497 pages

English language

Published Oct. 7, 2015 by Mulholland Books.

ISBN:
978-0-316-34993-2
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
922881139

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (52 reviews)

When a woman's severed leg is delivered to Robin Ellacott, her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, looks into his past to determine who is responsible.

18 editions

reviewed Career of Evil by J. K. Rowling (A Cormoran Strike novel)

Review of 'Career of Evil' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I find it very difficult to read stories of assault and sexual violence against women, but I love Strike and Robin so I really wanted to continue the series.

The detailed descriptions of the attacks really put me off, so for the second half, I skipped the chapters from the killer's point of view. I think this contributed to the ending feeling a bit limp, but I wouldn't have finished it otherwise.

Spoiler
I also feel Robin's background which was revealed in the book was a bit lazy, falling into the common trope where in order to develop a woman's character she must be raped. Obviously a huge proportion of women have terrible experiences of this nature, but I feel giving every female character this background is shallow.

I don't know how I feel about the book to be honest - the topic was just so grisly and unpleasant to …

reviewed Career of evil by J. K. Rowling (A Cormoran Strike novel)

Review of 'Career of evil' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

There are a few things I don't like in detective mysteries, and Career of Evil had two of them: serial killers, and detectives-as-victims. The first I don't like because I just find serial killers really creepy, the the second because I feel making it about the detective is both unrealistic and pushes detecting out of the way to make room for personal peril.

If I weren't already a fan of the series, I would have stopped by the end of the first chapter.

The resulting book isn't as bad as I feared. Rowling only has a little of the serial-killer-violence-porn that makes so many of these stories hard to read and the peril stays in the suspenseful area without tipping over into creepy absurdity.

Still, I found this disappointing as a detective novel. While The Cuckoo's Calling took an enoyably plodding procedural approach, and The Silkworm was a brilliant puzzle-box …

reviewed Career of evil by J. K. Rowling (A Cormoran Strike novel)

Review of 'Career of evil' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Career of Evil is easily the best of the 3 books in the Cormoran Strike series, and that's quite an achievement given how good the series is over all. Rowling has found her stride with this book, and crafted a clever, intricate and engrossing mystery. As ever she excels at characterisation and the backstories and day to day lives of her two protagonists are just as engaging and interesting as the main plot. She also managed to create 3 different villains that loom menacingly throughout the book, and genuinely kept my guessing until the end which one was the actual killer. Yet again she has crafted a superb page turner which draws you in to it's richly painted world and compelling story.

I cannot wait for the next book in this series and strongly recommend this series to anyone who likes high quality popular fiction.

reviewed Career of Evil by J. K. Rowling (A Cormoran Strike novel)

Review of 'Career of Evil' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I adore this series! It's so good. Cormoran is smart and flawed. Love smart, flawed characters. Robin is also smart and flawed. And I desperately want her to leave Matthew and have lots of little PI babies with Cormoran, because I am secretly a marshmallow inside. Shut up.

JK continues to showcase her ability to write strong, complicated characters and she weaves a good mystery as well. I am anxiously awaiting the next installment, so get to writing, Jo. 4 stars.

Review of 'Career of Evil' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Career of Evil is the third Cormoran Strike novel. I wouldn’t call it a series but I do think there’s some tangible benefit to reading them in order – if only to see the main characters development in sequence.

Don’t let this put you off grabbing it in the airport lounge, if you are looking for a good solid read on a long haul flight; it’s a thoroughly engrossing read.

I don’t regularly read crime (I do enjoy the genre in TV & Film) but that’s more a result of the type of reviewer I have become. I’ll read anything that’s well written.

And Career of Evil, is exceedingly well written and paced as one might expect from Rowling. The delivery of the story is smooth but what I really enjoyed in Career of Evil, beyond the problem solving goodness of a well written crime thriller, was the choices in …

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Subjects

  • Private investigators
  • Fiction
  • Criminal investigation

Places

  • England
  • London