Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

"Then the sound....caused a sudden explosive chain reaction in Strike's brain, lighting a landing strip for a theory that he knew, with the certainty of a prophet, would lead to the killer. As the steel joists of a building are revealed as it burns, so Strike saw in this flash of inspiration the skeleton of the killer's plan, recognizing those crucial flaws that he had missed---that everyone had missed---but which might, at last, be the means by which the murderer and his macabre schemes could be brought down."                                   -from the novel

This novel was written by J. K. Rowling by another name, a pen name she chose after finishing her Harry Potter series, which I loved. Her first was The Casual Vacancy which I finished but really disliked. Then came The Cuckoo's Calling, the first of the Cormoran Strike crime series, a better novel, in my opinion. Career of Evil is the third of the series with one called The Silkworm being the second and one I was unaware of until now. Not sure how I missed it and I am wondering if something I missed would have made a difference in my enjoyment of this one. Also I read The Cuckoo's Calling so long ago I had forgotten much of its plot. To add to all that,  the thread of Blue Oyster Cult lyrics was lost to my understanding, since I have no experience with that music. Even the novel's title comes from one of the Cult's song titles, "Career of Evil." All things considered I give this one a 3.5. It WAS a page-turner, well-written, but the graphic violence was far from entertaining. Sort of reminded me of James Patterson's grisly themes. Most likely I will go back and read The Silkworm, if that tells you anything.

This thriller begins with Robin Ellacott receiving a woman's severed leg at the office where she is assistant to Cormoran Strike, private detective. It soon becomes apparent there is a vicious serial killer on the loose, one who is stalking Robin, seemingly to exact revenge on Strike. It doesn't take long for Strike to come up with 3 suspects, all of whom have been an ugly part of his past. The story alternates between Strike's investigation with Robin's help to the stalker's evil plans. Pretty exciting about 400 pages in!

I did enjoyed the setting of London since my husband and I visited there last spring. Mentions of the Tube and other landmarks like The Gherkin (a pickle-shaped building) elicited fond memories. I loved the British slang, expressions like nip into the office, mobile (cell phone), spot on, crisps (potato chips), car park, fag or cig for cigarette, ring pull (pop tab) and cashpoint for ATM. Many dialects were used by minor characters, some a little challenging to figure out. This was interesting to me since I was recently talking with someone from London who was saying how you can tell what part of London a person is from by how they speak.

One of these days I am going to go back and reread all those Harry Potter books. I believe they showed this author at her best!