A gripping stories of lives

Fiendishly clever mystery with unexpected twists around every corner, ‘Career of Evil’ is a gripping story of a man and a woman at a crossroad in their personal and professional lives

Career of Evil’ is the third novel in Robert Galbraith’s (pen name used by JK Rowling) 7-part book series. Though JKR clarified beforehand that this novel can be read as a standalone novel, it would be better to read the first two before reading this one. The story might not be connected but the relationship between the central characters Cormoran Strike and his secretary-cum-partner Robin Elacott and the many references to past cases would definitely be better understood if the reader has read the previous two books.

The story starts with Robin receiving a package containing a severed leg and a verse from a song by Blue Oyster Cult (an old American Band). It doesn’t take too long for Strike to realize that the responsible person is someone with a personal vendetta who wants to bring Strike and his business down.

This narrows down the probable suspect list to 4 people with whom Strike has crossed paths in the past and who have strong reasons to want him disgraced and out of business. An ex-army veteran Donnie Laingwho has a penchant for violence, a pedophile psycho Noel Brockbank, Gangster Malley who is known to cut off body parts and finally Strike’s junkie ex-step father Jeff Whittaker – described as “an ostentatious lover of the perverse and the sadistic”. Identifying who the leg belonged to, tracking the suspects down and then finding the psychopathic killer among them forms the story.

The title and the chapter headings are taken from various songs by “Blue Oyster Cult”. Owing to the nature of suspects and the present crime, the readers get an insight into pedophilia, serial killings and Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) – Where sufferers want to amputate their own body parts. The tone of this book is very different from the first two. Where the first two were classic murder mysteries, this one is much darker and in some points, gory.

“Strike knew how deeply ingrained was the belief that the evil conceal their dangerous predilections… When they wear them like bangles for all to see, the gullible populace laughs, calls it a pose or finds it strangely attractive” perfectly sums of the kind of characters serial killers are. The book is very fast paced and keeps the reader entertained throughout. But having said that, it is not without any failings.

It is hard not to compare this book with the previous two. It is not just the tone that is different from the first two. The first two felt very real and the story unfolds brilliantly as you go along. This book, however, tends to be melodramatic in a lot of places where melodrama was not strictly required. “The means by which the murderer and his macabre schemes could be brought down” thinks Strike at one point which is a case in point.

Since each of the suspects is connected to Strike’s past, there is a lot of back and forth between the current investigation and Strike delving into his memories of his encounters with them in his past. The readers get to know more about Robin’s past and her relationship with Matthew (her fiancé) as well.

At the same time, the relationship between Strike and Robin is complex as everyone except the two of them seem to realize they are attracted more to each other than their respective partners. With these angles, the current investigation seems to take a back seat a lot of times, with the story going back and forth on a lot of matters.

On the whole it is a good read and definitely a fast paced entertainer but since the bar has been set high, not as good as we have come to expect from Robert Galbraith. Nonetheless, readers would definitely be waiting to see what lies in store for Strike and Robin in the next book.