Publication: October 20th 2015
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Pages: 492 pages
Source: Christmas Gift (thanks Dad!)
Genre: Adult, Fiction, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, Detective, Contemporary
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
My Thoughts
I swear, each new book in the Cormoran Strike series is better than the last. While I wasn’t too engrossed in The Cuckoo’s Calling I was completely obsessed with The Silkworm and the same goes for Career of Evil. Unlike most mystery series, the stories don’t follow the same formula each time (murder, questioning, sleuthing, solution), each book differs from the last making each new mystery new and exciting.
There are many things that makes Career of Evil so unique and different from the past two mysteries, but the most prominent is the killer’s perspective. Galbraith/Rowling did an amazing job writing the perspective of the killer without giving away who the killer was, an incredibly difficult task. I was convinced until the last couple of chapters that I knew who the killer was and was completely shocked by the twist and the ending. And I’m not usually taken off guard when reading mystery novels, I’ve gotten very good at reading between the lines (and past red herrings) and usually end up predicting who the killer is. I predicted the killers for the last two Cormoran Strike novels (though I didn’t guess how dark the murderer’s motives were in The Silkworm) so the fact that I was wrong with this book made me enjoy it so much more!
The next difference was that Cormoran and Robin’s characters are heavily developed in this book and we learn a lot about Robin’s past that I wasn’t expecting. One of the main themes of this book is violence against women and society’s/law enforcement’s ways of treating women who have faced such violence. I enjoyed reading how Robin wanted to help others after (SPOILERS: her rape) which caused her (SPOILERS: to seek out Alyssa and protect her young daughters from a known, but not convicted, child rapist.). I thought it was also realistic that though Robin did these things, the overall view of violence against women and how law enforcement deal with it didn’t change. Victim blaming still happens, and there is a lot of work to handle these situations better and allow woman who have dealt with this violence to have their voices heard. But I liked that Galbraith/Rowling decided to make this a theme of the book and to show it realistically.
So you must be wondering, “But if you enjoyed this book so much Sarah, why did you only give it four stars?”
One word: Matthew.
I never knew I could hate a fictional character so much. I hated him from the first book when he proposed to Robin and have been anxiously awaiting her to dump him. (SPOILERS: In fact, I literally cheered for joy when Robin dumped Matthew after learning he cheated on her for eighteen months. I was so happy that she could finally find the right guy for her. While I’m not a huge fan of the whole CormoranXRobin thing that Galbraith/Rowling are hinting at, but I’d prefer that than Matthew. I was so angry when she went back to Matthew, and that the last lines of the damn book are “I do” as she marries him.)
And yes, that may be silly that my complete and total hatred for a character is causing me to lower the star count for this review, but it has to be done. Damn you Matthew, you bastard. And, is anyone else really hoping Matthew will end up being the victim in the next mystery, or is that just me? (fingers crossed)
After that ending, I am so excited for the next book and it doesn’t even have a release date or title yet! Let’s hope something about the new book is revealed soon.
I am so happy that Rowling is growing as a writer. Like most, I adore the Harry Potter series for it’s magic and how it’s inspired and changed a generation of readers. But I have loved Rowling’s adult novels so much more than I thought I would. I love that she can so flawlessly have a unique voice in each of her novels and how they still manage to suck me in.
Also, is anyone else really hoping Matthew will end up being the victim in the next mystery, or is that just me?
Six Blue Marbles Book Reviews 