Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

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…

Where the first book, The Cuckoo's Calling, was a tad slow and a bit hard to follow at times, the second book, The Silkworm, picked up the pace, and in this third book, we basically hit the ground running. The plot, the heinous crime, opens the book and we're thrust straight into the thick of it. When that severed leg is delivered to Robin, she's obviously shocked - but Strike has an almost immediate suspicion of who might be behind it; in fact he suspects 4 men from his past. But who really did it? And can they figure it out before the culprit gets a hold on his next target; Robin?

I really like how piece by piece we learn more about both Cormoran and Robin's background stories. Robin rather dominates this book (in a good way I think), even though the crime and plot is centered around Strike's past. We just get a lot more from Robin this time around as she plays a central part and needs to find her own way. We learn so much of her past and I genuinely loved every single page of it. This is such a dark book in so many ways (some of it is absolutely gruesome), but there are also some much needed respites and patches of joy and warmth and hope, and it's just so excellently put together.

I've been debating with myself whether this book is a 4 or a 5 star read. While mostly I want to give it 5 stars because it's really good and well written and I love the characters, I just lack the WOW factor that usually springs me up to 5 stars. I've given poorer books than this 5 stars, because an element in them got me really excited or happy or whatever. While I loved every minute reading this book, that just didn't happen. Does that even make remotely sense to you? It barely does for me. Basically what I think I'm trying to say is that, regardless of stars, this is a brilliant book and probably the best of the series so far. Rowling as Galbraith writes great stuff and I genuinely enjoy reading his/her crime novels.

CAREER OF EVIL Cormoran Strike #3 by Robert Galbraith ISBN13: 9780751562279 494 pages / Published on October 20th, 2015

Review by Iben Jakobsen, Borough of Books, 2016