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selenakAka the one where JKR unleashes her fondness for 70s hard rock and distaste for serial killers and glamorized bad boys.
Career of Evil is an odd duck for me: on the one hand, it does several things better than in the second novel (imo, as always), on the other, it's missing some of the aspects which the missing made me realise I loved about the two previous ones. For example: on the plus side, whereas Robin isn't really present in the first third of The Silkworm and doesn't really come to the fore until the second half of the novel, here in Career of Evil she really gets the same narrative room as Cormoran Strike does; if anything, I suspect Robin gets more pages. And as I'd hoped, her development as a detective is a big issue.
On the minus side: Cuckoo's Call took on the fashion world, The Silkworm the publishing industry. This was the occasion for some great social comedy (and btw, the publishing industry was depicted as far more vicious than the fashion industry in terms of characters, which is, err, INTERESTING) and hilarious one liners. Career of Evil, otoh, doesn't tackle any industry, but it does tackle abusive relationships, big time. Which not so surprisingly means there isn't any satire or humor in the book, and only by its absence did I realise its presence contributed to the charm of the earlier two. I mean, I totally get why if all of your suspects are abusive, there isn't any opportunity for quips, but it contributes to the dark tone.
Some of the things I expected to happen after the last volume don't (though they still may), such as Cormoran Strike's ex fiancee Charlotte ending up as a victim or a murder suspect; instead, Charlotte isn't in the book at all. Nor is Strike's half brother who got introduced in the last volume. Otoh, we find out more about Strike's mother Leda, who gets fleshed out beyond "groupie, dead, death forming event of son's life" to a real character in retrospect. (And btw, only now it occurs to me that given JKR's penchant for using mythology-related names in a certain other book series, naming her hero's mother "Leda" and having her involved with rock gods probably makes him either Castor or Pollux.) Which is very welcome, and also fitting thematically because mothers are a big issue in the novel: both those of our detecting duo (Robin's mother Linda is great, striking just the perfect balance between being supportive while avoiding being intrusive) and mothers involved with the suspects.
Speaking of whom: at the start of the novel, Robin gets send a human leg to the office, and both Robin and reader learn to their amazement Strike doesn't just have one but FOUR men in his past who could have mailed him such a gruesome parcel. Which means the whodunit aspect of the book is figuring out which of the four it is. The one who never is a serious candidate (and never shows up on page, so to speak) is the one the police suspect most, naturally, a professional gangster. Two of the others are cases from Strike's time in the military police, and the fourth is his dastardly stepfather whom he suspects of having killed his mother. (Who officially died of an heroin overdose, but as Strike's sister Lucy told Robin in the last novel, young Cormoran never believed that.) This makes Strike less than objective when comes to Whittaker (the guy in question), as Robin points out, and of course made me as a reader suspect Whittaker was a red herring as well. Though he and the other two candidates are all equally vile. And all abusive, in various ways. One (Robin's favourite suspect for a while) is a pedophile, the other two are more into hurting women. Which brings me to mothers, the full variety: there's a mother who disowned her son in horror, a mother of one of the abused children who didn't want to know and looked a way, a mother who really didn't know and is behind her child 100% when she finds out in horror, a sister who got to raise her much younger sister (the first victim) as a mother, a mother had her parents raise her kid as her brother. And, like I said, Robin's living and Strike's dead mother, who turns out to have been the defiantly fierce earth mother type picking up strays which sometimes worked out well (one new character we meet is a cheerfull criminal with an undying loyalty to Strike because Leda saved his life when he was a kid on the streets) and sometimes not at all (Whittaker, who started out as Leda's much younger boy toy). She also had some of her favourite Blue Öyster Cult song lyrics tattooed - which provide the titel of the novel as well -, and the fact the limb sending killer quotes them is another reason why Strike suspects Whittaker. Who, two decades down the road, has lost some looks and still has the same lack of personal hygiene (complete with greasy hair, which is a phrase familiar to HP readers, but otoh he also kept his "heretic priest eyes"), which means no more adult women, but young girls, alas, still fall for his bad boy charisma (and the current one ended up pimped and regularly beaten up by him). Why yes, this novel is defnitely an issue fanfic, so to speak. Laing, the other wife abuser, also had his wife (before she got nearly killed by him) declaring he was just misunderstood to her appalled parents. In fairness, the pedophile, otoh, poses as a heroic good guy to the mothers of the children he's after, who definitely aren't drawn to bad boys, but the other two provide the novel with more than enough material for an exasparated venting of the "this is what happens when you go for charismatic jerks in real life" type, with a sideline of "serial killers aren't glamorous intellectuals, they're pathetic misogynistic creeps" .
