_A Career of Evil_
by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
read by Robert Glennister
When what appeared to be a courier held out a package and a clipboard,
Robin Ellacott, assistant to Cormoran Strike, took the one and signed
the form on the other without thinking, assuming the box held the
disposable cameras she and her fiance Matt were intending to distribute
to guests at their wedding early in July. They were supposed to have
been married in the early spring, but an injury sustained in the
pursuit of hers and Cormoran's last big case had led to a postponement.
But when instead of cameras the box proved to hold a woman's severed
leg things began to turn ugly. The leg was heavily scarred, which led
Cormoran to immediately think of a girl named Britanny, who'd injured
her leg as a toddler and who had a similar pattern of scar tissue, who
later became the victim of her pedophile stepfather. As a member of
the Military SIB, Strike had punched Brockbank heartily while
investigating him for domestic abuse, causing the case to be set aside
while Brockbank's injuries were evaluated, and although it was found
Strike was not the cause of Brockbank's subsequent seizure disorder, it
still had the power to haunt him.
Was Brockbank the one who'd sent the leg, intent on destroying Strike's
business as a private investigator just when the company had begun to
enter the black?
Or was it one of three other men, all of whom had despicable habits and
histories of violent behavior and each of whom had his own reason for
wanting Strike to fail, and to fail big? When it proved that all four
were living in London and that each had sunk to even more depraved
actions, Robin and Strike found themselves in danger, both from these
sociopaths and from an increasingly frustrated police force whose best
investigators were being repeatedly shown up by Cormoran Strike and
Robin Ellacott.
Robin and Strike both are struggling to stay alive and to deal with
increasingly complicated relationships. Will their own partnership
survive, even if the bag guys don't manage to kill one or both of them?
I must say that the creator of Harry Potter has managed to develop the
world of Strike and Ellacott as well as she did the environs of
Hogwarts Castle and its inhabitants. I was immediately swept into the
doings in Denmark Street in London, and found the contrasts written of
the upscale residential neighborhood where Robin lives in an
increasingly tempestuous relationship with Matthew Cunliffe and the
tenement areas in which the suspects live are strikingly accurate and
vivid, and loved the trip north Robin and Cormoran made in search of
more information about Brockbank and Lang. She manages to capture the
feel of each new site remarkably well. And we're left wondering if
Robin will actually marry Matt right up to the last page!
Excellently written and well worth the reading. I got it from Audible,
and it's also available in e-text formats. I highly recommend it! Of
the three Galbraith novels she's released, this is definitely the best
so far!
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise
cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
