Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3)

By: Robert Galbraith
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Published Year: 2015
Pages: 489

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 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...

                                                           First Impressions

I really enjoyed the first Cormoran Strike novel but wasn’t super impressed by the second one (Review here). I was a little hesitant to start this one, but the cover and name definitely pulled me back in. I won’t say I was super excited to read this one, but I was definitely curious!

                                                            What I thought

I’m so glad I gave this book a chance! It is quite possibly my favorite of the series and was exactly what I needed.

Career of Evil follows Cormoran Strike and his partner/assistant Robyn on their third big investigation. The investigation starts with Robyn being sent a woman’s leg at the private investigation office. Similar to the other investigations, the police are involved but are slightly incompetent and Strike is needed to help solve it.

I have been in a book rut for a while and this is the first book in a while that I could not put down. I wanted t take time off of work so that I could read this book and find out who the murderer was. After the second novel, I doubted whether or not I had really liked the first one. I realize now that that is not the case, but just that I didn’t prefer the story in the second story. As a warning, this storyline is a bit gruesome and definitely more gory than the previous two (if my memory serves me correctly) but it is extremely captivating.

In this book, we get more of a look into Robyn and her ide as she is an integral part of this case. It was really interesting seeing her life and how she handled everything. It did, however, feel as though it was more of a Robyn Novel than a Cormoran Strike novel. If you are not someone who enjoyed Robyn in the first two books, I can’t see you enjoying this one a lot, but I could be wrong.

One of the things that I love about these mysteries is that they aren’t predictable. You think that you now where they’re going to go, but then there are these unforeseeable twists and you find out you’re totally wrong! Throughout the entire novel I was sure that I know who the murderer was, but I was wrong. I don’t think I would say that it was shocking, but Galbraith (Rowling) does a great job at misleading the reader.
 

This book was so wonderful. I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the writing. I haven’t read a book this captivating in a very long time and I highly recommend it. The only issue I had with this book (as well as with the other two) is they get a little long. I think there could be some stuff cut out that wouldn’t be missed. If you enjoy mysteries, I definitely recommend checking out the Cormoran Strike series. Part of me wants to give this a Beloved/5 star rating, but it’s really difficult for me to do that with mysteries. I like to include re-readability in my 5 star ratings, and I don’t know if this mystery would be as good during a re-read since I already know who the murderer is! Either way, I am really looking forward to the next one!