So much for the criminal case(s) of the novel. On to emotional developments for Our Heroes which I shall hide beneath Robin finally has her break-up with Matthew in the middle of this novel, but alas, before the end I reconcile again. The main reason why this exaparates me so much is that Matthew is so obviously set out as the wrong guy for her and just an obstacle to the Robin/Strike endgame this novel for the first time heavily hints at. If JKR bothered to make him a sympathetic character whom the reader can root for, I wouldn't mind the back and thro, but as it is, Matthew is so pettily jealous of Strike and Robin's detective career, and one dimensional that he's really still just a plot device. This being said, this novel for the first time provides a psychologically plausible explanation why Robin sticks to that relationship, and it's not because of Matthew's qualities but because of what he represents. Which brings me to another thing that will probably be an issue for some readers: it turns out Robin was raped when she was at the university - this was why she dropped out despite being a great student -, and Matthew is the boy from home who stood by her and represented safety. It does occur to her that if the rape hadn't happened back then, she and Matthew might have drifted apart naturally in their first university years, but it did, and so they're still together. I should add that Robin's rape itself isn't presented as a scene, and what gets explored is the after effect on her, not just the university drop out but also that she took self defense classes because of this (and didn't need Strike to tell her to do so, thanks) and that because of her powers of observation, she was able to provide the evidence leading to the arrest of the rapist (who was the preying in students in mask type) back then. Anyway, while I now find it plausible that Matthew is still around, I'm also exasparated by it because the break up in this book made me hope this would not be dragged out any longer.
While Robin and Strike are becoming aware of each other as woman and man in this novel (but both think a romantic relationship would be a bad idea), their two serious arguments in it have nothing to do with sexual tension. One is about Strike despite his words about Robin being a partner now pulling a patriarchal protective attitude when it appears the serial killer is targetting her (and gets called on it by both Robin and the narrative), and the other, even more serious one is an ethical disagreement that one of the suspects leads them into, and that's something I really appreciate, because characters I'm invested in arguing about actions to take based on their clashing ethics is my jam.
In conclusion, while I read this novel in two nights, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the former two for the above named reasons. I also hope this excursion in to the serial killer genre remains the last, and the next case Strike and Robin will tackle will involve murder for financial greed or jealousy or whatever mundane reason again, complete with some social satire.
Trivia: Between Leda Strike being a big Blue Öyster Cult fan, her son still knowing those lyrics at heart and various complimentary descriptions of their music at various points of the novel, as well as their songs providing the lead quotes for every chapter (the way Jacobean revenge dramas did for the last novel), I suspect JKR likes that band as well...
Career of Evil is an odd duck for me: on the one hand, it does several things better than in the second novel (imo, as always), on the other, it's missing some of the aspects which the missing made me realise I loved about the two previous ones. For example: on the plus side, whereas Robin isn't really present in the first third of The Silkworm and doesn't really come to the fore until the second half of the novel, here in Career of Evil she really gets the same narrative room as Cormoran Strike does; if anything, I suspect Robin gets more pages. And as I'd hoped, her development as a detective is a big issue.
On the minus side: Cuckoo's Call took on the fashion world, The Silkworm the publishing industry. This was the occasion for some great social comedy (and btw, the publishing industry was depicted as far more vicious than the fashion industry in terms of characters, which is, err, INTERESTING) and hilarious one liners. Career of Evil, otoh, doesn't tackle any industry, but it does tackle abusive relationships, big time. Which not so surprisingly means there isn't any satire or humor in the book, and only by its absence did I realise its presence contributed to the charm of the earlier two. I mean, I totally get why if all of your suspects are abusive, there isn't any opportunity for quips, but it contributes to the dark tone.
Some of the things I expected to happen after the last volume don't (though they still may), such as Cormoran Strike's ex fiancee Charlotte ending up as a victim or a murder suspect; instead, Charlotte isn't in the book at all. Nor is Strike's half brother who got introduced in the last volume. Otoh, we find out more about Strike's mother Leda, who gets fleshed out beyond "groupie, dead, death forming event of son's life" to a real character in retrospect. (And btw, only now it occurs to me that given JKR's penchant for using mythology-related names in a certain other book series, naming her hero's mother "Leda" and having her involved with rock gods probably makes him either Castor or Pollux.) Which is very welcome, and also fitting thematically because mothers are a big issue in the novel: both those of our detecting duo (Robin's mother Linda is great, striking just the perfect balance between being supportive while avoiding being intrusive) and mothers involved with the suspects.
