Career of Evil

From the first pages of "The Cuckoo's Calling", I fell under the thrall of the Cormoran Strike novels, snared by the depth and complexity of the characterization.

First there is Cormoran Strike, who, in other hands, might have been yet another twist on the broken ex-(military)policeman with a complex past and a tempestuous love life, but who Galbraith brings to the page as huge presence, a hulking, belligerent Cornishman, with a full-strength bullshit detector, a keen intelligence and a hunger to know.

Then there is Robin, the temp who grabs hold of her opportunity to work with Strike with both hands because it is a life-line that gives her a chance to haul herself out of the life she had been about to submerse herself in and become show more something different.

Finally, there is London itself, both the place, which is evoked with accuracy rather than reverence, and the social worlds it supports.

In "The Cuckoo's Calling" the social world revealed is the tiny ecosystem beyond the velvet ropes of VIP areas where the demi-monde of fashion models and rock stars interacts with upper-middle-class wealth and entitlement.

In "The Silk Worm" the acrimonious, narcissistic, money-driven world of publishing was dissected against a backdrop of gruesome murders and poisonous relationships.

By the end of the second book, Strike and Robin are a team, although neither of them is able to define exactly what that means, and the shifting boundaries of their expectations of themselves and each other, their misunderstandings, conflicts and shared triumphs had become almost a character in its own right.

"Career Of Evil" takes this much further. The relationship between Strike and Robin is now at the centre of the book, not in the typical romance novel "Will they? Won't they?" way but because the plot is driven by monsters from both of their pasts.

The violence in this book is graphic and the crimes are a heinous and yet my attention was more on finding out more about both of these people than it was on guessing who the killer really was. We get an insight into Strike's past through the men he arrested in his time in the Military Police's Special Investigation Bureau and through his relationship with his mother and her charismatic but fundamentally monstrous lover. We learn surprising and difficult things about Robin's history that set her relationship both with Strike and with her fiance in a new context.

The plot is pleasingly complex, laying multiple false trails to pique my interest without ever breaking faith and cheating by omission or simply leading me down dead-ends. All of the trails lead somewhere worth going even when they don't lead to the killer.

By the end of the book, characters that I already thought well-drawn, had suddenly moved into HD focus: vivid and memorable and the ending left me hungry for more.

If you have the option, I strongly recommend listening to the audiobook versions of these novels. Robert Glenister does a superb job. He IS the voice of Cormoran Strike but he also does an astonishingly good job of doing believable versions of the very wide variety of accents that Galbraith's characters have. show less

Private Investigator Cormoran Strike has built a reputation solving cases that baffle London law enforcement. In Career of Evil it gets personal, when Strike's assistant Robin Ellacott accepts delivery of a parcel that turns out to contain a human leg. Clearly, there has been foul play. And equally clearly, the person responsible is out to harass them ... or worse. While the police work to identify the victim, Strike focuses his investigation on three people from his past that may have reason to target him and Robin.

Meanwhile, Robin is weeks away from her wedding with Matthew, whom we met in the second book. Matthew is far from the ideal fiancé, and their relationship is strained. Matthew provides little support for Robin's career, show more and the severed leg certainly doesn't help matters. He is suspicious of her partnership with Strike, and not without reason, as there's a little frisson of romantic tension between Robin and Strike which both try to suppress. Strike makes a valiant effort at romance with a classical music radio presenter, despite the demands of his work.

And then there's the killer who is given chapters of his own to showcase his general creepiness and very scary obsession with violence against women. This man has killed before, and will kill again before this book is over. And as if that weren't enough, he has Robin in his sights and secretly follows her as she goes about her duties. The suspense builds gradually, in a way that had me stealing moments to read "just a few more pages" throughout the day. Strike and Robin aggressively pursue their three suspects until Strike has an "aha moment" where all of the pieces fall into place for him, but of course not for the mere mortal reader. From that moment on you'd better just stop whatever else you should be doing and finish the book.

Now, when will the next one be published? show less

It's a dark and gritty murder mystery, definitely not a cozy. Excellent plotting builds up the suspense right to the end. There's a plethora of creepy characters, especially the 3 principal suspects. A sinister underbelly of modern Britain is on full display in this book. The murderer's point of view is woven into the mix through inclusion of several chapters reflecting it which are scattered throughout the book.

The triangle of Robin, Matthew and Strike is an important part of the puzzle too. Over the course of the series, Robin has evolved from an office temp into a detective (and putative partner to Strike). She suffers from a clingy chauvinistic boyfriend (soon to be husband?), who wants her to pursue a more conventional career show more path. The tension and conflict arising from this triangle is alive and well throughout the book -- and will likely continue into the next one. show less

Spot-on perfect book.

On every page, it's evident that Rowling lives to craft a damn good story. After building a fantasy world with Harry Potter & his friends & foes, she's building another character just as colorful, but far more real.

Cormoran Strike is a private detective; he's the bastard son of a rock star; he's an Afghanistan war vet who lost his leg; and he's cranky as hell. Still, he's fighting the good fight, & Rowling makes it so that you must love that about him.

He works with Robin Ellacott. She started as his temp, became his assistant, & is referred to by Strike as his partner more than once in this installment. She brings his humanity to the fore more than anyone else in his world.

In Career of Evil, we get so much backstory show more about both Strike & Robin. But Rowling perfectly balances that with the story at hand: that of a killer who is trying to get at Strike through stalking & terrifying Robin. The book is almost 500 pages. There are at least 3 leads to track down, along with Strike & Robin's regular cases, & the stories of Robin's impending wedding & Strike's romance with Elin. Yet Rowling doesn't drop a single ball, and not a moment is wasted. Every page is packed with information, hints, & action.

