Career of Evil

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 read that I can't exactly say I enjoyed it, but I did finish it, and I look forward to reading the next one which will hopefully be more readable.

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 mystery, Career of Evil is a muddle. As it progressed, I began to lose track of which suspect was which, and the solution of the case was humdrum.

The book worked better as a further exploration of the Cormoron/Robin dynamic. The characters are still interesting and the stress put on the relationship by the peril and by Robin's marriage preparations takes us deeper into their dynamics. But I don't read a detective novel just for the characters, and that's all I got this time.

This book also worries me because it suggests that, as with the Potter books, JK Rowling can't let anything be just fun. This book is much darker than the last, with rape and pedophilia and psycho-sexual serial killing, and I'm afraid that Rowling is just going to make this series darker and darker.

Unfortunately, it appears Rowling is getting a lot of positive feedback on this darker, murkier approach, so I guess there's no reason for her not to keep going in this direction.

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 character development.

I imagine in a field as well dug over as Crime Fiction, that it’s hard to not rehash plots and types of killers, so the only real area for freshness is in the characters and the drama/ tension that exists between them.

I particularly enjoyed Robin’s (Cormorant’s Assistant/Partner) story arc, indeed I feel as though Career of Evil ended up being more about her than Strike. I don’t want to give too much away but I did feel that Rowling made some very good choices that showed Robin to be a character with psychological depth. There’s quite a few places where I felt Robin’s character could have slipped into stereotype, but Rowling’s choices present Robin with a good mix of vulnerability and strength that make her feel solidly fleshed out and real.

Career of Evil is a clever, well paced Crime Thriller that should keep you glued to the page. You’ll love the characters (especially if you have read the other two books) and this character development paired with smooth delivery of a well articulated crime thriller will have you hankering for the next one. It’s no surprise that there’s a TV series in the works.

The review copy was provided by the publisher.