Speaking of whom: at the start of the novel, Robin gets send a human leg to the office, and both Robin and reader learn to their amazement Strike doesn't just have one but FOUR men in his past who could have mailed him such a gruesome parcel. Which means the whodunit aspect of the book is figuring out which of the four it is. The one who never is a serious candidate (and never shows up on page, so to speak) is the one the police suspect most, naturally, a professional gangster. Two of the others are cases from Strike's time in the military police, and the fourth is his dastardly stepfather whom he suspects of having killed his mother. (Who officially died of an heroin overdose, but as Strike's sister Lucy told Robin in the last novel, young Cormoran never believed that.) This makes Strike less than objective when comes to Whittaker (the guy in question), as Robin points out, and of course made me as a reader suspect Whittaker was a red herring as well. Though he and the other two candidates are all equally vile. And all abusive, in various ways. One (Robin's favourite suspect for a while) is a pedophile, the other two are more into hurting women. Which brings me to mothers, the full variety: there's a mother who disowned her son in horror, a mother of one of the abused children who didn't want to know and looked a way, a mother who really didn't know and is behind her child 100% when she finds out in horror, a sister who got to raise her much younger sister (the first victim) as a mother, a mother had her parents raise her kid as her brother. And, like I said, Robin's living and Strike's dead mother, who turns out to have been the defiantly fierce earth mother type picking up strays which sometimes worked out well (one new character we meet is a cheerfull criminal with an undying loyalty to Strike because Leda saved his life when he was a kid on the streets) and sometimes not at all (Whittaker, who started out as Leda's much younger boy toy). She also had some of her favourite Blue Öyster Cult song lyrics tattooed - which provide the titel of the novel as well -, and the fact the limb sending killer quotes them is another reason why Strike suspects Whittaker. Who, two decades down the road, has lost some looks and still has the same lack of personal hygiene (complete with greasy hair, which is a phrase familiar to HP readers, but otoh he also kept his "heretic priest eyes"), which means no more adult women, but young girls, alas, still fall for his bad boy charisma (and the current one ended up pimped and regularly beaten up by him). Why yes, this novel is defnitely an issue fanfic, so to speak. Laing, the other wife abuser, also had his wife (before she got nearly killed by him) declaring he was just misunderstood to her appalled parents. In fairness, the pedophile, otoh, poses as a heroic good guy to the mothers of the children he's after, who definitely aren't drawn to bad boys, but the other two provide the novel with more than enough material for an exasparated venting of the "this is what happens when you go for charismatic jerks in real life" type, with a sideline of "serial killers aren't glamorous intellectuals, they're pathetic misogynistic creeps" .
So much for the criminal case(s) of the novel. On to emotional developments for Our Heroes which I shall hide beneath Robin finally has her break-up with Matthew in the middle of this novel, but alas, before the end I reconcile again. The main reason why this exaparates me so much is that Matthew is so obviously set out as the wrong guy for her and just an obstacle to the Robin/Strike endgame this novel for the first time heavily hints at. If JKR bothered to make him a sympathetic character whom the reader can root for, I wouldn't mind the back and thro, but as it is, Matthew is so pettily jealous of Strike and Robin's detective career, and one dimensional that he's really still just a plot device. This being said, this novel for the first time provides a psychologically plausible explanation why Robin sticks to that relationship, and it's not because of Matthew's qualities but because of what he represents. Which brings me to another thing that will probably be an issue for some readers: it turns out Robin was raped when she was at the university - this was why she dropped out despite being a great student -, and Matthew is the boy from home who stood by her and represented safety. It does occur to her that if the rape hadn't happened back then, she and Matthew might have drifted apart naturally in their first university years, but it did, and so they're still together. I should add that Robin's rape itself isn't presented as a scene, and what gets explored is the after effect on her, not just the university drop out but also that she took self defense classes because of this (and didn't need Strike to tell her to do so, thanks) and that because of her powers of observation, she was able to provide the evidence leading to the arrest of the rapist (who was the preying in students in mask type) back then. Anyway, while I now find it plausible that Matthew is still around, I'm also exasparated by it because the break up in this book made me hope this would not be dragged out any longer.
While Robin and Strike are becoming aware of each other as woman and man in this novel (but both think a romantic relationship would be a bad idea), their two serious arguments in it have nothing to do with sexual tension. One is about Strike despite his words about Robin being a partner now pulling a patriarchal protective attitude when it appears the serial killer is targetting her (and gets called on it by both Robin and the narrative), and the other, even more serious one is an ethical disagreement that one of the suspects leads them into, and that's something I really appreciate, because characters I'm invested in arguing about actions to take based on their clashing ethics is my jam.
In conclusion, while I read this novel in two nights, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the former two for the above named reasons. I also hope this excursion in to the serial killer genre remains the last, and the next case Strike and Robin will tackle will involve murder for financial greed or jealousy or whatever mundane reason again, complete with some social satire.
Trivia: Between Leda Strike being a big Blue Öyster Cult fan, her son still knowing those lyrics at heart and various complimentary descriptions of their music at various points of the novel, as well as their songs providing the lead quotes for every chapter (the way Jacobean revenge dramas did for the last novel), I suspect JKR likes that band as well...
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