Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike Book 3)

Another good addition to the series. There's a lot to like about Career of Evil but, unfortunately, a few major shortcomings. Without spoiling anything, this time out our hero is trying to nab a serial killer with a taste for dismemberment. It might be one of three suspects Strike has a history with, or perhaps another unknown killer. The plot has been detailed by others at length, so I'll just offer some thoughts about the pluses and minuses:

The Good:
- Robin, one of the most interesting and likable characters JKR has ever created, co-stars in the novel and her identity is superbly defined
- Strike's backstory is addressed in more detail, and it's very compelling
- The settings are vividly depicted, with excellent descriptions of sites all over seedy and posh London and Northern England
- Heavy topics like rape, child abuse, and mental illness are thoughtfully considered and woven into the narrative without being overly preachy
- The relationship between Robin and Strike continues to develop in a complex, unpredictable way
- The dialog is consistently excellent and realistic
- Much less emphasis on Strike's disability, which plagued the last novel
- The reveal, unlike the first two novels, is not an endless explanatory monologue -- it's thankfully short and sweet
**These positives far outweigh the following negatives, definitely making Career of Evil a worthwhile read. Nevertheless...

The Bad:
- Many of the characters are one-dimensional. While Strike and Robin are increasingly depicted as complicated, multifaceted protagonists, most others are portrayed without any significant depth. The bad guys are REALLY bad; the victims are hopelessly innocent, others just occupy space. Some, like Matthew and Whittaker, are cartoonishly described and Detective Carver is, to put it bluntly, Vernon Dursely
- Someone needs to pluck up the courage and let the author know she needs an editor. The book is downright plodding at times.
- The basic premise of the plot is forced and improbable (BIID? Really?)
- Each chapter leads with lyrics from a Blue Oyster Cult song. These lines figure into the story (sort of), but this silly gimmick gets old fast
- The violence (and there is quite a lot) is gratuitously over the top, as if JKR is determined to identify herself as an adult writer
- The comic element featured in the first two novels is largely absent in the third

The Ugly:
- The book features intermittent passages shown from the killer's perspective which are eye-rollingly bad. I hate to say that but it's true. Think of every serial killer you've ever seen in a movie or read about in a book, and that's the stereotype you get -- right down to the killer's referring to a woman as "It" a la Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. These sections are so subpar, so cliched, and so unimaginative that it's hard to believe that JKR wrote them. I suppose they are included to give the narrative an additional angle but, rather than compliment the story's trajectory, they dumb it down.

Despite its drawbacks, Career of Evil is a very good read. Slow at times, but enjoyable. As said above, the positives outweigh the negatives. In particular, the maturing of Robin's and Strike's characters is a leap forward. I wouldn't be surprised if this book is regarded as the most popular one in the series so far, although the hyper-violent and cliched serial killer may be off-putting to some.

I do not like slasher-psycho-thrillers, and that is absolutely what this book is. Robin is constantly in danger of falling prey to a machete-wielding psychopath. Enough severed body parts figure in the story to keep the reader constantly on edge. Had I known that this book would be such a departure from the first two books in this series, I never would have purchased it.

The plot is convoluted in the extreme, the several unseen suspects are hard to keep straight, and Robin’s continuing subservience to the odious Matthew (her fiancé) is tiresome and out of sync with what we otherwise know of her character. I put the book down in either boredom or disgust several times. It took me weeks to finish it, which I eventually did more out of curiosity about where the author was going with it, than out of any feeling of being compelled by interest in the plot or the characters.

On the positive side, the plot reveals some important information about Robin’s history that helps to explain her otherwise inexplicable devotion to Matthew. These developments open up the possibility that Robin will resolve her frustrating relationship with Matthew, but, sadly, the story does not deliver on that promise.

The clue that finally provides the key to the slasher’s identity is so obscure that only a specialist in the flora of Cornwall could reasonably be expected to have noticed it. The mystery is solved by an out-of-the-blue brainstorm, rather than developing from any careful detective work. This is dangerously close to the dreaded "Deus ex machina" and is distinctly unsatisfying to this reader, who likes his mysteries to be solved by means of investigative skills.

As the plot moves toward its climax, the relationship between Robin and Strike is severely strained by impulsive actions on both their parts. Their mutual over-reactions feel like something out of a teenage heart-throb melodrama, complete with slamming doors and gusts of tears. The conclusion of the book hints at their reconciliation, but in a scene that is such a cliché that I risked damage to my Kindle when I threw it down in disgust.

I enjoyed the first two books in this series, and was deeply disappointed in the direction the author chose to go with this third installment. I doubt very much that I will read another one.

Back in the day, the Earth anticipated every Harry Potter book. They were events. They single-handedly supported large chains of book stores, which failed after the series was completed. Those children's book, at first written by a single mother on relief, riveted the planet. How could it be so? Astonishing talent joined with phenomenal industry in the Earth's favorite author who created the Earth's favorite series. Today, the Rowling Facebook page and the internet remain consumed with Harry Potter, but Rowling has moved on. For her adult crime novels Rowling sensibly is using a different authorial name. The Cormoran Strike series is a phenomenal crime series from the second authorial persona of my favorite author. Toto, we ain't in Hogwarts any more.