At the end, Rowling is clearly exploring the idea of moving Strike & Robin's relationship into even more intimate terrain. As someone who usually abhors trite romance, I am fully behind seeing where things could go between these two show less

All three of the Cormoran Strike novels feature some element of the psychological thriller, but Career of Evil feels the darkest. While the first two books take advantage of the London paparazzi and celebrity scene, J.K. Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith) has crafted something akin to the brooding and disturbing nature of Scandanavian crime novels such as in the work of Jo Nesbø. Her frequent interludes in which she explores the psyche of the serial killer work particularly well at heightening the tension for main characters Strike and Robin Ellacott. Their friendship and professional relationship continues to grow in this volume, but still encounters bumps along the way due to their contrasting personalities and Robin's private show more life intruding on her work. Those who enjoyed the previous novels mixture of hard-boiled detective fiction firmly set in modern London will enjoy this darker chapter in the series. show less

Recensione completa qui: http://thereadingpal.blogspot.it/2017/05/recensione-100-la-via-del-male.html


Quella mattina i colori sembravano più accesi, il mondo un
posto bellissimo. Lui si sentiva sereno e su di giri, come se
l'avesse assimilata, come se la vita di lei si fosse trasfusa nel suo
corpo. Ti appartenevano, una volta che le avevi ammazzate:
era un modo di possedere al di là del sesso.


Cormoran Strike torna in questo terzo libro dopo aver risolto due casi piuttosto difficili ed aver messo in ridicolo la polizia. Robin sta per sposare Matthew, le cose sembrano andare bene... Finché, davanti all'ufficio, Robin riceve un pacco contenente la gamba mozzata di una donna. Qualcuno vuole vendicarsi di Strike colpendo la sua agenzia e show more Robin, e l'investigatore chiede l'aiuto della polizia per trovarlo.
Dico subito una cosa: se siete delicati di stomaco o cuore, non leggete questo libro. Con l'avanzare della sua storia, Strike si trova arisolvere omicidi sempre più macabri e sanguinosi, di cui avevamo avuto un assaggio con Owen Quine. In questo libro, il POV di Cormoran e Robin si alterna con quello del serial killer, di cui noi non conosciamo l'identità. All'inizio di ogni capitolo ci sono dei versi proveniente dalle canzoni dei Blue Öyster Cult, band che adoro e le cui canzoni sono parte integrante di questa storia scritta egregiamente e che ho fatto fatica a terminare non perché brutta ma perché non volevo che finisse.
Cormoran ha tre sospetti, tutti legati al suo passato e propensi alla vendetta. Terence 'Digger' Malley, Donald Laig, Noel Brockbank, e Jeff Whittaker sono i quattro nomi a cui Strike ha pensato subito, e così comincia una nuova indagine, mentre l'agenzia va a picco a causa della cattiva pubblicità causata da tutto questo.
La storia è articolata e complessa, bisogna stare attenti ai particolari per godersela a pieno. Come ho detto è piuttosto pesante da "digerire" ma, personalmente, più che tenermi alzata per gli incubi, le mie ore piccole sono state causate dalla voglia di andare avanti e scoprire di più.
In questo libro scopriamo di più sia su Cormoran che su Robin, in particolare della seconda.
Cormoran 'Blue' Strike è come lo abbiamo lasciato: soldato dal passato turbolento, con uno spiccato dark humor (e io ho riso alle sue battute...) e una vita che continua ad essere incasinata. Nei libri precedenti abbiamo visto Shanker, ma qui il loro rapporto viene esplorato molto di più, in un modo che mi è piaciuto particolarmente, e vediamo che è più profondo di quello che sembra.
Shanker è presto diventato uno dei miei personaggi preferiti e spero che compaia molto di più nei prossimi libri, sia per il suo legame con Strike, per cui risultano praticamente fratelli, sia perché è interessante in sé e molto diverso da Cormoran.
Robin, invece, non mi è piaciuta. Se nei libri precedenti sembrava piuttosto interessante e forte, qui il suo comportamento me l'ha resa antipatica. Soprattutto perché non si decide a mollare Matthew, uno dei personaggi più odiosi che ho incontrato fino ad ora.
Nelle ricerche dei due investigatori scopriamo di più sui sospettati, soprattutto su tre di loro: tutti e tre hanno dei particolari che li rendono odiosi, e ognuno di loro ha, all'apparenza, dei motivi per cui non avrebbe potuto commettere l'omicidio.
E' una delle cose che mi piacciono di più di questa serie: la componente psicologica sia dei personaggi principali sia dei loro nemici o avversari è esplorata ed è importante per la storia. Questo aspetto è diventato più importante ne Il baco da seta e in questo libro rispetto a Il richiamo del Cuculo e non me ne lamento affatto.
Questa serie migliora di volume in volume e spero di poter leggere presto il quarto! show less

As expected from Galbraith, an exciting suspenseful page-turner with excellent characters, especially Robin and Cormoran. This is dark - or maybe gruesome would be a better word, the darkest of the three novels by Galbraith. Blue Oyster Cult song titles were an interesting choice for chapter headings. Galbraith is clever at combining shocking personality attributes with a touch of humour that lightens the heavy topic. The interaction between Cormoran and Robin has developed well and for me, it is the main attraction. It seems Galbraith plans six books in the series, with the fourth expected in the fall of 2017. Looking forward to it because this one ended with a bit of a cliffhanger.