Career of Evil
United States cover
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| Author | Robert Galbraith |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime fiction |
| Publisher |
Sphere Books (Little, Brown and Company) |
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Publication date
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22 October 2015 (United Kingdom) |
| Pages | 512 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | The Silkworm |
| Followed by | Lethal White |
Career of Evil is the third novel in the Cormoran Strike series, written by J. K. Rowling and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It is preceded by The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm. The novel was released on 22 October 2015 in the United Kingdom.
On 24 April 2015, Little, Brown and Company announced that the third Cormoran Strike crime thriller would be released in the autumn of 2015 and titled Career of Evil. Later that day, Robert Galbraith confirmed via Twitter that the title of the book was inspired by Blue Öyster Cult's song of the same name. References to the song and excerpts from other Blue Öyster Cult songs, especially "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)", appear throughout the book.
In 2011, a year after Robin Ellacott had begun working in his office, Cormoran Strike's practice is thriving, and Robin, having completed the investigative course that Strike purchased for her at the end of The Silkworm, is now helping as a full-time investigator as well as a secretary (although her formal job duties have remained the same). The dynamic between the two has created tension between Robin and her longtime boyfriend/fiancé, Matthew, who not only disapproves of her work but is jealous of her relationship with Strike. Then Robin receives a package from a courier containing a woman's severed right leg. The package is accompanied by a note quoting from the Blue Öyster Cult song "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)", a tattoo of which Strike's mother, a famous groupie and BÖC fan, had above her crotch. Because of that link, Strike told the police that he believed that the package had been sent by someone from his own past with a grudge against him. He names four suspects to the police, three of whom he knew from his time in the SIB: a prominent gangster, "Digger" Malley, that Strike had anonymously investigated and privately testified against (but whom Strike believed was still unaware of Strike's role in the case), a paedophile, Noel Brockbank, that he'd investigated and gotten discharged from the military, and an ex-squaddie, Donald Laing, that he'd defeated in a boxing match and later investigated and gotten convicted for physical abuse of his wife and child. The fourth suspect is his mother's widower, Jeff Whittaker, whom Strike believed had murdered his mother.
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