The greatness of this book can be examined in several different ways. As an entertainment, it is riveting from the first page. As an exploration of the realities in relationships between men and women, it is spot on. As a deep dive into the darkest depths of reality, it achieves a black magnificence.

The adventures of Cormoran Strike and Robin are as entertaining as any storyline in contemporary fiction. They are fully developed and highly sympathetic characters. Their occupations as an investigation partnership plausibly place them in deep peril, and watching them work their way through their adventures is very entertaining.

The insights of Rowling into relationships elevate this work. Robin isn't really that into her fiance, it seems, and he comes across as a very limited guy compared to Cormoran Strike. Yet, the momentum of her relationship with the annoying Matthew carries them along towards the altar and the gulf between her life and Cormoran's, which seems to vanish as they work together, is brilliantly exposed as massive in the end. A man and woman working together closely and bonding as they do in danger and hardship, leads to complicated feelings. Yet they could not come together easily, and perhaps never could be together at all. The series continues. Stay tuned.

I see comments critical of a story line in which Robin remains in her relationship with Matthew, along the lines of why would she? Only because that's what people really do. Rowling has been around the block a few times, and she writes truth when it comes to the relationships of her main characters. It's unclear that Robin and Matthew have a prayer of working out long-term, in part brilliantly demonstrated in a humorous scene near the end of the novel. Yet it's difficult to see how Robin would avoid being carried along deeper and deeper into that mistake. It's also unclear that Matthew is a mistake, all-in-all. As for Cormoran Strike and Robin, because every aspect of their background and even private behavior is ill-suited to one another, how they work out going forward is unknowable, including perhaps to them at the end of this novel. It seems clear though, that they have a long way to go together still.

The world is filled with darkness as much as with light. These are not children's books, nor romantic suspense books with pillow-soft sensibilities. Rowling is an astonishingly talented author, and she has the ability to bring the darkness in a way that can be all-enveloping and even overwhelming. Personally, at times while reading this book I felt sick to my stomach. At other times, I worried about this author with two authorial personas that I love - J.K. Rowling and Galbraith. She can write so very dark that it made me worry about her, but of course it's just that she is very, very good at what she does. Rowling's unflinching examinations of murder, pedophilia and abuse ring of truth. These are not the most pleasant topics, but the advantage of Rowling's chosen genre of hard-boiled detective fiction is the perspective it gives on the cesspools. In sympathy with the protagonists, we can stand to look into the blackness because we are safely removed from it, in sympathy with decent people who are battling against it. Our lead characters remain unsullied and admirable, if unconventional.

In my humble opinion, with just three books in the hard boiled detective genre Rowling has risen to become the top author all-time. Rowling surpasses them all with her insights about the human condition, including the depths of depravity.

I agree with the 1- and 2-star reviews for this book which commented that this book is far too long, not particularly interesting, and has far too much disturbing content and violence. It is also trite in terms of the boss and secretary dynamic and tiresome in the constant harping on the personalities of Strike and Robyn, the two detective protagonists. Strike is unpleasant and boring, I got quite tired of being constantly told that he lay on his bed in his underwear and scratched his hairy stomach; Robyn is supposed to be intelligent and spunky but comes across as whiny and immature ("but I want to be a detective"). In case we negatively judge her, we are told of a tragic backstory that is supposed to add depth and explain her character but yet seems to have left no mark on Robyn's vapid personality. It really does not ring true nor is there anything in her behaviour or her boyfriend's behaviour in any of the previous books (or this one for that matter) that foreshadowed what should have been a life altering event that would have left a huge and indelible mark on her life. This backstory seems to have been a spur of the moment invention on the author's part to elicit sympathy regardless of whether it makes sense in terms of Robyn's behaviour or of that of her family and fiance toward her.
As for the plot--I usually manage to finish most books but simply could not keep reading this one. It was too tedious. The lead characters were so predictable, the suspects so cardboard, the crime details so gross, that I really had no interest in keeping on reading about any of it. I really didn't care who the murderer was. The victim didn't seem to feature at all, but was an after thought. Strike and Robyn were dull and duller, and the book was overly long and repetitive with no thread running through it to keep one's interest. Perhaps the only thread was whether Robyn would actually marry her fiance, whom we are supposed to hate for some reason even though he is less manipulative and exploitative of others than Strike who we are supposed to admire for being such a maverick and for having turned down his famous father's money. Yawn.... Wont read any more of these.

I liked the first book in this series (“The Cuckoo’s Calling”) as Cormoran was knowledgeable and intuitive (but flawed) and Robin was clever and enthusiastic (but inexperienced), so they complemented each other. The second book in the series (“The Silkworm”) was also good, but there was less of Robin -- and I missed her presence. In this third book (“Career of Evil”), the book is as much about Robin as it is about Cormoran – which is pretty amazing given that all the main suspects were enemies from Cormoran’s past.

