I had the great pleasure a few weeks ago of reading the third in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling). Having immensely enjoyed the first two books (see my previous blog on Robert Galbraith) I had pre-ordered Career of Evil on my kindle and it made the dark mornings commuting into London fly by. It’s brilliant and if you like detective fiction I urge you to read it.

It starts with Cormoran’s fabulous assistant Robin being sent an arm in the post – a pretty gripping beginning I’m sure you’ll agree. What follows is the two of them tracking down the three men Cormoran most suspects of being behind it – all of them thoroughly nasty characters from his past – to try and find out who the women is that the arm belongs to and who is responsible for chopping it off.

It’s a chase that takes Cormoran and Robin all over the country – to Scotland, to Barrow-in-Furness, where they nearly get arrested for taking interest in a nuclear facility, to Yorkshire and back to seedy parts of London. The backdrop to all of this is Robin’s wedding planning to the awful and totally not good enough for her Matthew. You want to scream noooo to Robin that she is even contemplating marrying this horrible, controlling man who doesn’t support who she is or what she wants to do with her life at all, and relief that she seems to come to her senses then gives way to despair when she retreats back into her uncomfortable comfort zone.

As Robin becomes the hunted things get increasingly desperate and the killer gets closer and closer to getting what he wants. This is a thoroughly gripping book, which leaves you hanging off the edge of a cliff at the end. I really hope Robert Galbraith has nearly finished the next one as I don’t know how long I’ll be able to wait to find out what happens next.