at hard-living private eye Cameron Strike's office as a temp, but by the end of their second big case (The Silkworm, 2014), she'd become indispensable as a fellow investigator. As this third book opens, she's arriving at work off Charing Cross Road and accepts a package from a deliveryman, thinking it's a shipment of favors for her upcoming wedding to Matthew, the jealous fiance who disapproves of her job. When she opens it, though, she's horrified to find a woman's leg. Someone seems to be using Robin to get to her boss, who's missing a leg himself, having lost it in an explosion in Afghanistan. Strike can think of four men, right off the top of his head, who would be capable of such a horrific thing: the stepfather he thinks killed his mother with a heroin overdose; a famous mobster; and two sick bastards he tangled with when he was an Army investigator. The police immediately go after the mobster, who, on second thought, Strike finds an unlikely culprit--so he and Robin set to work tracking down the other three. Rowling is, as always, an unflinching chronicler of evil, interspersing chapters told from the perspective of the carefully unnamed perpetrator--a serial killer with a penchant for keeping "souvenirs" from his victims' bodies and an unhealthy obsession with Strike--as he follows Robin around London, waiting for her to get distracted just long enough for him to kill her, too. Robin and Strike's relationship continues to be the best part of the series, though perhaps it's too easy to dislike Matthew; readers will be cheering when Robin breaks off their engagement, but of course it won't be that easy to get rid of him. The story has its longueurs, and if Galbraith weren't actually Rowling, an editor might have told him to trim a bit, especially once Strike and Robin close in on their three suspects and start conducting repetitive stakeouts (and especially since the two who aren't Strike's former stepfather are hard to keep straight). The book ends on a cliffhanger worthy of Harry Potter, and Rowling's readers will eagerly await the next installment.

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