For those of us growing up as part of the “Harry Potter generation”, JK Rowling was the voice of our childhoods. But over the past few years, she has tried to move on from Potter by writing crime novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Career Of Evil is the third in her series following grumpy private investigator Cormoran Strike and his young assistant Robin Ellacott.
Full of blood and gore from the first page, the investigators are thrown straight into a fresh mystery when Robin receives a package containing a severed leg. Narrowing it down to four suspects, the investigators race across the country as they try to uncover who is behind the mounting killings.
Rowling’s magic has always been in her imagination and plot rather than her way with words, and the novel is full of clunky and awkward sentences. Using far too many adjectives and long-winded phrases, this isn’t the most gripping of thrillers, but it certainly has enough action to keep the reader interested.
Strike will never be the new Potter, but this series continues to prove that Rowling has more strings to her bow.