So I should have liked this book best. But despite her occasional flashes of cleverness, resourcefulness and determination, Robin mostly came across as fretful about her job and wishy-washy about her personal relationships. And Cormoran, in trying to investigate multiple suspects all at the same time, kept getting described as tired or exhausted.

The whole plot of this book seems more personal than the other two books as the antagonist’s targets are Cormoran and Robin. So to the extent the reader likes the Cormoran and Robin characters, the reader’s concern is greater and so the tension is higher, too. But I wanted to enjoy these two characters and their sleuthing (rather than mostly fear for their safety). So this wasn’t the right book for me.

But who am I kidding. We all know who the author is. So if you read the first two books, you’ll probably read this one too. And now there’s a fourth book in the series (“Lethal White”) – and I’ll probably read that one too (though not right away).

In a nutshell, The duo gets sent a severed leg, assemble a list of suspects and work down the list until they find the person responsible. And just to give an idea of how slow the freaking pace is in this book, I got nearly 25% into the book before Strike even starts investigating the first suspect. And up until that point, It's really just filler involving Strike's history with his step-dad and Robin still dealing with the wedding. It's boring, Nothing really happens and it just fails to keep you even remotely interested.

And I will say that I found Robin's college backstory in really bad taste. Such a pointless addition and IDK if it was an attempt to make us more sympathetic with her or whatever but it was just distasteful.

I found 'The Cuckoo's Calling' excellent and 'The Silkworm' very good. The last Cormoran Strike installment,' Career of Evil', is disappointing. The book dishes out a lot of disgusting details but doesn't not bring the Reader inside the sick mind of a serial killer. There are a lot of ghoulish and unnecessary descriptions of knife wounds, amputated limbs and blood gushing, but no substance, no actual explanations. The characters feel tired, they don't jump out of the page anymore, I didn't find Strike likely in COE, and I think, probably not alone, that the Author puts too much emphasis on his disability. How many times do we have to read about how Strike's leg feels? Too many IMHO, so many that you'd think that Rowling has an amputee fetish...
The plot is tired, convoluted and disorganized. The sections devoted to the serial killer read like the script for a Lifetime movie, and the rest is not much better. The book approaches subjects like rape and child abuse for thrills and cash with no actual compassion for the victims of such crimes. The characters are just cardboard cutouts with no soul nor nuances. The poor Robin, still the saving grace of the series is getting shrill and impatient. The ending is ridiculous and contrived: it seems the Author didn't know how to end this pastiche and decided that bloody and overdone was the way to go. I never thought I would say that as I was eagerly awaiting for this book, but I'm Striked out.

I always approach books that use rape as a plot point with distrust, since almost no writer can seem to use it without seeming to appeal to a certain prurience on the part of the reader. I felt no different in this book. Robin's rape experience was incidental and not needed: any woman would be extremely apprehensive to be marked out by a mysterious stalker. I will probably catch heck for this from the True Believers, but it's almost as if J.K.Rowling were punishing her readers for enjoying the Harry Potter books so much by lingering on violence and unsavoriness. If this is heresy I cannot help it. The serial killer plot was familiar, the having to choose back and forth between the three suspects also, and the overall familiarity not relieved by the characters. Too often Robin's decisions appear to be not motivated by any natural and probable result of the character we have been introduced to, but by unconvincing interior dialogues totally in service to the plot. Rowling's/Galbraith's talent for creating a credible world seems to be out of kilter here.

Very gory and violent

A good story with a bad ending that leaves the reader hanging and yearning for further development. I was reminded of certain TV series (Netflix), (Showtime), etc. where nothing is resolved at the end of the season because the series is going on for another season. Such a realization prevents my future interest in the Cameron Strike series, as it has now become predictable. Had Robin and Strike acted on the enhanced aspects of their relationship, had the development of Robin's character not ended with a thump when, unbenounced to Robin, Matthew blocks Strikes calls from Robin's phone while she is in the ladies' room, phone left behind; and Robin is never to know what was said on Strike's phone messages erased by Mathew. In fact it was so infuriating that such a strong character as Robin could end up being literally "duped," that rather than being goaded on to read further books, I was too disgusted by this conclusion to retain an interest in subject matters that will never be resolved. Almost as distressing was Strike's final actions as detective, solving this case in such a ridiculous, unprofessional manner, a scenario requiring more explanation and less guesswork. A far cry from Lulu Landrey; bad handling of an ending to a long story by a writer I would expect more from. I found the book suspenseful, it held my interest, but I was critical of the endless narrative of certain character and geographical descriptions. Realizing that certain issues will be addressed but not resolved in the next book has turned me off; I would read a sequel only if I had nothing else to read. Dangling a reader on a string can stimulate interest but in my case it worked in reverse.